"What’s striking instead is the exceptional, Enron-sized gap between this golfer’s public image as a paragon of businesslike discipline and focus and the maniacally reckless life we now know he led."
Frank Rich says the Tiger Woods saga is the story of the decade because it sums up the last ten years:
If there’s been a consistent narrative to this year and every other in this decade, it’s that most of us, Bernanke included, have been so easily bamboozled. The men who played us for suckers, whether at Citigroup or Fannie Mae, at the White House or Ted Haggard’s megachurch, are the real movers and shakers of this century’s history so far. That’s why the obvious person of the year is Tiger Woods. His sham beatific image, questioned by almost no one until it collapsed, is nothing if not the farcical reductio ad absurdum of the decade’s flimflams, from the cancerous (the subprime mortgage) to the inane (balloon boy).
And...
Indeed, if we go back to late 2001, the most revealing news story may have been unfolding not in New York but Houston — the site of the Enron scandal. That energy company convinced financial titans, the press and countless investors that it was a business deity. It did so even though very few of its worshipers knew what its business was. Enron is the template for the decade of successful ruses that followed, Tiger’s included.
What makes the golfing superstar’s tale compelling, after all, is not that he’s another celebrity in trouble or another fallen athletic “role model” in a decade lousy with them. His scandal has nothing to tell us about race, and nothing new to say about hypocrisy. The conflict between Tiger’s picture-perfect family life and his marathon womanizing is the oldest of morality tales.
What’s striking instead is the exceptional, Enron-sized gap between this golfer’s public image as a paragon of businesslike discipline and focus and the maniacally reckless life we now know he led. What’s equally striking, if not shocking, is that the American establishment and news media — all of it, not just golf writers or celebrity tabloids — fell for the Woods myth as hard as any fan and actively helped sustain and enhance it.
Saturday, December 19, 2009 at 08:47 PM
Reader Comments (54)
You're on top of your stuff, good sir.
A very good article, IMO. A nice attempt at fitting this madness into the wider insanity we inhabit on a daily basis.
Chuck,
I'm not sure I'm following your critique.
Where in the article does it suggest Tiger's accomplishments were faked, or false?
In fact, where does the article talk about golf at all?
What exactly did you find objectionable, other than Frank Rich himself?
By the way, where should an opinion columnist share his opinions? The Style section? That's for gay marriage announcements.
Now I just think he's an arse that happens to be brilliant at golf.
Theres been lots of serial shaggers in professional sport-understandable with all the temptations and possibilities but the lies and bullshit around the Woods myth just turn me off completely.
Also, Tiger must have been reading the media sneer at flyover Americans during Monica that oh-so-sophisticated Euros couldn't believe that squaresville American rubes would get worked about about sex! - picture Allen Iverson discussing practice. Tiger learned his lesson.....he married a Euro.
Nothing in Rich's article turns on his knowledge of golf.
Say what you will about Tiger, but IMG (I think that is his firm) is good at what they do...no doubt.
Given this, I expect an even better comeback story to be cooked up by them. Stand by for the phoenix to rise from the ashes. In less than 2 years he will be back in the limelight just like Kobe, A-Rod, and Bill Clinton are. I don't know if they use the same firm, but we are all suckers for an apology and we seem to always forgive. Don't you think IMG knows that? I do.
In 100 years, Tiger's name will only come up when a roboblogger is looking up major championship winners, U.S. Open records, etc.
I guess the Lindbergh kidnapping was the story of the 20th century, trumping World War II.
I suggest Rich go visit a cemetery.
Tighthead...I agree regarding the media in relation to Tiger. However, additionally...It would appear to me that IMG played them like a fiddle. See some of these other articles that Geoff has posted. Maybe not a fiddle, but rather the philharmonic orchestra (did I spell that right?).
Packed his stuff and he got right out of here
Nobody left to run with anymore
Nobody wants to do the crazy things we used to do before
from "No One To Run With" by the Allman Brothers Band
Agreed. Rich's column was more about us than about Tiger. For a long time I remained an apostate from the church of the Tiger but had been coming around despite his boorishness. Random Variable, I was getting weak, but you are absolutely right. Whew, that was close. But all in all, I wish this had never happened. No human being who is not at Tiger's level, which is lower than whale shit and will stay there for a good, long time, is capable of that much schadenfreude.
