Tiger Indefinite Leave Clippings, Vol. 3
Just another quiet weekend in Tigerland with Accenture dropping the golfing great and widespread reports of a child services visit to the Woods home. Most media coverage continued to focus on his Friday statement and the ensuing corporate response, along with (finally) some thoughts about long term ramifications for the PGA Tour.
Doug Ferguson talks to the "bewildered" golf world that's been reading its own press releases too long and is now faced with reality. Though Brad Faxon did offer this prediction along with an interesting insight from a former TV exec:
"I don't think Tiger is going to come back earlier because we need him to come back. He's going to come back when he fixes his problems," Brad Faxon said. "It's a bit of a worry, but like Greg (Norman) said the other night, nobody's bigger than the game. You could put, 'comma, except for Tiger' in a lot of situations. But we will survive this."
Former CBS Sports president Neal Pilson said the networks' loss in revenue will be much less severe than the drop in ratings. He said companies that advertise around golf are attracted by the demographics of the sport's core fans. Most of those fans watch golf whether Woods is involved or not. The casual fans who tune in only when Woods is in contention aren't the viewers these advertisers are targeting. "While you may have a 50 per cent increase in viewership, a lot of that 50 per cent is just bonus," he added.
Cameron Morfit makes a case that this isn't the end of the world for golf. In fact, it may just help.
Even Tiger's embarrassing missteps have helped, in their own sad, bizarre way.
Maybe they've helped most of all.
Separatists will insist the game is still different, better, cleaner, more like life itself, and so on. They will roll out calcified old chestnuts like, "Yes, but golf is the only sport where the players call penalties on themselves." Let's see: Roberto De Vicenzo signed an incorrect card, fans rolled a boulder out of Tiger's line, Ernie Els was gifted a ruling at the U.S. Open — nope, not one of golf's most memorable rulings involved a golfer calling a penalty on himself.
Golf is not different. Tennis players sometimes call their own service faults. And why pretend self-sacrifice is limited to the country club sports? The assist (basketball, soccer, etc.) and the pancake block (football) are made of the same stuff.
For that matter why pretend that anything is limited to golf, or excluded from it? We've got sex, drugs and the Olympics. We've got video games, tell-all memoirs and US Weekly. For better or worse golf is now part of every wonderful, fascinating and cringe-worthy facet of the human experience, and if that seems like a tough pill to swallow, hold your nose and try to remember: It's good for us.
In a front page LA Times story, Robin Abcarian asks: what did golf writers not know and when did they not know Tiger was a busy guy off the course? She talks to Golfweek's Jeff Babineau and AP's Doug Ferguson among others:
Even the access that Ferguson has had to Woods, he said, never amounted to much in the way of news. "I keep reading that the press had to be nice to him or they would lose the interview, which is funny, because what interview? There was nothing to lose there. I have built up a comfort zone with him, but most of it was clubhouse, locker room, meaningless BS stuff."
By arrangement with the PGA Tour, said Ferguson, Woods does not even enter the press room at a tournament unless he is a defending champion or close to the top of the leader board. "And it's nutty," said Ferguson. "The reason a lot of the press goes to tournaments is because Tiger is there." Even when Woods does agree to answer questions, said Ferguson, he generally doesn't offer much more than bland answers.
AP's Rachel Cohen looks at the television negotiation angle of Tiger's downfall:
During the last round of negotiations, NBC focused on securing rights to tournaments that Woods was likely to play, said former MAGNA research chief Steve Sternberg.
But even before a stream of sordid allegations led Woods to step away from the game, the networks had received a harsh reminder that the lofty ratings they receive when he's in contention aren't assured.
"The television business is about guaranteeing ratings to advertisers," said analyst Larry Gerbrandt, a principal of Media Valuation Partners.
The networks sell ads based on a promise of a certain rating. They can't afford to be frequently caught in the position of needing to make up for ratings that fall short, Gerbrandt said. Networks know how high ratings would be if Woods is in contention, but they can't base their rates on the assumption that he will be.
"You can't run a business that way," Gerbrandt said.
The networks must decide how much money they're willing to pay the PGA Tour based on how much money they believe they can make from advertisers.
"The negotiation to some extent is based on a worst-case scenario," Gerbrandt said.
