HSBC Really Wishes Tiger Was Playing This Week

Generally I find the stories of late where sponsors complain about the lack of star presence to be a bit silly since golf is now a 52-week-a-year global sport and most of them signed on knowing this. However, after reading the grumbling of HSBC's Giles Morgan about Tiger's non-appearance in this week's WGC-HSBC despite being in China, I can kind of see the point.

Reported by Doug Ferguson from Shanghai:

Morgan said he was told a few months ago by Woods' agent that this was not going to work with his schedule. After a week of corporate work, Woods is playing (for another big appearance fee) in the Turkish Open, a European Tour event.

Like other overseas events, HSBC once paid to get the best players. But now that it's a full-fledged WGC, big appearance fees have been replaced by an $8.5 million purse.

"What I can't do is pay him," Morgan said. "And I feel enormously strong about that. This is a World Golf Championship. This is the flagship event of Asia. This is going to be the beacon to carry the game into this continent for many years to come. We could do the wrong thing by golf and drop the prize money right down and just pay one or two players huge fees. From a publicity standpoint, that would give us a certain amount of kudos because we'd get the top player in the world. And I'm absolutely not going down that route.

"We have an opportunity to be a genuine top 10 event in the world," he said. "That requires a massive investment, which we're pleased to do. And that means we want to be an authentic sponsor in the world of golf."

Of course HSBC also might think it's owed a favor as a founding partner of the Tiger Woods Learning Center, but as opening day headliner Bill Clinton can tell you, that doesn't mean a whole lot to Woods. And that may be why he's down to two blue chip sponsors.

“This is a bad-guy move Tiger is pulling, trying…to get a TV golf analyst fired for something the TV golf analyst didn't even say on TV.”

Gregg Doyel says Tiger plays dirty and the latest comments from China will be a mistake.

All because Chamblee pointed out -- in a creative way -- that Tiger was, shall we say, cavalier with the rules during the 2013 season.

But facts are facts, and the facts would be Chamblee's defense in a slander lawsuit, should Woods file one, which he won't. Because he has no case -- and if he doesn't know it, Steinberg does. So in lieu of a legal remedy that doesn't exist, they're trying to cut off Chamblee's biggest source of income. Why? Because they can.

Now we'll see what Golf Channel does. The ball truly is in their court. We'll see if the people who run that network are as scared of Tiger Woods as Tiger Woods hopes they are.

Martin Kaufmann answers that question and says Tiger needs Golf Channel more than Golf Channel needs him. I'm not sure I buy that, but here's his case:

Here’s the reality: Brandel Chamblee is more valuable to Golf Channel than Tiger Woods. Yes, I realize that sounds crazy at first glance. I follow the TV ratings. I know that Woods can double the viewership when he’s in contention.

But Woods has no leverage in this instance. Golf Channel and its parent, NBC Sports Group, have locked up PGA Tour rights through 2021. If Tiger Woods wants to play on the PGA Tour, he’s going to have to appear on Golf Channel and NBC. And the Tour’s media rules mandate that he make appearances in the media center before and during events.

Lindsey (Kind Of) Regrets Putting Sammy On Tiger's Shoulder

An Access Hollywood report quotes Lindsey Vonn about the Presidents Cup moment when she put Sammy the squirrel on Tiger's shoulder and how it didn't even scare her man. (Eat your heart out, Herb Wind, that you never typed a sentence like that!).

“It was bad timing on my part,” she said. “He was very concentrated, of course, on his shot and he was more annoyed than anything. But he thought it was really funny. I mean my whole goal was to try to scare him, clearly it did not work.”

She was also asked about Tiger's attendance in Sochi, home to the Winter Olympics in just 100 days.

“We’ll see. He doesn’t like the cold very much so,” she revealed.

Fits somewhat perfectly in his schedule. The first two weeks of the Sochi games are the AT&T National Pro-Am in Pebble Beach and the Northern Trust Open at Riviera, two almost guaranteed non-starts for Woods.

Then again, it's Sochi. Maybe we have just the thing to get Tiger to finally return to Riviera!

WSJ: Most Of China's Golfers Have Never Set Foot On A Course

With Monday's "Match at Mission Hills" featuring Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, John Paul Newport looks at golf in China and shares some staggering numbers.

Of course, the numbers are estimates...

These days there are roughly 600 courses in China and possibly one million golfers: estimates vary. Townend puts the figure at 700,000 and guesses that half have only hit balls at practice ranges—of which there are several thousand—never on a course.

