When you come to think of it that is the secret of most of the great holes all over the world. They all have some kind of a twist. C.B. MACDONALD
Richard Sandomir in the New York Times writes about a new Nike ad remembering Earl Woods that will debut this week:
Nike naturally looks to create interest around Woods, especially around the time of golf's four major tournaments. "We see a major as a brand moment," said Adam Roth, Nike's United States advertising director.
Reader Chris correctly surmised that I do not subscribe to Tiger Woods's email newsletter, and shared this little nugget from the current edition:
And no, I won't carry two drivers. I can shape my driver both ways, so I don't need to carry two, although I can understand where Phil Mickelson is coming from. With today's equipment, the ball goes straighter and it's hard to move it from right to left...
Thanks to reader George for ruining the excitement of receiving my July Golf Digest by revealing the very first thing I read in non-Buddies Issue months: Tiger Tips!
Apparently July's Tiger Tip goes something like this, and it really, really puts a crimp in the argument wheeled out by writers, announcers and manufacturers:
Tiger Tips: How I got my power advantage back
A couple of years ago I didn't need stats to confirm a disturbing new reality for me: Guys were blowing it by me off the tee. Power can be a huge advantage on tour, but mine appeared to be static.
Nothing gives me more satisfaction than bombing a drive, especially when it's shaped the way I pictured it. I felt to regain my edge and keep up with the young guys, I had to find more yards in the same place they did: equipment. By switching to a lighter and longer shaft (45 inches instead of 43 ½), a larger driver head (460 cubic centimeters) and a new ball, I've caught up.
Thanks to reader Steven T. for this Harry King column about questions that kids submitted to earn their way to the Tiger Woods at his First Tee outting held yesterday in Arkansas. If only golf's inkslingers could think of questions like this...
The clinic begins at 7:30 a.m., and not one of the winners from Fort Smith said a discouraging word about getting up in time to leave town at 5 a.m. , in one of two vehicles.
They wanted to know if there was a dress code; whether shorts were acceptable. They asked how to address Woods - Tiger or Mr. Woods? Can they approach him or will he come to them? How about autographs? All were nervous questions from kids who want to do what is right.
Woods probably won't take questions from the youngsters and that could be in self-defense. Those making the trip from Fort Smith won their way to Little Rock with letters about what they would ask Woods, and there is a 12-year-old Bob Costas-Barbara Walters in waiting in Van Buren.
His name is Denver Horton and his letter reveals some research, plus a knack for thoughtful questions, and an interview-ending kicker.
He wanted to know how Woods feels about changing the future of golf for kids and how he finds the inner strength to compete when playing poorly.
Familiar with Woods' Learning Center for Children in Anaheim, Calif., Horton asked why changing the lives of children was so important to Woods. The world's best golfer donated the first $5 million for the center, which prompted Horton to say, "That was a lot of money just to give away."
After setting up Woods, Horton went for the kill.
"One more thing, how does your mom feel about you cussing not only on the golf course but on national TV. Be glad your mom is not my mom you would be grounded for a long time. The closest I would get to a golf course would be pulling weeds or planting bushes ... all day if I was ever caught cussing on this golf course."
Travis Jumper, 15, of Fort Smith, had a series of questions for Woods, including some about ethics and etiquette.
"How hard is it to be honest to the companies that want to endorse you but you disagree with the company's values or their product? Is it hard to say no to them paying you millions of dollars just because you don't believe in the product?
You go Travis!
Thanks to reader Tuco for the Mirror story on Tiger Woods renting a 19-room hotel near Royal Liverpool, complete with a helipad so that he can make the 60-second...yes, 60-second ride over to the course each day. That has to be a typo! No?
You may have noticed that AP story about Tiger Woods saying he may not play until the U.S. Open because of his dad's health?
Well, so far the vigil has included a 440-deep bungy jump (what a great idea!) and a $500k night at the MGM Grand's "Mansion" tables.
From the Las Vegas Review-Journal:
Playing blackjack in Las Vegas was more profitable over the weekend for Tiger Woods than his recent Masters appearance. Woods, who won $315,700 for sharing third place in the Masters, told friends he won more than $500,000 on the green felt surface at the MGM Grand's Mansion.
Seems "Fist Bump" Bradley wasn't a big fan of Richard Sandomir's critical take on the 60 Minutes-Tiger Woods interview.
A Different Standard for TV?
To the Sports Editor:
I was surprised by the Tiger Woods article by Damon Hack ("Raising a Child First, Then a Champion," April 3).
It wasn't tough on Woods, and it seemed as if there was nothing new to report. It conveniently omitted the glares Woods gives fans who speak or click cameras when he swings, and the confrontations his caddie, Steve Williams, has had with those in the gallery who interrupt Woods at his work. Lest we forget — because Hack, a New York Times reporter, did — the times when Woods has punctuated bad shots with expletives or whacks at the tee box.
Those are criticisms leveled at me and "60 Minutes" by Richard Sandomir ("On '60 Minutes,' No News Is Woods's News," March 31). He was appalled that '60 Minutes' could run such a "puffy profile" without, for example, "pressing Woods on what he paid" for his house and boat.
Can we expect a column in The New York Times critical of Monday's Tiger Woods article? And if not, why not? Do you hold us at "60 Minutes" to a different standard than you hold your own newspaper?
Ed Bradley
New York
Bradley looked to be enjoying himself too much as he smiled and chuckled along with Woods in various locales, conjuring comparisons to the buddy act of Ahmad Rashad and Michael Jordan, who, like Woods, surrenders so little to journalists but whose consent to be interviewed is deemed an occasion to send a camera crew.