Larry Dorman puts it more bluntly:
Although Woods is not solely responsible for the economic growth of the tour, he is given much of the credit for the quadrupling of prize money since he joined it — from $70 million in 1996 to $278 million in 2009. Most of the larger purses directly result from higher revenue from title sponsors, and the PGA Tour is in the midst of negotiating new deals with the sponsors of a dozen events that will expire by the end of 2010. Therefore, uncertainty about his availability will have a negative impact on the negotiations.
Also in the New York Times, Tim Arango considers Tiger's likely earnings potential down the road.
“Tiger is the best example of a walking, individual corporation,” said Ben Porritt, a public relations executive who advised Alex Rodriguez, the Yankees third baseman, last spring after his onetime steroid use was disclosed.
“Tiger is going to come out of this as somewhat of a bankrupt brand,” said Mr. Porritt. “He will have to restructure and go forward.” But, he said, “It’s going to be an ugly few months.”
Several companies that measure consumer reaction believe the ugliness has already started. Zeta Interactive, a digital ad agency that monitors message boards, blogs and social media posts, said that positive sentiment toward Mr. Woods had already plummeted. Before the accident, buzz about the golfer was 91 percent positive; by Friday, that figure had sunk to 43 percent.
The turnabout “is the quickest fall from positive to negative we’ve ever seen,” said Al DiGuido, chief executive at Zeta Interactive.
The great Marvin Collins reports that punters expect Tiger back soon.
Bookmakers William Hill, meanwhile, fully expect Woods to take part in the first major of the year, in early April, offering 4/6 he starts and 11/10 he does not. Indeed Hills do not think that his personal troubles will be transferred to his game, offering 5/2 that he wins his comeback tournament and 33/1 that he wins all four Majors in 2010.
Tiger is 1/6 to play in the Ryder Cup against Monty's European team and 7/1 to be the USA's top point scorer. "We expect Tiger back soon and the odds suggest that he is a certainty to play in the Ryder Cup as a solid performance could repair some of the damage for American golf fans" said Hill's spokesman Rupert Adams.
"However, we do not expect his absence to effect turnover as Tiger actually puts off many of our smaller stake golf punters and despite his absence we saw record turnover during the 2008 Open."
Jason Sobel and Bob Harig speculate on Tiger's return and how he'll be received. Harig:
We are unlikely to see a personality makeover, but perhaps a few changes are in order. And it won't be easy, because it's simply not Tiger to smile and wave to the crowd or engage well-wishers.
But he can hang to sign a few more autographs, look a few young fans in the eye, try a little harder. I am not suggesting we view him as a sympathetic figure these days, but it is hard to imagine the embarrassment he is enduring right now. And whether it is deserved is not the point here. He'll have a lot to overcome when he returns, and it's not just a rusty golf game.
It was Radar that first reported a Children Services visit to the Woods home on Friday to check on the kids, confirming once again that everyone on the planet but a state attorney in central Florida thinks something potentially criminal took place Thanksgiving night.
Playgirl has passed on purported Tiger self portraits, deciding they'd be best left to the National Gallery. Love the back-patting quote from their rep Daniel Nardicio:
"This is a prime example of the direction Playgirl does not want to take," Nardicio said. "I prefer subjects who are willing."
Spurned lover Jamie Jungers keeps sharing embarrassing revelations, this time telling News of the World about Tiger's frugal ways (shock!) and an encounter the night Earl passed.
The Telegraph's Nick Allen has tracked down Tiger's first girlfriend living in God's Country and quite happy it all didn't work out.
And today's final word is from the Wall Street Journal's John Paul Newport:
Mr. Woods had established a foundation with a noble but non-controversial cause (helping under-advantaged children learn to bootstrap themselves to success). His approval and recognition ratings were consistently among the highest, if not the highest, in the world. And, above all, he was living a scandal-free life.
And so, without my quite realizing it, this vision of a future President Woods colored how I thought about him. I projected. I half-convinced myself, I guess, than in that private universe that Mr. Woods so adamantly roped off for himself, he and his wife sat around on their yacht, named Privacy, reading biographies of Abraham Lincoln.
Apparently not. But at least I wasn't the only fool to be fooled. If Mr. Woods wants us back, he has a lot of work to do.
Sunday, December 13, 2009 at 09:37 PM 27 Comments | in Golf and Television, Tiger Woods, Tiger Woods Accident
Reader Comments (27)
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Tim Finchem's legacy is the PGA Tour, and how it is perceived drives his decisions. No one will question Tiger Woods' importance in the growth of the Tour, but Finchem will take credit for it occurring on his watch.
