"If I ruled golf? We'd be playing persimmon and balata"

Jaime Diaz turns in another classic Tiger profile in what seems to be a now-annual state of Tiger piece, this time accompanied by Walter Iooss Jr. images.

So many great anecdotes here related to Hank Haney and a young golfer he's mentoring, but naturally this was my favorite:

Most important to his longevity, Woods continues to have fun with a game he has never stopped loving. He seeks practice rounds with Bubba Watson, who entertains Woods with his freakish power and loose-jointed grace. Woods hits a bevy of persimmon-head drivers and fairway woods on the range at Isleworth, saying he loves the sound and feel and the smaller margin for error. "If I ruled golf? We'd be playing persimmon and balata," he says.

What To Ask Tiger?

I'll be sitting in on Tiger's pre-Target press conference today with the hope of slipping a question, though the event has become a bit of a mess between all of the television reporters and the conference call participation.

I have a question in mind for him, but if you have something you want asked, please post it, and if I like it I may just use it. Or maybe one of the pen-pushers present will see it and ask.

Update on 2007-12-11 16:26 by Geoff

Jill Painter reports on the cool ads that have been running to promote the Target, featuring an unusual charcoal drawing of Tiger. The ads are in sharp contrast to what we normally see for the Nissan (RIP) Open, which chose to go with a minimalist no-ad concept. Let's hope the Northern Trust people learn from that mistake.

"The world's best player charges $4 million to drive through the gate."

Trevor Grant treads thoughtfully through the minefield better known as taking on the issue of excessive purses and apperance fees while considering the impact on golf.

Of course, this boundless gluttony has repercussions for those who don't get to sit at the big table.

Last month, after the announcement of a new European Tour event in Dubai, worth a staggering $11 million, US Tour boss Tim Finchem described it as terrific for golf globally.

However, it's hard to see the benefits in this corner of the globe as the Australian golf tour hangs on for dear life, threatened by a tsunami of cash for tournaments in the Middle East and China.

All manner of tactics have been employed to try to prevent Australian golf's plunge towards global irrelevance.

The organisers of the Australian Open, being played this week at The Australian in Sydney, have followed the money trail to New South Wales, where the State Government has agreed to back the event until 2009.

Thus, the national Open has become Sydney-centric, and now ignores one of the best assets in Australian golf - the Melbourne sandbelt.

By 2009 the Open would have been played in this world-acclaimed golf mecca just twice in 12 years - at Kingston Heath in 2000 and Victoria in 2002.

Australia's most significant course, Royal Melbourne, has not hosted the most prestigious event in the country for 16 years.

It's much the same as the British Open ignoring St Andrews, and a sad indictment on the priorities in golf in this country.

Firmly ensconced in Sydney, the Open's priority is said to be the signing of Woods to play next year.

Sources say the pursuit of Woods has the backing of the NSW Government, which wants to make an impact after losing out to its Victorian counterpart in the bid for the 2011 Presidents Cup.

It sounds great for the game here. Except for one thing.

The world's best player charges $4 million to drive through the gate.

The last time he did so in this part of the world, at the NZ Open in 2002, the tournament was a financial disaster.

Elin Settles With Dubliner; Vows To Not Hold It Against Ireland

Thanks to reader Colm for this story on Elin Woods settling her libel case against the Dubliner for printing a baseless story on the eve of the 2006 Ryder Cup. This was a nice touch:

Ms Nordegren Woods is donating all the money to cancer support charities in memory of Irish golfer Darren Clarke's late wife, Heather, who died from breast cancer.

"Do you ever swing the club as hard as you can?"

Thanks to reader Steven T. for this Craig Dolch story recapping Tiger's Monday clinic in Palm Beach where he faced tough scrutiny from the assembled media:

What was your favorite statistic this year?

"Seven wins," Woods said.

Michael (Jordan) used to throw away his shoes after every basketball game? How long do you wear your shoes?"

"Michael did give his shoes away after only one game," Woods said. "But in golf, once you break your shoes in, you want to keep them. I probably keep them for three months."

What type of a grip do you use?

"I use an interlocking grip," he said. "I used a baseball grip until I was 4. But I use different grips when I chip, depending on the shot."

Do you ever swing the club as hard as you can?

"I try not to go much over 90 percent," he said. "You can try and generate more clubhead speed, but I've found the ball goes the farthest when you hit it flush. If you swing hard and don't hit it flush, it goes out there like a 3-iron."

