"The coarse language and club acrobatics aren't anything we don't hear and see on courses every day."
Jim Frank pens an excellent SI My Shot defense of Tiger Woods's on course antics.
But this was Tiger Woods, who is supposed to set an example, especially for children. And this is golf, the "gentleman's game," in which virtue is supposed to trump vitriol.
Well, I've got two words for you, and they're not "you're away." Get real! If Tiger wants to go ballistic and wax scatological, let him.
There is nothing golf needs more now than emotion, and Woods is one of the only players who ever shows any. (Lucas Glover, anyone?) The man is a pro with millions in the bank, and the fire in his belly — plus the steam coming out of his ears and the vulgarities from his mouth — show that he cares about more than cashing checks, which can't be said of everyone carrying a PGA Tour card.
Thursday, August 20, 2009 at 10:34 PM
Reader Comments (30)
Geoff had a link.
I also think people's memories are clouded or spit-shined a bit when they think back to some of the past players. Modern TV lets you get so close to players in ways you simply couldn't when Jack and Arnie were in their prime. Lee Trevino could swear up a storm.
If TV wanted to solve the problem, they would. Immediately after impact they'd cut to a mic near the green or target area. If the player says something interesting and without cursing, they can show it on replay. Or show the entire shot on replay but call it live - they probably do that for 80% of shots anyway. Or even a two-second delay would let them cut the mic in time.
No, Tiger's swearing is simply an avenue for people to bash him. I don't applaud it - but I don't really care about it either. I think you get the fist pumps and you get the swearing. They're two sides of the same coin. Whether that coin is 5% or 95% "passion and fire," I don't know.
Every shot that Tiger hits - in every event - is televised. . . And, the camera always lingers on him afterward hoping for a reaction shot of him. . . (Especially CBS, likely hoping for some bad words that will shock Faldo and Nance.)
If the camera was "always on" at least 25 other guys - and we all know who many of them are - you would have a highlight film making baseball and football rants look mild. . . Leave Tiger alone - please - he is just trying really hard to hit every shot perfectly and therefore is doomed to be regularly disappointed.
Pure unadulterated BS.
People have sworn, slammed clubs and acted like a horses rear long before Tiger and will act the same long after Tiger is gone. I'll just bet that the people that criticize Tiger for every little freaking thing (here and on many other golf forums/blogs) are such perfect upstanding citizens that have never done anything wrong or inconsiderate in their utopian lives.
If you don't like what he does it's really simple. Don't watch him. It's not that difficult of a concept.
Woods, like it or not, is held to a higher standard. He gets the most attention, the most followers, the most cameras, the most microphones. Everyone else does it-- sure they do. But just imagine if Woods actually accepted his mantel as the icon he is and set the example by riding the high road? Maybe then I wouldn't be at my golf course and watch a 15 year old whip a club down the fairway and scream F*** as loud as he could.
this past week I was playing at a memorial for a young girl who died of cancer and all her friends were running the hole in one competition, long drive, closest to the hole ...etc. etc.
On the hole-in-one hole I pulled my 7-iron and knew it as soon as I hit it, as usual I yelled a loud "F**k" only to realize that everyone on and around the tee (3 groups had backed up at the tee and people were gathered watching to see if anyone got a hole in one) were looking at me, including the young girl running the competition. Needless to say, I wasn't proud of myself.
The fact that I have emotion and don't like it when I hit poor shots is not any kind of excuse.
@ The O - The is also footage of Steve "Volcano" Pate destrying a tee marker during a PGA Tour event from a good while back. Even though he wasn't on tour yet lets blame Tiger for that as well.
It's perfectly okay with me if some golf writer, or some other observer of the game wants to say, "Yes, Tiger Woods is the focus of more attention - by far - than anyone in the history of the game, and he must behave differently form everyone else in the history of the game, for that reason." But that's the only thing that can be said against him.
Tiger has done all those things. During the last WGC event, Jim Nantz asked on air: "where do you think we should send the bill for that microphone?"
It was one of many.
How does one go from total control of his domain and impervious, if not supernatural to passionately, emotionally out of control?
Had it both ways too long.
He needs to clean it up a little. Can't he get mad and say "dang it"? Can't he get mad without throwing clubs? Good old fashioned seething works well for most people.
For someone who can control a golf ball so supernaturally, I think he can figure out how to control his temper - or at least modify its expression a bit.
One of them is dead?
Hogan wasn't exactly the warmest guy in the world. Just because he cursed under his breath rather than into a teebox microphone doesn't mean he wasn't a prick just like Tiger.
I was responding to a specific post that compared the "gentlemanliness" of Tiger to Hogan. Calling Tiger a gentleman is probably a bit of a stretch, fair enough. I'm a big Tiger fan, but I suspect that he's a bit of a prick, even though he seems to genuinely love kids, respect the military and his parents, and give much of his time to charitable endeavors. But to suggest that Ben Hogan was a consummate gentleman because he didn't curse on the course (or did he?), is ludicrous. Hogan was a self-involved prick with limited interpersonal skills who couldn't be bothered with people he didn't like and didn't suffer "fools", even though he was relatively uneducated in comparison to many of them. Just because he said thank you, signed his letters "I am, sincerely, Ben Hogan", and believed in working hard (i.e. hitting a lot of golf balls on the practice range), doesn't mean that he was a gentleman. Bobby Jones, on the other hand, was the consummate gentleman, even though he cursed like a sailor for much of his playing career.