Chico, as a professional golfer this must be especially difficult for you. My sympathies.
You want some conservative bashing, I can oblige: "All right, you've covered your ass now." George W. Bush responding to his CIA briefer on August 6, 2001 who presented him with the CIA Daily Brief entitled, "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S." BTW, that's "W" as in Walker, as in Walker Cup.
MRP, you spelled it right. More like the New York Philharmonic backed by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
Tighthead, that sums up the golf press perfectly! LOL.
——“A Good Man is Hard to Find,” by Flannery O’Connor
I disagree with one Rich point: that this has to be bad news for "the golf business." I see this as bad for TV ratings, Nike Golf equipment, apparel and shoes, and bad for the Tour (with a toothless Tiger) that has to negotiate TV contracts. And even then the TV ratings will surge when Tiger plays (especially in majors) and, if he should gather his wits, they'll continue to be strong as he pursues Jack.
But the golf business, at large? Demand (for tee times, equipment and new courses) has been slack for several years. the game had ridden "the Tiger bubble" to, more or less, sustain low single digit growth. But for all the newcomers, people have been exiting just as fast as they enter. Again, I've said it before, but maybe we are re-learning that golf is, after all is said and done, just a great game that requires skill, patience and much practice. And if Tiger's Fall brings a realization, it will be the idea that, "Hey, those guys on TV are just like the rest of us (except way better golfers.) Instead of spending four (or more) weekends wrapped up in majors, why don't i get out there myself, with my old friends, or son or daughter."
It's rounds (and price per round) that best measure demand that is the best indicator of how healthy the game is. Not TV ratings, not the PGA Tour's television contracts, not sponsorship of PGA Tour events. Why we believe that if any of those experience a correction, it's a measure of the game's ill health is lost on me.
I understand Geoff's linking the story; 'Tiger Woods as national political metaphor for negativity and public deception,' in the Sunday Times, is an interesting addition to the the Volumes of Clippings, regardless of who it is that is using their space in the Times to do it.
I could feel there was somebody near with an urge for Jesus.
——“The Peeler,” by Flannery O’Connor
——from The Outlaw Josey Wales
Josey, I stopped buying the Sunday NYT when it came out the Bill Keller knew about Bush's domestic spying before the 2004 election and sat on it for fear of being too political. I'll read it for free as long as it lasts. To each his own, I suppose. BTW, how many people did you kill in the movie. I always lose count.
Gullible No More, welcome to ShackLand. As a Southerner, a personal favorite from Flannery O'Connor: "Whenever I’m asked why Southern writers particularly have a penchant for writing about freaks, I say it is because we are still able to recognize one." Too bad Roy Blount, Jr. seems to have lost his mojo; as a former sportswriter he would have been a natural to sum up this particular Tiger Jam.
Like the forests in the night
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry..
William Blake--Songs of Experience
Character is what you do when no one is looking.
My Uncle Jack
And they're in the recycling bin on Monday.
That is more than fair enough by me.
Styled,
I agree. The golf business is in much more trouble because of its (Tiger-fueled?) explosion in cost and the current economic downturn than because of the Tiger low-downturn. It seems that Tiger has been around long enough that those who have entered the game because of him did so a while ago (i.e. between 1997 and 2002 - the reign of Tiger the First) and have either since given it up or have taken to it enough that Tiger's misdeeds will not be enough to dissuade them from continuing to drive themselves crazy with ball and stick.
Ky,
Jenkins is gonna ride that 1942 Hale America Open pony off into the sunset. I'm tempted to give it to him since he and Hogan have been so adamant about that tenth major (and really, isn't Hogan greater than Gary Player and John Ball?) but my only misgiving is that Hogan shot 17-under to win it, which isn't exactly US Open-stuff.
Josey Wales,
Love the Obama-bashing non-sequitur. Stay classy.
A man playing golf
cheats and cheats on his good wife
we all care too much
Fo, and Ky, and F.X.: You go, guys.