This puffy profile reminded me of a "documentary" about Woods — "Son, Hero, Champion" — that preceded CBS's fourth-round coverage of the Masters in 1997. It was produced by IMG, the agency that represents Woods, so you know how objective and unconflicted it was.
From Larry Stewart in the L.A. Times, writing about 60 Minutes producer Rick Schwartz:
Schwartz and a camera crew visited Earl's home in Cypress, as well as the home of Woods' mother, Kultida, in Tustin Ranch. After the crew was done shooting in Tustin, Kultida invited Schwartz in for lemonade and showed him her shrine to her son — pictures, trophies and lots of memorabilia.
"One picture stood out," Schwartz said. "It was of Tiger the night he won his first Masters. He was curled up in bed in a rented Augusta house, sound asleep, arms wrapped tightly around his first green jacket.
"I asked if I could bring our cameraman in just to shoot that one picture. Kultida smiled and said there was more of a chance of me winning the Masters."
Doug Ferguson deftly handles the difficult subject of Earl Woods' health and Tiger's understandably distracted game.
Translation: yuck, very yucky.
Amazingly (or is frighteningly), I read all of Tiger's press conferences and continue to marvel at his ability to answer the same questions over and over again. He's also become quite good at acting like he's enjoying some lame question about a player he's played with twice. And he can be so positive when talking about a course he probably thinks is mediocre at best.
So I think it's safe to say--lacking much in the way of complimentary talk--that this is a not-so-flattering assessment of Augusta:
Tiger at Bay Hill:
Q. Speaking of The Masters, now that you've had a chance to play the course firsthand, what do you think of the changes?
TIGER WOODS: Interesting, very interesting.
Hey, at least he didn't say it was the best of its kind! Sorry, continue...
I didn't hit enough club to No. 4. I needed wood to get to 4. 7 is certainly changed. It's a totally different hole now. 1 is 300 yards just to get to the bunker now. If we get any kind of cool north wind like we have today, you won't be able to see the flag. You won't be able to see the green. Some of the changes are pretty dramatic and certainly going to be very interesting if the wind ever blows.
Q. Do you think they accomplished (inaudible)?
TIGER WOODS: I've talked to some of the older guys who played there back in the '50s, '60s and '70s and they never had to hit wood into 4 before, but you'll see a lot of guys hitting wood in 4 this year.
Q. What do you think will happen if there's rain?
TIGER WOODS: It will be brutal because now you're hitting some really long clubs into the holes. Again, we haven't seen the greens hard and fast either. With the rain, with or without rain last year, we were thinking in the practice rounds that over par is going to win the tournament. If you can keep it around even par, you're going to win it easily.
So, you know this, year, if it stays dry, probably the same thing.
Q. Did anyone ask you about Jack's comments, and do you agree that there's only ten or a dozen or so guys that are capable of winning because of the changes, because of the length?
TIGER WOODS: It eliminates a lot of guys, yeah. If you hit it low and rely on your game that way to get the ball out there and hit your irons not so high, if you have a flatter ball flight, you're going to be struggling there.
Q. If even par were to win there, is it a shame in a sense that you guys already have a U.S. Open?
TIGER WOODS: It's just different. I think it they should get rid of that second cut and get rid of and bring the pine needles and the pine trees back into play. But they see it differently than a lot of us do as players.
I remember pulling that ball off the first tee and it's going straight through the pine trees. Now you have a chance of it stopping in that second cut. They think it's harder to play out of that than it is out of the trees.
Q. Ernie was saying how The Masters used to be most fun major and now it's become the toughest, do you think it has gotten up to that?
TIGER WOODS: Without a doubt, it's gotten so much more difficult now. With the added length, with those greens being the way they are, it just makes it so hard out there. You're hitting clubs that, granted, they are trying to get you to hit clubs like the older guys used to hit, and yeah, but the greens were not running at 13 on the Stimpmeter either. So it just makes that much more difficult now.
With the speed of these greens now, each and every year, it all depends if they are firm. I mean, if they are firm, that golf course is probably the most difficult golf course you'll ever play.
Q. Could you have imagine them dialing some of those changes back a little bit, get rid of the rough or move the tees forward a little bit?
TIGER WOODS: They may move tees around. I think that's what they did with some of the tee boxes. Like on 4 and 7, they are really long tee boxes, so they have the ability to move it around and play with the tee markers a little bit. Because if you get soft, yeah, you can go ahead and move the tees up a little bit and give the guys a chance. So I think that's one of the smart things they have done.
Gary Van Sickle writes:
I apologize if I'm jumping the gun here (or trying to start a bandwagon), but is there any good reason why Tiger Woods won't win the calendar-year Grand Slam this year?
No reason I can think of.
Somehow I don't envision Hogan or Nicklaus getting the kind of questions Tiger faced after winning at Doral again.
JOE CHEMYCZ: The front nine, statistically the computer said zero fairways but nine greens hit and still 3 under par.
TIGER WOODS: Yeah, I didn't hit a fairway, but hit like I guess
Q. You hit two fairways. ShotLink was wrong.
TIGER WOODS: Okay, cool. (Laughter) 3 under, there you go.
Q. How aware were you of the situation when you were playing 17, did you know you were two ahead?
TIGER WOODS: I knew that there was a board there, and after I knocked it over, I looked over at the board and saw that DT had made par, so I had a two shot lead, yes.
Q. Why were you missing left early? Because you had missed right, your misses had been right all week.
TIGER WOODS: Correct.
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
