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
Just in case you were thinking the ebay irons Tiger purportedly used in the Tiger Slam were being sold to cover 13 hours of Jay Lavely's time, think again.
E. Michael Johnson notes that we learned some things about his specs at the time, and later reported the seller to be Steve Mata, the former director of tour operations for Titleist, and that "Mata, in his position with Titleist, worked closely with Woods on his equipment. At the time, Woods was using Titleist clubs."
Steve Elling points out that the Commissioner's suggestion of "overblown" Tiger coverage and excessive focus on one club toss was, well, wrong.
Monday, in an interview in the Jacksonville paper as a lead-in to the Players Championship, Tim Finchem said: "In his early years, [Woods] had difficulty controlling his actions but he worked hard at it and got away from it. But he tossed a club in Australia and everyone was writing about Tiger tossing clubs. Well, he didn't toss clubs ... he tossed a club. It wasn't a habit." As a point of fact, writers from two major sports websites, including CBSSports.com, watched in shock as Woods tomahawked a driver into the ground with such ferocity last year in Boston that the club bounded into a dry water hazard next to the tee, where his caddie was forced to wade into waist-deep hay to retrieve it -- after he finally located it. It was an astounding display of temper worthy of Tommy Bolt. So please don't offer any lectures about how many times Woods has gone ballistic, especially when you have a clear financial stake in the spin-control rehab of his reputation. I have an entire DVD sent to me by a fan, filled with videotaped examples of Woods' tantrums and titanium tosses over the years. To assert otherwise is as unprofessional as it is transparently absurd.
Well, should be an interesting Commissioner's pig roast this Friday at TPC Sawgrass. What do you think Ty: yours truly, Elling and Huggan at the same table?
After all, this is how he should have played at the Masters, no? Or is this the beginning of a different era, the post-accident Tiger?
Bob Harig's report features Woods' post-round interview and this:
Among the issues: Woods hit just six fairways over two rounds and had back-to-back double bogeys on the 14th and 15th holes.
Now it's on to the Players Championship next week, although Woods first has a weekend off.
"I'll get to watch how it's done," he quipped. "I'll get to see how real golfers do it."
Asked if his problems were due to lack of practice, playing or mechanics, Woods said: "It is what it is. Whatever it was, it wasn't good enough."
Steve Elling writes:
At times, it looked like Icelandic volcano ash was leaking from every orifice, and Woods couldn't get off the course fast enough. For the first time, he mailed it in over the last few holes when any chance of making the cut was history. Woods has repeatedly professed to giving every shot his best effort over the years, but this time, he flat-out quit.
When he four-jacked the 14th hole, he barely waited for the ball to stop rolling before he slapped at it again. When he dunked a ball in the water hazard beside the 13th green with an awful lob shot, he hit a pair of wedge shots without bothering to take a practice swing.
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