The fact that Woods decided to take an indefinite leave from the game sounded like a face saving move for all parties, I don't think it was his decision. If Finchem's first priority is to protect the tour, then he has to take notice of the police report of Tiger Woods having taken prescription medications.
If there is substance abuse or viloation of tour policy, then he has to act to protect the process and integerty of having a drug policy. Secondly, the Tour clause of being subject to supension for conduct detrimental to the Tour is definitely in play because of Woods' own admissions.
Finchem called Tiger and told him he was on an indefinite suspension . Clean up the drug problem and work on your personnel issues and then let's see where things are. Thus forcing Tiger to make an announcement to devote time to his family.
The wild card in all of this is if Mrs. Woods files to end the marriage. Tiger would have no reason to not play, but if he is suspended, then it is off to Europe and only the majors.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
http://www.golfweek.com/news/2009/dec/13/some-lessons-courtesy-tiger/
Fascinating how this "crisis" has prompted such an outpouring of introspective catechisms and heretofore "undiscovered truths" about GOLF and human fallibility beyond the PR sheen of celebrity.
Would Finchem really want to stop him turning up on tour with Uchitel (or A N Other) on his arm in 2 months time saying, "Ho hum, the marriage repair failed so it's back to the day job"
I'm going to predict he skips the Masters this year. If he does, that is the signal that he's really sincere about trying to save his marriage.
Men's professional golf and its sycophants who allowed Tiger to rise unabated for their and his economic benefit? They can go change their newly (daily) browned pants, they're the only ones in trouble.
Nice, Geoff.
Lesson 3: Neither the public nor the journalistic corps has a definitive idea of what these athletes are really like as people behind the scenes.
Spitting, swearing, farting, and scowling were good indicators.
(Lesson 5) that he was in fact human, all too human, after all.
These exploits were superhuman.
If there is a divorce, it might make Woods different from some of the ancient-history legends with whom he has been compared: Jones, Hogan, Nelson, Palmer, Nicklaus. But an awful lot like many other professional-tour golfers: Annika Sorenstam, Greg Norman, Tom Watson, Lanny Wadkins, Dave Marr, and now, Mark O'Meara. In every one of those cases, the divorce proved to be a distraction, and unhelpful to the player's game, but in no case was it a career-ender.
If there is a divorce, there's no need to "work on family." Only the need to work on himself, re-focus on tournament golf, get back to winning, making money, and letting off-course money flow from on-course success.
Objectively, apart from personal-life chaos, this should be the perfect time for Tiger to enhance his dominance, with the new groove rule throwing much of his competition off stride, as they search for new clubs and balls.
There have been a handful of discussions about a possible Drug Policy violation, and I keep taking the side that it is a silly inquiry, mostly.
The main erason for my position is that there is no way that a report of a prescription drug used by Tiger, away from and completely apart from any Tour event, would result in a suspension, because, there is no "result" for the Tour to look at.
The Tour's urine-testing procedure is clearly set forth in a byzantine kind of explanation. Basically, the one and only way you can get suspended for legal prescription drug usage is:
~if you get your urine tested under the Tour's official protocol, at a tour event, and;
~if that Tour-protocal urine sample turns out to be positive, under the rules set up.
Tiger didn't give a urine sample under the circumstances as the tabloids have delivered them to us. Without an official urine sample to test, there can't possibly be an test, any positive result, and any disciplinary action resulting therefrom.
This isn't criminal or civil litigation, where cops or insurance investigators are pawing through medical records produced pursuant to subpoena. The Tour would no sooner suspend Tiger for drug results found in a hospital blood test, than it would suspend him if he marked his ball incorrectly in a Monday money match with John Cook and Mark O'Meara at Isleworth.
Bottom line -- It has to be a Tour-taken urine sample for there to be any sanctions! [Caveat -- I expect that the Tour has some other disciplinary rubric for players who are found guilty of posession of illegal drugs, apart from Tour-taken urine samples. But that falls under the review of criminal matters, not performance-enahncing drug testing. At the same time, the finding of illegal substances like THC or cocaine metabolytes in a Tour-taken urine sample have import for sanctions, no doubt. But that's not what we're talking about with Tiger.]
I'm now starting to see a silver lining. As a northerner, don't play much golf this time of year. But do foresee that the stash of golf jokes -- which, admittedly, had become stale and predictable -- are being refreshed yet again.
Also, has anyone explored the number of things broadcasters CAN'T say when Tiger is onscreen in future telecasts?
