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
For Immediate Release...and only of interest to golf industry insiders. (Though I do wonder how this will impact any possible announcement tomorrow from Mark Steinberg, who has been shackled by an agreement with IMG to not reveal his future until June 1.)
Anyway...
The Toronto Sun's Steve Simmons posed this question to readers:
Confirm or deny: Was that Tiger Woods limping into a Toronto hospital, twice in the past month or so? Sure looked like him...
You know they say the quality of health care is better in Canada!
Anyone know of any good sports medicine guys up there?
In Doug Ferguson's story on Mark Steinberg leaving IMG, he writes:
Woods has a close relationship with Steinberg, a reserve on the Illinois basketball team that went to the Final Four in 1989. If he were to leave IMG and stay with Steinberg, it likely would not make much of a difference in his golf schedule or even his endorsements, as Steinberg did most of that work.
...fill in the possibilities here. CAA? William Morris? Steiney And Associates?
Darren Rovell, "Steiney's" go-to source for dissemination, broke the news on Twitter and indeed, Tiger's agent's name has been scrubbed clean of IMGWorld.com.
Not really.
The press conference to launch this year's AT&T National at Aronimink offered yet another less-than-pretty look into the world of Tiger Woods' post accident media management. Instead of simply appearing, answering questions and doing his part to promote an event that his name clings to by a thread, Woods used an probably planned-for $1 million foundation donation as a backdoor way of showing the deep rage he holds toward a golf media that once kissed his feet and now which poses straightforward questions about his game and physical well being.
It is what it is, it's a process, it's all right in front of you, will follow the docs orders...
MEDIA ALERT
Golf Channel to Air Tiger Woods’ AT&T National News Conference, Tuesday at 11 a.m. ET
ORLANDO, Fla., (May 23, 2011) - Golf Channel Tuesday will air live Tiger Woods’ news conference from Aronimink Golf Club in Newton Square, Penn. Coverage will begin at 11 a.m. ET and will continue until the conference concludes. The news conference is a part of media day for the 2011 AT&T National, a PGA TOUR event benefiting the Tiger Woods Foundation.
Kelly Tilghman will anchor coverage, and will be joined by GolfChannel.com senior writer Jason Sobel from the network’s Orlando studios.
**If you ever want evidence of how delusional the years of media fawning made Tiger and his flunkies, check out these tweets.
First, Greg McLaughlin, the lavishly paid head of Tiger's foundation:
And then Tiger, putting the media in a no-win situation before his press conference:
It really is remarkable that at this point they call a press conference after everything that happened--namely the lies--and hope to get nothing but fawning softballs.
They should be grateful anyone shows to hear a former world No. 1 plug a tournament he may or may not finish.
**And one more attempt at humor that speaks volumes about Tiger really needing professional help to work out his anger toward the media.
Last week I asked if Tiger should/could be following the Hogan '53 route for his future scheduling and Larry Dorman uses Colonial weekend to tackle that question.
In 1953, Hogan played only six times, winning five events, including the three majors in which he played, and was given a ticker-tape parade in New York.
Before ardent Hogan disciples erupt in outrage, no one is suggesting here that Woods’s injuries are comparable to Hogan’s in severity. But consider this: Should Woods, rather than pushing himself to play more in order to get stronger, follow the Hogan option and play less to conserve strength?
Hogan was 36 when his car had a head-on collision with a bus on a foggy morning outside Van Horn, Tex. His injuries included two fractures to his pelvis, a fractured collarbone and left ankle, and life-threatening blood clots. Time away from competitive golf: 11 months.
Meanwhile, Robert Lusetich questions the likelihood of a Tiger return and shares some interesting comments from Kenny Perry about Tiger's physique.
“Tiger goes over the top when he does stuff,” Perry said. “When he works out, he works out religiously; whatever he does, he’s gung-ho. It’s amazing because that’s what made him such a great player, but maybe he’s overdone it.
“When he was playing great golf, he was wiry, thin, loose and quick; he had a lot of speed. Now he’s so thick, he looks like a defensive back in the NFL, but his legs are still little.
“So is his lower body struggling to support his heavier, muscular upper body? I don’t know, maybe it is.”
He's #6 on the Forbes celebrity list behind other mononymous giants like Leo, Justin, Oprah and Elton.
And next Monday he'll be out of the Official World Golf Ranking top ten for the first time since April, 1997.
I've been out the last two days, so catching up on reading and was shocked by the frankness of statements from Curtis and Azinger in Doug Ferguson's column on the prospects of Tiger ever returning to peak form.
"I thought it was a slam dunk before Thanksgiving a year-and-a-half ago," two-time U.S. Open champion Curtis Strange said. "I started having serious doubts after his withdrawal last week. He's losing valuable time right now with injuries, swing coaches, reinventing himself. You don't have that much time in a career to break those kind of records.
"For him to come back after all of this, it's going to be a hell of a mountain to climb."
And Zinger, who Tweeted similar thoughts last week:
"The big unknown is the severity of the problem," Azinger said. "The mental aspect still must be addressed - having the ability to find someone he can talk and talk with. He's angry at himself, angry at the world, angry at people tearing him down. But physically, for the first time, I'm starting to wonder."
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
