"Be polite."

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Steve Elling on a fun post-round scene today at TPC Sawgrass.

As ever, Phil Mickelson was signing autographs outside the scoring center at The Players Championship, having torn up the course with a 6-under 66 on Saturday to move into contention, and fans clamored three and four deep to get his signature.

Nothing new there. Then Tiger Woods walked past, having just completed another lackluster round.

A boy waiting in line for Mickelson to sign a souvenir, perhaps 7 or 8 years old, yelled out a biting comment to the reigning world numero uno.

"Say goodbye to No. 1, Tiger," the kid said. "Kiss it goodbye."

Double ouch. Not only has Mickelson unseated Woods as the game's most popular player, he's seemingly on the verge of dethroning him as the top dog in the world rankings.

Mickelson gave the kid a tsk-tsk. A less-classy player might have slipped the kid $100.

"Be polite," Mickelson said to the boy.

Thursday At The 2010 Players

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For those of you keeping track at home: no post round autographs for the kids, three F-bombs on 18 tee and one sky ball from Tiger. That said--and eye-rolling is forbidden--Tiger's effort to engage the crowd is having a positive impact on the atmosphere surrounding his group. Hecklers are no where to be found. There feels like plenty of goodwill and forgiveness out there.
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Tiger Irons On Ebay Not Part Of Broader Legal Defense Fundraising Strategy

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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."


"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."

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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?