What A Compliment: Rory Calls Day's Remarks Admirable

Rory Sabbitini was asked about Jason Day's assertion that he's going to take Tiger down as well as hopefully join his neighbor for java at the same time:

"Personally, I think Jason Day is a phenomenal talent. I think he is going to be one of the fiercest competitors in years to come.

"I think a good question is would you want to raise a kid saying 'hey, listen, you can be No2, you can't be No1'.

"I think it is admirable that someone is willing to go out there and say, 'yes, I do want to beat him'. You can't let Tiger sit at No1 forever, because that's not going to happen.

"There will be a time when someone's going to overtake him. For him to say I want to be the one that's going to take down Tiger, good for him."

Jason Day Looking To Dethrone Rory's Claim As Best Player Who Could Believes He Could Be Better Than Tiger (And Is Dumb Enough To Tell A Reporter)

Looks like Australian Jason Day has been reading too many of his own press clippings, including this howler from the PGA Tour. From The Age on Nov. 27 (yeah, I'm a little slow).

Day has already claimed his own slice of US golfing history as the youngest player to win a PGA Tour-sponsored event when he won on the secondary Nationwide Tour in July.

"I had a really good amateur career," said Day, who emulated Woods' feat of winning a world junior championship, if not his three consecutive US Amateur crowns.

"Making five out of seven cuts on the PGA Tour (on sponsor invites) was pretty big at 18," he added.

"Winning at 19 and being the youngest on the PGA tour to win ever is pretty big.

Uh...it's called the Nationwi...ah forget it.

"At 19, Tiger didn't win a tournament as a professional.

And that has what to do with this?

"I'm just trying to mark myself up against him.

How about we just play a major first! Or win a PGA Tour event and then we'll try to compare. 

"Next year when I'm on the Tour somehow I've got to win two tournaments because that's what he won and I want to try and keep up with him."

What a good idea!

Day said winning a tournament boosted his confidence.

"At the same time the pressure builds up," he said.

"You're a 19-year-old kid, the youngest kid to ever win a PGA sanctioned event and the media is building you up like you're going to chase down Tiger next year which is a big, big ask for a 20-year-old kid on his first year out on the PGA Tour.

Take that Rory!

"I want to chase Tiger and my goal is to become the number one golfer in the world. That's been my goal since I was a little kid.

"If I work hard on what I need to, I'm sure I can take him down."

Oh but there's more. On whether he thinks Tiger could pick him out of a police lineup:

"He (Woods) watches a lot of golf. He has so much time.

"He played 16 events, what does he do with his time?

"He'd be aware of me, he'd be saying 'here's another kid coming up'

Well if he wasn't aware before, he sure is now.

"I just want to work really hard and take him down."

So glad you repeated it just in case the unbylined writer missed it the first time.

Day owns a house in Orlando just a lob wedge away from Tiger's mansion - at least till Woods relocates to his new spread under contruction.

He hasn't met the great man he plans to dethrone.

"He lives 10 minutes down the road but I've never come across him," he said.

"I must just knock on his door and have a coffee with him and let him know I'm chasing him."

My guess is Tiger doesn't drink coffee Jason. Maybe a carrot juice or some wheat grass.

Meanwhile, Nick O'Hern was asked about the comments. 

"I don't know Jason myself but from what I've heard and from what I've seen, he's a fine player," said O'Hern.

"One thing I've learned about Tiger though is you don't annoy the guy.

"If you do - look what happened to (Rory) Sabbatini and Stephen Ames."

Hey, at least they'd actually played on the PGA Tour and even entered majors, shoot, even contended in majors when they opened their mouths.

"I wouldn't mind that."

Thanks to readers Adam and Jon for catching Tiger's appearance on CNBC to plug the latest swollen spatula from Nike. You can see the video here, but be warned, lots of lame questions from giggly anchors.

I loved that Tiger pointed out how this latest ugly thing you won't find in his bag "sounds a lot better."

Eric Pfahler writes up the interview but mysteriously leaves out a key, key comment.

While other professional sports have standardized equipment, golfers have lots of leeway, though there is some debate about using a standardized golf ball.

“I don’t see how we could get the entire industry to (believe) and go with that,” Woods said. “There would be some serious fighting going on if that was the case because that’s what separates us from other sports.

“It could happen. Augusta threatened to do it, but they just lengthened the golf course so we’re playing from downtown Augusta. We’ll see what happens down the road.”

Whatever technological advances there are in the future could change the game even more, Woods said.

“Seven years, our entire industry’s changed,” Woods said. “How’s it going to be 15 years from now? I don’t know.” 

But this kinda key answer was left out, as you'll see on the video.

