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
Tiger sounded a little touchy about the Sean Foley relationship status. As if the writers didn't see their Facebook status shifting from "It's complicated" to, "In a teaching relationship."
Q. How long do you think the process of modification will take?
TIGER WOODS: Well, we'll see. It's progress. I'm making progress, I'm making steps, and just got to keep heading in the right direction.
Q. Just a quick follow-up, how different is the concept versus what Hank teaches and what Butch teaches?
TIGER WOODS: Very different.
Q. Just to clarify, how would you characterize your relationship with Sean, your working relationship?
TIGER WOODS: We're working on it.
Q. Is he your coach?
TIGER WOODS: He's coaching me (smiling).
Q. Are you paying him?
TIGER WOODS: That's none of your business.
Q. How formal, I guess, is the question.
TIGER WOODS: Well, it's none of your business, first of all.
Steve Elling was with Foley when his cell phone exploded on the news and has some new information on how the two met how the two started working together.
He stood on the driving range at Cog Hill, looking down at the screen on the device, quizzically thumbing through the assault of e-mails and text messages that began bouncing off satellites and into the contraption.
"What's this all about?" he said.
As ever, it's all about Eldrick.
Moments earlier, in his own inimitably paranoid fashion, world No. 1 Tiger Woods confirmed he has formally forged a work relationship with Foley, who coaches a half-dozen other PGA Tour players, and the news precipitated the flurry of inquiries that will soon make him the most famous Canuck in the States since Dudley Do-Right.
Peter Oosterhuis, talking about Tiger's inclusion on this year's Ryder Cup squad.
"He should be leading the team and inspiring the team. They should be saying 'I've got Tiger on my Ryder Cup team, we're going to demolish the opposition,' and that hasn't happened."
Oosterhuis went on to say that the effect Tiger could have on the side would damage, rather than help, his teammates.
Woods has underperformed in previous Ryder Cup tournaments despite huge success on the PGA Tour.
"It is not so much about how he will play, it's the affect he will have on the team," Oosterhuis said.
"I don't think he's going to help the team. I think he's just going to muddy the waters and cause problems that they don't need.
"They need to be thinking about golf and saying 'Hey, we're a team, we're playing together and we want to beat the opposition and let's not have any static on the side."
Robert Lusetich talks to Sean Foley who is less than bashful in sharing his views about Tiger's swing. Sit back and prepare for an entertaining read! My highlights:
“This is nothing against Butch (Harmon, who was Woods’ coach at the time) but trying to go back to that would be a huge mistake,” Foley said.
Steve Elling reports on today's comments in Boston:
On Thursday, Woods was asked at the Deutsche Bank Championship about his view on the issue, which is being studied by the USGA. The organization has yet to release any findings from its various studies.
“It's just something, the guys are hitting it a long way,” Woods said. “For instance, last week, No. 8 is a par 3 down the hill, playing 207 the last day, and I hit 7 iron. I don't ever hit 7 iron that far. Then I watched Dustin Johnson hit 9 iron.
“It's just, I can understand them wanting to obviously pull the game back a little bit, because the guys are just becoming more athletic. Here I am 6 foot and I'm considered short. Most of the guys now are 6-3, 6-2, 6-4. Just like every other sport, it's evolved, become more athletic.
“The guys have speed, and now we're getting some great athletes playing the game.”
Tiger is in a no-win position if he takes a hard stance on the modern distance chase. Though he has made several statements about not minding a change, he has to be careful not to upset Nike and also to appear to be favoring a possible rule change that benefits his ability, which many believe a "spinnier" ball would.
Now factor in that his distance advantage has been passed by, and he has to be even more careful. Still, I like the comments today.
Yesterday's 65 had him that much closer to Jack, but today's 73 was undoubtedly a massive setback in his quest to win more majors!
...because it's ingeniously timed for all involved and a brilliant media play.
A few people wrote in wondering why I and others felt the timing was odd. It's very simple. Everything to this point from Tiger's PR perspective has been terribly handled. This is the first exception. The timing was impeccable for both Tiger and Elin, and it led to his first really genuine sounding comments in some time. It also seems to have helped free up his game?
People has the exclusive first and purportedly last interview with Elin Nordegren that hits newsstands Friday.
In 19 hours over four visits to her Windermere, Fla., rental home, Nordegren shared never-before-seen personal photographs and opened up to PEOPLE about the emotional roller coaster she's been on, her life as a mother to Sam, 3, and Charlie, 19 months, and her hopes for the future.
"My immediate plan is for the kids and me to continue to adjust to our new situation. I am going to keep taking classes, but my main focus is to try to give myself time to heal," she says.
She tells the magazine this was her first – and last – interview, as she intends to remain a private person.
**More details from the AP and Doug Ferguson include Elin denying she ever hit Tiger ("I did everything I could to get him out of the locked car. To think anything else is absolutely wrong") and that her people approached People. There was also this imagery from Ridgewood:
Shortly before 8 a.m. ET, when the People magazine story broke, his agent, Mark Steinberg, stepped outside the ropes of the first fairway and was on the phone for the next 10 minutes, as was Woods' spokesman, Glenn Greenspan.
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
