Tiger Responds: "It was wrong, hurtful and clearly inappropriate..."

Steve DiMeglio with Tiger's Twitter rebuttal to Sergio's fried chicken remark. There's a sentence circa 2005 that would have gotten me sent to the funny farm.

The Tweets:

The comment that was made wasn’t silly. It was wrong, hurtful and clearly inappropriate...

— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) May 22, 2013

The Players ended nearly two weeks ago and it’s long past time to move on and talk about golf.

— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) May 22, 2013

Sergio's impromptu press conference, aired on Golf Channel and courtesy of them. Love that he was caught off guard by the question from Steve Sands.

And Taylor Made has distanced itself from Sergio.

“Sergio Garcia’s recent comment was offensive and in no way aligns with TaylorMade-adidas Golf’s values and corporate culture,” the company said in a statement. “We have spoken with Sergio directly and he clearly has regret for his statement and we believe he is sincere. We discussed with Sergio that his comments are clearly out of bounds and we are continuing to review the matter.”

Sergio Nibbles Back: We Don't Make A Difference To Each Other!

If you didn't know they were grown men who whap a ball around manicured grounds and get paid lavishly to do so, you'd definitely have to wonder what happened on the first date with Sergio and Tiger. Actually we know, it was at Bighorn and it's been all downhill since.

Paul Mahoney with the full backstory in case you've been in a coma and Sergio's retort to Tiger's succinct "no" on any potential hatchet-burying. Someone please pair these two jilted golfers with Vijay, chop, chop!

"First of all, I don't have his number. And secondly, I did nothing wrong and don't have anything to say to him. And he wouldn't pick up the phone anyway. But that's OK; I don't need him as a friend. I don't need him in my life to be happy and that's fine. It's as simple as that. Like I have always said, I try to be as truthful as possible," Garcia said. "That's why I think sometimes most of the people love me and some hate me. I understand that but I'm not going to change. That's what makes me who I am and that's what makes me happy. And that's what makes the people I care about happy because they know they can trust me. Tiger doesn't make a difference to my life. And I know that I don't make a difference to his life."

Tiger And Kid Rock Dazzle On The Red Carpet

Robin Leach is outraged...outraged!...that Tiger Woods and Lindsey Vonn weren't photographed together for Saturday's Tiger Woods Foundation's Tiger Jam fundraiser in Las Vegas.

And frankly, having to look at Kid Rock instead of Vonn, I concur. Then again, there's Rock with Tiger on the golf course with Chris Paul. Open at your peril.

Leach tried to take his complaint a step further by suggesting the rumors of engagement--Tiger and Lindsey that is--kept Vonn off the red carpet because she was hiding a ring.

LOL: Steiny Lectures Media On Accuracy, "Misplaced Conclusions"

Ron Sirak has the laugh-out-loud sermonizing from agent Mark Steinberg--who had the audacity to suggest he knew nothing of his client's indiscretions yet somehow managed to negotiate a deal to cover them up--on the topic of Michael Bamberger's story from the Players. You may recall Bamberger quoted marshals who never green-lit Tiger to play, a point disputed by a follow up from Garry Smits of the Florida Times-Union who spoke to different "marshals".

"The comments from the marshals in today's story definitively show that Tiger was telling the truth about being told Sergio had hit," Tiger's agent, Mark Steinberg, told GolfDigest.com. "I hope this demonstrates to some reporters the importance of accuracy and not jumping to misplaced conclusions."

Does Steiny really want the press to ask more questions of the "marshal" exonerating his client, who, according to Smits' story, was part of the Tiger security detail and not a marshal?

Or ask why he was calling Hank Haney a liar because the instructor was revealing things that had to make Steiny's negotiations all but impossible?

Speaking of those negotiations, Steiny suggested to his OB Keeler that blue chip companies were after Tiger. Since then, Steinberg hasn't inked any deals of late, which was highlighted when SI pointed out yesterday that Tiger had lost $20 million in endorsement income last year, dropping him from the top spot in SI's ranking of leading athlete revenue earners.

CSI: Tigerdrop Sawgrass '13 Winners!

Cork Gaines wins for the best forensic of Tiger's tee shot, noting the angle of splash and how it doesn't match the hard hook angle that would be necessary for the drop spot to have worked.

And there should be some sort of award for use of Photoshop.


And this "angle of view" importance breakdown is also quite impressive:

Video Tiger Will Never Tire Of: Sergio's 17th Hole Water Balls

Oddly, the editors of this package deprive us of one of Sergio Garcia's balls going into the TPC Sawgrass's 17th hole lake, but nemesis Tiger Woods will no doubt savor seeing Garcia's Players Championship hopes unravel.

From PGA Tour Entertainment.

Sergio-on-17 highlights from the NBC gang:

Johnny Miller, on Sergio Garcia’s first tee shot into the water – “It was almost too much for him.  The minute he hit that, he knew it was right.”
 
Gary Koch, on David Lingmerth’s tee shot on 17 – “That is the first tee shot I have seen end up right of the flag.”
 
Gary Koch, on Sergio Garcia’s second tee shot on 17 that hit the water – “Absolutely amazing he would come up short.”
 
Johnny Miller, on Sergio Garcia’s struggles on 17 – “Tough to watch.”
 
Dan Hicks, on Sergio Garcia’s struggles on 17 – “You just never want to be one of those guys at 17.  One of those guys in contention who feels all alone when things just start going the other way.”

And while we're piling on, golf.com's Ryan Reiterman posts a nice compilation of Sergio's greatest meltdowns.

“It wasn’t a shining Friday for Fred Ridley and he has at his disposal the best rules officials in golf."

David Eger's comment in today's Charlotte Observer story by Ron Green Jr. about sums up the sentiment I've heard most from the rules community in the story that won't go away: Tiger's Friday Masters drop.

“It wasn’t a shining Friday for Fred Ridley and he has at his disposal the best rules officials in golf,” Eger said. “I’m sure he had more resources available to him than I had sitting at home with my digital recorder playing it back. For the head guy not to use all the resources available to him is disappointing.”

Meanwhile, thanks to reader Chris for tipping me to the Jerry Tarde's just-posted July Golf Digest column stirring up what seems like a non-issue to many at this point: Tiger's decision to keep playing the 2013 Masters. Tarde goes with the what if angle and it's certainly a provocative take.

The decision to, in effect, disqualify himself would go down as one of the legendary gestures of sportsmanship alongside Nicklaus conceding Tony Jacklin the two-foot putt that would tie the 1969 Ryder Cup and German long-jumper Luz Long advising Jesse Owens to start his long jump short of the foul line to ensure qualifying for the final after fouling in his first two attempts at the 1936 Summer Olympics. (Long would go on to get the silver to Owens' gold.)