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Clutch Tiger birdies 18 June 15: Both the crowd and Tiger Woods erupted in joy as Woods drained a birdie putt on 18 to force a playoff with Rocco Mediate.

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That has to be where Tiger’s connection to the crowd is. Sure, they’d love it if he’d acknowledge their devotion, but they feel his passion, love the way he shows his emotions. And it also helps that he hits the ball incredible distances and will hit any shot from anywhere on the course. If he throttled back and played fairways and greens, the way Jack used to, and never celebrated or showed anger, he’d probably have plenty of people who despised him.

He’s as perfect as golfers get, but he’s also human. And if golf purists would prefer that he didn’t slam his clubs down and never uttered a discouraging word, golf fans can relate — totally. He makes a fan feel he’s just like them — if they could play the game about 1,000 times better than they do.

He’s what they want to be, which is to say that, like Jordan, he seems immune to losing. We know he loses plenty, but he doesn’t lose when he has the lead, and he wins more golf tournaments than any other three guys combined. And there’s something about being able to invest your emotions in somebody and not get your heart broken.

He doesn’t let you down. Woods is like the sunset that way. You can see a zillion of them, but you’re still thrilled at the next one.

And because he’s so good and because he doesn’t get arrested for DWI and doesn’t get charged with assault and runs clinics for kids and gets teary-eyed when he talks about his dad and mom, you feel safe cheering for him. He’s not perfect — no one is. And if you dig around you can find people who don’t admire him.

But to the fans, that doesn’t matter, and I’m not going to say it should. Joe DiMaggio was a genuinely miserable guy — not nice at all. But you didn’t go down to Little Italy and say that. As far as that goes, Mickey Mantle and Babe Ruth had a ton of faults, and nobody cared. They looked great in a uniform, they performed when it mattered, and when you left the ballpark, you felt better about life than you did when you went in.

That’s how it is with Tiger. You pay for your ticket, and he gives you value back. He gives you the thrills you expect from a great player. He plays with passion.

How can you hate him?