Asked about a ball rollback:

"I wouldn't mind that."

Works for me!

Flash: Tiger To Play Dubai!

I was really hoping for a quote stating that since Sam is now old enough, he's going to play abroad more often so that he can make these trips to Dubai educational.

For those keeping score at home, the Dubai event is the same week as the PGA Tour's Scottsdale stop.

So there is still hope that he will consider playing at Pebble Beach and the opportunity to play six hour rounds on Softspike-dented greens. 

"Bear that in mind the next time a so-called expert pops up to claim that Tiger's Butch Harmon swing, circa 2002, is better than the Hank Haney-produced method that he uses these days."

In his Sunday column, John Huggan points out Tiger's dominance on the European Tour.

As a professional he has played in 77 European Tour events, 32 ending in victory to give him an amazing strike rate of 41.56%. In four of every five appearances he has finished in the top ten, and in six of every ten he has made the top three. Along the way he has won €35,166,588, an average of €456,709 every time that he has teed up - never mind any appearance money that he has trousered courtesy of grateful sponsors.

All of which renders ridiculous the almost compulsory and oh-so predictable pro-Rose drumbeating that has resounded as the England media's darling takes an admittedly significant step towards real stardom. Having won only six events in his nine-year professional career - none on the PGA Tour - and only now made it into the world's top-ten players, Rose is still a million miles from the exalted level that Woods has scaled.

While the former child star did extraordinarily well to record top-12 finishes in each of this year's four major championships, a quick look at more numbers reveals that his four-event aggregate was 16 shots worse than that returned by Woods. In other words, Rose has to find one shot per round if he is to challenge the great man in the events that are the genuine measure of any career.

That's an enormous gap in professional terms.

The further bad news for those deranged individuals still harbouring ambitions to challenge Woods in the near future is that the American continues to improve at the age of 31, even with a driver in his hands - the area of the game in which he is perceived by many ignorant judges to be uncharacteristically weak.

A couple of weeks ago, this column ran figures revealing how almost every top player has grown longer and less accurate off the tee over the past five years. While this is true of Woods, his numbers show that, relative to almost every one of his nearest 'challengers' on the world-ranking list, he is better than he was in 2002. Bear that in mind the next time a so-called expert pops up to claim that Tiger's Butch Harmon swing, circa 2002, is better than the Hank Haney-produced method that he uses these days.

Tiger Woods To Build Home In Dubai To Help The Keep Other Empty Mansions Company

Erik Matuszewski of Bloomberg News reports the "news" that Tiger is in fact so drawn to the area, he's already reviewing floor plans and building a home away from home. I'm sure it wasn't included in his deal. Nope, no way. He just loves the area and all of those other empty neighborhoods that 60 Minutes showed us.

Tiger Woods plans to build a 16,500- square-foot mansion, complete with gym, theater, library and pool, that will overlook the private Al Ruwaya golf course he's designing in Dubai.

Woods, the world's top-ranked golfer, has selected one of the property's 287 home sites, which sell for between $12 million and $23 million, and is reviewing floor plans for his residence.

``He's been very interested in this Arabian concept that we've put to blend with the golf course,'' Abdulla Al Gurg, project manager for the Tiger Woods Dubai development, said today in an interview in New York.

Uh huh.

Al Gurg, 27, wouldn't disclose the location of Woods's future home on the 7,800-yard, par-72 course for security reasons. He said it wouldn't be among the biggest in the ``exclusive,'' invitation-only community.

There are 22 planned palaces that will average 33,000 square feet of living space and boast 10 to 12 bedrooms.

Three holes -- the par-3 12th, par-4 17th and par-4 18th -- have been laid out at the Al Ruwaya course, which is scheduled to open in late 2009. Also under construction are the clubhouse and an 80-room boutique hotel. Many of the property's 10,000- square-foot signature luxury villas will be completed by March 2010 and Al Gurg said demand has been high.

``The target market for these villas is not an investor profile,'' Al Gurg said. ``The target market is maybe a secondary homeowner or a trophy real-estate owner -- a person who actually owns a few villas and wants to have a piece of the Tiger Woods Dubai and the first-ever golf course designed by Tiger.''

That's me! 

Meanwhile reader Chip caught this AP piece proclaiming the completion of three holes (on paper?) and Al Gurg has some more to say about Tiger's design.

Tiger Woods has completed the designs for three holes on his first golf course in Dubai, and it doesn't look like he's too concerned about the area's desert terrain.

