"It's sad Tiger is not on board with Steve."

Chalk up another vote for Steve Mata in the Tiger Slam irongate. John Strege reports on his exchange with Greg Kraft:

PGA Tour player Greg Kraft has come to the defense of Mata. Kraft admits he did not witness the exchange, but he was at the Buick Classic in 2001. Kraft wrote this in an email:

"It's sad Tiger is not on board with Steve. There was a time they were very tight. Which is why he gave him those irons. I was not visually there when he gave them to him but remember it well. I was in awe knowing how much they would be worth if ever sold...I remember talking about it. So I do remember most of the facts and do trust Steve Mata. I would have to think that after all Tiger has been through he is confused and doesn't remember. It would be easy to sort out if they talked. The one thing I do know is that Steve Mata would not lie."

Steve Elling about sums up the view most I've talked to seem to have about the irongate saga.

Woods, who detests folks making money off his name more than he does losing to Lefty, denied the clubs were legit. While walking in the second round, Woods was overheard by CBSSports.com telling the caddie of one of his playing partners: "I gave him a set. I don't know if I used them or not. The ones I won with, you think I'd ------- give to somebody?" Probably not, but at this point, with Woods' credibility in the toilet, who are we expected to believe, especially when the club rep says he has witnesses who can attest to the irons' validity?

Comments

[Todd]

Correction: Tiger doesn't like anybody making money off of his name unless he gets a big piece of the action.

[Naked Lady Tees]

Tiger's turning into Roger Clemens. He believes his own bullshit story. Again. Tiger was probably too busy chasing tail and checking texts to keep track of what clubs were which.

[squeaky]

Naked Lady Tees -- More than Clemens, Tiger reminds me of Jack Keefe, the narrator of Ring Lardner's 1916 classic "You Know Me Al" -- vain, small-minded, mean-spirited, and as cheap as they come. The book makes a timeless point about star athletes: they are very often jerks.

[dbh]

Nice reference, squeaky. Lardner was great.
A nice companion piece is James Thurber's short story, 'The Greatest Man in the World' featuring 'hero' Jack Smurch. :)
Full text here:
http://www.visi.com/~tomcat/poetry/GreatestMan.shtml

[vwgolfer]

Who lied to his wife? Who lies about injuries? Who? TIger that who. A compulsive Liar.

[Bilbo]

I once wrote a commercial for a hotel chain starring Fluff Cowan...went something like this: "After a tough day carrying the bag for the hottest player on tour, there's nothing better than going back to a nice room at..."

I think Fluff made $50k in the short run. Clearly, he lost out in the long run.

Stevie Williams, you owe me one.

[Ky Laffoon's Ghost]

@Bilbo: Tiger's treatment of Fluff was an early, but by no means first, canary in a deep, dark mine. I don't know how Fluff feels about the loss, but I would imagine that he is grateful to have been absent from this train wreck (even if he does have to watch Furyk's pre-shot routine for a living). In any case Tiger and Stevie are a match made in heaven, or someplace else, and they deserve one another. Excellent commercial by the way.

Someone run this one by me again: We should believe Eldrick of Windermere why?

[OWGR Fan]

Ky shouldn't the question be "Why should we believe anybody?" After all pretty much everyone involved in any of our lives for an extended period of time has lied to us about something. Whether the matter was large or small.

Just sayin.... DTA.