"The average annual salary in China is something like $2,100 and the average cost to play golf is around $150 a round," said Dan Washburn, an American journalist who lived for several years in China and wrote "The Forbidden Game: Golf and the Chinese Dream" due next spring. "Golf isn't even on the mind of the average Chinese person. It's perceived as a rich man's game, and that's true, more so in China probably than anywhere else in the world."

Speaking of rich guys, the Back Nine Network is streaming the match except in the U.S., citing PGA Tour rules forbidding anything hosted by Ahmad Rashad to be censored.

That's a shame since last year's match featured arguably the best TV moment of the year when Tiger openly admitted his struggles with Sean Foley's swing ideas and dropped some colorful language in describing how he was hitting his short irons.

It was as if they didn't know they were being recorded!

Golf.com has posted a slideshow of the Blackstone Course at Mission Hills where the event will be played.

Update on 2013-10-28 02:55 by Geoff

**James Corrigan previews the match and says Rory's getting $1.5 million to Tiger's $2 million.

Meanwhile McIlroy is 62nd in the Race To Dubai with one event to go, notes Ryan Lavner. The top 60 make it to the finale.

Jaime Diaz's State Of Tiger Woods, 2013

The Golf World editor and Golf Digest contributor's annual Golf Digest look at Tiger Woods has not included quotes from Tiger his ownself in some time, but an all-star cast weighs in on all things Woods and his pursuit of history.

A few of the items that stood out for me, starting with this on dings:

The specter of injury also diminishes Woods' chances. The frequency of his "dings" went up in 2013 compared to 2012, the most consequential being the left-elbow pain he said began at the Players Championship and bothered him at the Memorial and the U.S. Open. At the Barclays, he announced early in the week that he woke with a stiff back from a soft mattress; by Sunday, spasms literally brought him to his knees. His surgically repaired left knee held up, but it will always be a worry.

Tiger's always been prone to dings, but you do wonder if he's giving new thought to his strength regimin as he nears the big 4-0 so that he can recover better?

In my viewing of his rounds this year, distance was an issue more than accuracy. For him it's as much of a mental boost as a strategic aid in overpowering a course. Once able to call on a huge drive when he needed to, Tiger is average off the tee in today's game.

Woods' weakest club continues to be the driver. He has gotten statistically straighter off the tee (though he hits proportionally more 3-woods and 5-woods than ever), but he has dropped from the first rank of the game's power players, almost certainly for good. As of early September, his measured clubhead speed of 118.68 miles per hour ranked 26th on the PGA Tour, his ball speed 24th. He was 32nd in going for reachable holes, and 56th in driving distance (292.7 yards).

As for his attitude, I don't get Paul Azinger's comment below since Tiger's always exuded something other than intense calmness, often to the chagrin of observers.

"I no longer see in Tiger that intense calmness you sense in a confident man," says Paul Azinger. "When you act edgy and irritable, you're exposing your lack of confidence. For a long time he seemed to be the most disciplined golfer in the world, and that was a big part of his intimidation."

Hasn't he always had days where he's edgy and irritable on the course? Isn't that just his way?

Will Tiger Boycott Golf Channel Interviews Over Brandel?

Ed Sherman has a roundup of the Brandel-Tiger-cavalier-with-the-rules situation and wonders if this could mean a Tiger boycott of Golf Channel interviews in lieu of the hoped-for trial.

This, even though the original offense appeared on golf.com, where they still have not acknowledged Mark Steinberg's rebuttal to the Chamblee column suggesting possible legal action.

Woods, though, will be looking to get even, and that could put the Golf Channel in the line of fire. There’s not much he can do to get back at Golf.com. The magazine and site weren’t getting any exclusive interviews anyway.

Woods, though, does appear regularly on interviews during tournaments with the Golf Channel. Chamblee’s main work is with the Golf Channel.

I wouldn’t rule out the possibility that Woods might pull an interview boycott with the Golf Channel–at least at the events where Chamblee is on site as an analyst, which are quite a few. It would be a way for the Woods camp to make Chamblee feel the heat.

The World Challenge at Sherwood should provide an opportunity to find out, as NBC/Golf Channel is the tournament's longtime partner. Would he not do an interview Thursday and Friday, and then sit in the NBC booth as he traditionally does on the weekend?

Or perhaps this will be an opportunity for Tiger Marching And Chowder Society Co-Chairs Kelly Tilghman and Notah Begay to intervene?