Woods and his design company are developing a 7,800-yard, par-72 course called Al Ruwaya in Dubailand, the region's largest tourism and leisure project. It's the marquee attraction in a 55-million square-foot development that also will include a hotel, golf academy, community center and luxury homes.

Woods' three completed holes feature lush greenery, including grass and shrubs, and greens well protected by bunkers or water. It's the first glimpse of his course style since he created Tiger Woods Design last year.

"The complexity in those three holes ... has set a different benchmark in the golfing industry," said Abdulla Al Gurg, the project director for The Tiger Woods Dubai.

I do believe those are three holes completed on paper. Not the ground.

Tiger Speaks...

He denies the split-with-Haney rumors and reveals that Sam has already held a club, but it's seven months before she's required to swing it. I know this vital information makes your day, but hey, it's a slow news day.

It appears the Woods web site comments were in response to this John Hawkins column. Of course, Woods could have put this to rest with a stronger answer when he met with the press in Boston. 

More On Tiger's First U.S. Design

Links editor Hunki Yun pens the most extensive feature I've read to date on Tiger Woods's first U.S. course design at The Cliffs. The spread also features easily the best lit staged architect-developer photo of all time (left). Nice use of reflectors boys! Though way too much Dockers ad for my taste.

Anyway...

Anthony contacted Woods in February, and a major factor in Woods’ decision was the Cliffs’—and Anthony’s—emphasis on health and wellness, which mirrors Woods’ values. In the spirit of fitness, Anthony and Woods originally announced that High Carolina would be walking only. But in the only misstep of the day, they later clarified that walking will be encouraged but not required.

Oh well.

There remains the considerable task of building a course worthy of the hype, not to mention Woods’ fee, estimated to be more than $20 million including real estate sales incentives—nearly 10 times the highest previous going rate. The Cliffs is still working on the permitting for the site, which sits at about 4,000 feet and features 50-mile views of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Meanwhile Woods’ design team, led by Beau Welling, formerly Fazio’s top man, has yet to finalize a routing—construction is not likely to begin until mid-2008 and the course won’t open for at least two years after that.

I'm sure we won't hear a thing about it between now and then.

Gatorade Photo Caption Fun, Vol. 1

See, Tiger really did pick out the flavors himself.

I wonder what's being said here... 

 

"Woods even picked out the flavors himself"

This man is hands-on! And it's definitely a slow news day since I see nearly every paper online picked up this vital story.

Tiger Woods will have his own brand of sports drink next year under an endorsement deal announced Tuesday with Gatorade that marks a couple of firsts for the world's No. 1 golfer — his first U.S. deal with a beverage company and his first licensing agreement.

Gatorade said it will introduce "Gatorade Tiger" in March, with more products to follow. Woods even picked out the flavors himself, with the drink available in a cherry blend, citrus blend and grape.

That's so good to know!

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, although Golfweek magazine reported last month it was for five years and could pay Woods as much as $100 million, moving him closer to the $1 billion mark in career endorsements.

"There have been some licensing elements to things we've done," said Mark Steinberg, his agent at IMG, who cited video games produced by EA Sports as an example. "But everything he does with Gatorade is going to be creating new products. It's something Tiger and I and our licensing business has been looking at for some time."

Fascinating! 

"Gatorade has been part of my game plan for years, whether I'm training or competing, so this is an ideal match," Woods said in a statement. "I'm eager to launch my first signature product in a few months and look forward to developing additional sports performance beverages with Gatorade in the coming years."

It's almost like he said that himself. Almost.

Woods, with 61 victories on the PGA Tour and 13 major championships, joins a stable of star athletes at Gatorade — Michael Jordan, Derek Jeter, Peyton Manning and Mia Hamm. None of those athletes has licensing deals, which also is a first for Gatorade, a division of PepsiCo.

"His iconic nature resonates everywhere he goes," said Jeff Urban, senior vice president of Gatorade. "Bridging that iconic nature with his will to win, those things make this a big deal for us."

Urban said it was too early to say how Gatorade would market Woods and his new product line, especially since the drink will not be available until the spring.

On pins and needles here.

The company released video of Woods going through sweat analysis testing with the Gatorade Sports Science Institute, which tested such things as his sweat rate and energy needs during exercise.

Woods has endorsed everything from sports equipment and apparel (Nike) to financial services (Accenture) to automobiles (Buick) to shaving products (Gillette). His first beverage deal comes after 11 years as a professional.

"We wanted to get away from a straight endorsement deal in the beverage category," Steinberg said. "We thought this would be the best fit for his first licensing deal. It's authentic to what Tiger does every day, as hard as he works out every day."

Okay I gotta cut this one off.