Statement From Masters Tournament Committee On Tiger Penalty

/

So they are not invoking the HD Decision, but instead taking some of the blame. So many questions here, but we'll just go with the statement for now:

Faldo, Chamblee Calling On Woods To "Man Up" & WD

/

Stunning contrast right now on Golf Channel and ESPN this wacky morning.

Nick Faldo and Brandel Chamblee right now are calling on Tiger Woods to "man up" (Faldo) and that he knows he gained an advantage, knows he broke the rule and has not yet withdrawn "sad" (Chamblee).

Both players made clear they believe he made a mistake, mixed up the rules and did not intentionally cheat.

ESPN meanwhile, with Andy North and Curtis Strange, have been lauding the committee's use of the Decision and that this is why the rule was created. Whether it was created for this reason though, is very much in dispute.

Decision 33-7/4.5 Flashback: "The R&A and the USGA confirm that the disqualification penalty still applies for score card breaches that arise from ignorance of the Rules of Golf."

/

You can read the USGA/R&A April 2011 release on the Decision change related to select high definition video driven disqualifiations. But it makes abundantly clear that ignorance of the rules is not included in the Decision invoked by the Masters Committee in issuing Tiger a 2-shot penalty Saturday morning.

This revision to Decision 33-7/4.5 addresses the situation where a player is not aware he has breached a Rule because of facts that he did not know and could not reasonably have discovered prior to returning his score card. Under this revised decision and at the discretion of the Committee, the player still receives the penalty associated with the breach of the underlying Rule, but is not disqualified.

In revising the decision, The R&A and the USGA confirm that the disqualification penalty still applies for score card breaches that arise from ignorance of the Rules of Golf.

The actual wording from the Decision:

A Committee would not be justified under Rule 33-7 in waiving or modifying the disqualification penalty prescribed in Rule 6-6d if the player’s failure to include the penalty stroke(s) was a result of either ignorance of the Rules or of facts that the player could have reasonably discovered prior to signing and returning his score card.

Lindsey Vonn Looking To Get In Reps As Weekend Goes

/

Meg Mirshak talks to a recuperating Lindsey Vonn about seeing Augusta National for the first time while watching Tiger Woods play the 2013 Masters. No, she didn't use Tigers reps line, but it's only a matter of time.

“I’m trying to do as much [walking] as I can every day, but I’m hoping to walk more on the weekend,” she said.

After Woods putted on No. 10, Vonn returned to the big oak tree in front of the Augusta National Golf Club clubhouse.

Now that is a climb!

Tiger Giving Telecasts A 60% Boost These Days

/

Matthew Futterman files a WSJ look at the state of Tiger and big business.

Down the piece a bit, and after considering what the sport faced in 2008-09, Futterman looks at the Tiger-fueled recovery and includes this on 2012 and 2013 television ratings:

CBS has seen television viewership for golf rise steadily. Audiences for final-round coverage of tour events averaged 3.5 million in 2012, 46% higher than in 2010. So far this year, an average of 4.1 million viewers have watched final-round coverage of the network's three tournament broadcasts. NBC's audiences grew to 3.4 million viewers last year, from 2.3 million in 2010.

Mr. Woods's participation in tournaments still has a big effect—but not as big as it once did. In 2012, his participation in a final round boosted viewership by 60%, compared with 118% in 2009.

"This is Tiger's 'I'm back and I never changed and you have to like me anyway.'"

/

Here I thought Nike was to blame for the "Winning takes care of everything" messaging after Tiger's Bay Hill win.

Rick Reilly says no way and that Tiger controls everything. More important though, with this column Reilly moves ahead of John Feinstein in the permanent-scowl-from-Steiny race, well-paid writer's division.

My son writes for a big Chicago ad firm. He says every sentence, every word, every syllable is stared at, considered, rewritten, discussed and torn apart. For months. Every conceivable message that one phrase could send to the public is pored over, analyzed and tested. It has to be. If they put out an inadvertent message the client didn't intend, everybody's fired. Don't you watch "Mad Men"?

Oh, they knew what they were doing. And they meant every level you can read into it. Tiger and the creatives and the suits must've looked at all the options, ignored the pesky moral implications and said, "Just do it."

This is Tiger's "I'm back and I never changed and you have to like me anyway." This is his deodorant and he's quite sure we'll all shrug and agree.

Can you imagine how little he thinks of us?