Tiger Hints At Another Way Augusta Makes The Course Play Longer?

The big takeaway from Tiger's CNN International interview with Shane O'Donoghue revolved around his suggestion that maybe he wasn't ready when he came back at Augusta last year. But I was fascinated by something he mentioned in responding to a question about whether the club will have to lengthen the course for today's bombers.

Note that he mentions the added length, the second cut, the cutting of the fairways toward the tee to slow balls down, but I don't recall anyone before saying that the fairway cut is a little longer, as he does here. He certainly would know and it's something I'm going to ask a few former champions about next week.

My number one observation from watching the 86 Masters today was how much more the tee shots roll when they hit the ground. It's great fun watching what the ball does on the ground, especially on 15 fairway.

"The gloves are well and truly off when it comes to Tiger Woods’ current travails."

That's the perspective Brian Keogh delivers and which I was unable to put into words on the earlier post about Rory's SI piece jabbing at Tiger, who is on the receiving end of criticism from the golf community like never before.

In this sense, McIlroy has been like the child from the Hans Christian Andersen tale The Emperor’s New Clothes . Where others fear to voice what is obvious, McIlroy does not mince his words or hide the fact the man who was once a role model has now been laid bare as a tarnished anti-hero with a balky golf swing.

Frank Deford likens Tiger and interest in watching him play to the Broadway disaster that is Spider-Man.

You know what he reminds me of? The Broadway musical Spider-Man, Turn Off the Dark. It sells out to the curious, even though the critics hate it and it's always a tease, always a work in progress. And there's a dark side that draws us in. Maybe Spidey will find itself. But maybe it'll only be always not quite there.

We watch Tiger Woods with the same almost morbid fascination, afraid to look away because if we do, we'll miss it if he miraculously returns to greatness, as if age doesn't matter with majesty, and what changed his life was all just a bump in the road.

Brandel Expands On His Tiger Critique

I've never thought Brandel Chamblee's critiques were anything but well thought out and carefully considered, so I'm a little surprised he had to pen this defense of his comments during the Golf Channel Powered By Dick Ebersol "State of the Game" criticism of Tiger's swing changes.

As for the negativity, in some cases I’m guilty as charged. I cannot as an analyst find reason to compliment a player who abandons proven methods for more pedestrian ones. What if he is ultimately successful in his endeavors to change his swing and win majors? He would end up right where he started, at the cost of time, which is every athlete’s most valuable commodity. Furthermore, it would have cost him considerable wear on a body that has not aged well. All of this makes me question whether it is one of the most confusing things we have seen in golf.

Clearly he hasn't watched the homeless golfer wrist-slasher of a reality show on his own network!

Rory Riffs On Tiger; Where Was Chubby's Red Pen?

Okay, we're not in Stephen Ames territory quite yet, but you do have to wonder what Rory McIlroy thinks there is to gain from these comments about Tiger in a self-bylined golf.com item that appears in this week's SI Golf Plus special issue.

I wasn't playing against Tiger Woods when he had that aura. I was watching on TV! I remember getting nervous when I first met him. I was 15. There was a presence about him. There still is to some extent, but when you're on the golf course you simply block it out. But Tiger is not playing as well as he was even a couple of years ago, never mind going back to the late 1990s and early 2000s, when he was at his best. I'm not sure we are going to see him dominate again the way he did. He never seemed like he would make a mistake.

Okay, that was edgy but at least that's the...oh there's more.

It's not that he's playing badly. He's simply playing badly by Tiger's standards. He's playing like an ordinary golfer. People expect more of him because of what he has achieved. As much as I would love to have the success that Tiger has had on the golf course, I wouldn't want to live his life. He has made the same mistakes as any footballer, or NBA or NFL player. Tiger is obviously different from the rest of us because he is a bit of a rock star. But he can't really take his kids to the cinema. It's a tough life because of what he has done and what he represents, being the first African-American golfer to break down the barriers.

Why didn't Rory's ten-percenter, Chubby Chandler, turn into Ben Bradlee on this one? Or do they just not ever anticipate having to face Tiger in contention anymore and enjoy beating the lad while he's down?

Or...maybe this was just a ploy to bury the real lede: Rory writing that The Players has lost its luster moving to May!