Tiger Woods is AP's Athlete of the Decade

After a terrible few weeks and horrible news headlines, Tiger Woods has finally got some good news. The Associated Press selected Tiger Woods as the athlete of the Decade. Woods received 56 of the 142 votes cast by the members of The Associated Press showing that no matter how shocking the sex scandals, no one can take away the fact that not only is Tiger Woods arguably the best golfer ever but is also the best thing to have happened to golf.

His influence on popularizing the game is immense and impossible to overlook. TV ratings for golf soared when Woods was playing and owing to his broad appeal, the prize money has increased many fold since he joined the PGA . Woods has won 64 times including 12 majors, bringing home a trophy from every continent where golf is played. In a decade, Tiger Woods has won 56 PGA Tour eventss and 12 major titles to go along with the two he won in the 90s. He is only 4 short of the record held by Jack Nicklaus. Although there were many big-names from the world sports nominated, it really wasn't much of a contest for Tiger Woods.

Interestingly, more than half of the votes cast by the members of The Associated Press were after the car-crash and the stories of his infidelities broke. Lance Armstrong, the 6-time Tour De France winner and cancer-survivor finished second with 33 votes. Tennis Maestro Roger Federer, who has won more Grand Slam singles titles than any other man, was third with 13 votes. Record-setting Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps came in fourth with 13 votes, ahead of  New England quarterback Tom Brady (6) and sprinter Usain Bolt with 4 votes.

The voting showed, quite rightly, that three-weeks of damaging reports cannot take away from 10 years of incomparable golfing achievements.