"Tiger is all over the hole."
"Tiger is playing in a threesome."
Any use of the words: "hole, "release," "drive," "swing," "putter" are now subject to scatalogical interpretation.
Can you imagine Kostis analyzing his swing: "Gee, look at the rotation of the hips, following by him driving and releasing his right side." I mean, who's going to be able to keep a straight face???
I think you have to look at the fault lines in the father-son and family dynamic. I saw one telling quote from an old girlfriend (high school or college years) that said, in effect, "Tiger's life was about two things: golf and homework. He didn't know how to sit down, as a family, and have a meal."
So it's fair to wonder now about Tiger's upbringing. (not to shift or lessen blame and responsibility, but to understand the pathology of this severe behavior and why he would treat any person, much less his wife, this way). First, was Tiger's emotional development stunted by the early praise and adulation he received? Were the family dynamics functionally dysfunctional? Was Tiger emotionally abused by either parent? What exactly did Earl's toughening of Tiger's psyche entail? How did Earl treat his wife, Tiger's mother?
And what does all this have to do with Tiger's brain? Is he simply a person who lives for the thrill, be it winning championships, annhilating golf courses, or the challenge of bedding the next bimbo?
It's all fair game for analysis by fans who've been told and (for the many) who long believed he was so different.
Well stated. I do think it's fair to look at the upbringing for precisely the reasons you offer.
Your next bit of logic is solid, as well. Of course Tiger is bored. Even he has stated -- going back a few years -- that success (measured by Tour titles and majors) came easier and faster than he had, in fact, envisioned. Remember the quote when he said, "If you had asked me if i would have been at 12 majors and 65 wins after 10 years [making up the numbers] i would have said 'no.'"
So what does a guy who has a giant yacht, a bunch of homes, a few hundred mil in the bank and can play Cypress Point any morning he chooses (and shoot 66) do for fun? The one thing that still presents a challenge...bedding the girl who's serving him (and his wife) pancakes.
So with that you get a sex addict. But it doesn't quite explain the complete disregard for another human being. Sorry, I've said it before. But if you set out to humiliate/endanger/hurt/embarrass a woman, it would be difficult to design a more expedient course of behavior. So the addiction and behavior show that he's off kilter but the malice, anger and disregard he demonstrated toward Elin are just plain twisted.
I think a lot of people agree, that missing the pre-Masters events in 2010 means very little to Tiger and to golf history.
But "all of the sermonizing" is fully warranted, "idefinite suspension" or no. The story is huge. It's the biggest story in golf, apart from Tiger's eventual suprassing Nicklaus' 18-majors record, or the premature end of Tiger's career before then. It is a golf story that transcends the sport, or even the sporting world. I tend to think that the story does not lose its energy until a Woods divorce. And then, we get a new kind of Tiger Woods for the balance of history.
Is the sex act equivalent to, say, shaking hands with someone? Or kissing them, "making out" if you will? It's no different than that?
Seriously, I'm asking. The people who say others are "moralizing," I'd like you to explain what you think the moral significance, or just the plain significance (if you don't like the word "moral") of the sex act is.
I think sometimes people just want to do it. Other times, one or the other is in love, or thinks they are. Sometimes, people might decieve each other in order to get it. Or use their influence and power to get it. Of they may put another person at risk for a disease, or conceiving a child, without the other person knowing. In other words, I can think of dozens of ways in which, even to an atheist or someone who believed sex was no different than sitting down to eat, would be wrong...immoral, even.
So in these dozens or hundreds or thousands of instances in which Tiger had sex with these multiple women, while married, we're ready to just pass it off, give him the Big Mulligan, because we don't want to "judge" or "moralize?" We're willing to just accept that he never pressured any of these women, or deceived any of them, messed with them emotionally, lied to them, lied to others or used others in the process of bedding the women, etc.?
I think I'd be as happy and gratified as anyone to spend as many of my waking hours bedding women as possible. I understand the urge. I understand that many women are happy to just give it away with no strings attached. I understand that we have no idea what Tiger and Elin's marital promises, if any were.
Still, I have a difficult time believing that the kind of life Tiger has led has been a good one, an upstanding (sorry) one, an honest one, one with integrity that his father would be proud of.
I think anyone who believes that Tiger's behavior over the last 5 years is "just fine" is kidding themselves, or not thinking very clearly.
Geoff, you've done a stellar job I must say. Kudos for your effort!