At Least Tiger's Not Writing Poetry Yet...

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Tiger's pre-Hero World Challenge press conference probably shouldn't have been the shockingly morose affair that it turned out to be given that the legendary golfer signaled some resignation to his back issues by already signing up as a Ryder Cup assistant. (Woods denied the two were connected in his comments today.)

While he's not writing Dear Golf poems yet and he does play a sport more tolerant of old age than just about any other, his comments about not seeing light at the end of the tunnel and all-gravy going forward in the way of success sounded bleak. The assessment by various golf writers suggests a virtual retirement of sorts, and Tiger is certainly laying the groundwork for the need to have an extended absence.

Ron Green Jr. says Tiger failed to deliver an early Christmas present in the way of good news.

It may be too much to call Woods’ self-assessment grim but it’s fair to say it was discouraging.

For several years, we’ve understood that Woods is closer to the end of his career than the beginning, but he didn’t seem so close to the end as it sounded and felt this time.

Alex Myers puts together the seven primary takeaways and says the press conference "was downright depressing at times."

Bob Harig at ESPN.com writes:

Woods, who will turn 40 on Dec. 30, appears to have confronted the possibility that his career could end. He declined to specifically say that on Tuesday, saying instead that his hope is to resume his career and "get after it with these guys."

Rory Says What Most Are Thinking About Tiger Shifting To A Ryder Cup Driving Role

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Talking after his opening round in the Race To Dubai finale, Rory McIlroy naturally wonders about Tiger's physical well-being if the legendary golfer is already committing himself to cart shuttling duties instead of leaving open the possibility that the 40-year-old-to-be could make the team.

From an unbylined Belfast Telegraph wire story:

Told of the news after his opening round in the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai, a visibly surprised McIlroy said: " I don't know what to think about that, I really don't.

"It's great that he wants to help the US team in any way that he can, and if that's not in a playing capacity, then as a vice-captain. Just sort of makes me think what really his health is like and how he feels like he's going to come back from that.

" I'd rather see him on the course at Hazeltine but if not, at least he'll be there and it will be a good addition for them."

 

Despite His Driving Record, Tiger Lands Assistant Ryder Cup Gig

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Shady insider politics were no doubt in play as a member of the two-time-convening Ryder Cup Task Force, Tiger Woods, was named as part of Davis Love’s first wave of 2016 assistant Cup Captains.

Bob Harig says this shows Tiger cares, which is probably true. Though I’d lean more towards the “cares about still getting checks from Nike” division. Whereas Harig believes this is a statement about Woods’ feelings for the Ryder Cup.

That Woods is willing to take a subservient role at this point sends a message of allegiance. Taking drink orders and offering tidbits of wisdom might not seem like Woods' style, but that is what he has signed up to do.

And shuttling WAGs to the 17th tee...

Though I’m not sure I’d jump in a four-seat cart with a man who crashed an Escalade.

Captain Love also handed cart keys to Jim Furyk, Steve Stricker who join already-named asst. Captain Tom Lehman. It’s unclear whether he intends to have any more assistant captains in the inevitable push toward every Ryder Cupper having their own cart driver masquerading as an assistant captain.

Speaking of the swelling list of cart drivers, Doug Ferguson explains the thinking this way:

The five vice captains would allow one of them to be with each match during the team sessions, with another that Love described as a ”floater.” Last year at Gleneagles, European captain Paul McGinley had one of his assistants with the players who sat out some of the team sessions.

None of this really matters as Forbes says Tiger is worth $700 million and narrowly made the magazines’ 40 Richest Entrepreneurs Under 40 list. 

Stevie's Still Trying To Explain Away The Slave Reference

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Looper Steve Williams took time away from his New Zealand book tour to email Steve DiMeglio of USA Today an even more elaborate explanation for his use of the slave word in reference to Tiger.

I'm not really sure this was necessary, but it's enjoyable imagining the behind-the-scenes effort to put this fire out. Take it away lawyers, I mean, Stevie:

“In this part of the world where slavery has never existed people use slave as a description of their service or work every day,” Williams wrote. “We use the word loosely down under. After reviewing the book several times before it was published it never crossed my mind to change the word. It merely was a description of how I felt about something and in no way in the context it was used does it suggest I was treated like a slave.”

Stevie Williams, Caddies Gets Support For Sharing Their Stories

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The early voting must have reflected the outlier counties, because after a strong "Never" presence in early balloting, a majority of you supported looper Steve Williams for writing a memoir.

The final tally: 29% said any time is a good time for a caddie to pen a memoir, 40% said it was kosher as long as the book arrived some time after a player has retired, and 31% said a caddie should never put their stories in book form.

The golf.com weekly Confidential kicked around this topic, which is admittedly an inside-the-ropes issue, But it's one I sense won't go away in the modern media age where players are less forthcoming about behind-the-the-scenes stories we want to hear about key moments in golf history.

There were great answers from all of the golf.com gang, but here's a sampling...

VAN SICKLE: There ought to be a statute of limitations on the caddie cone of silence at some point, although there are plenty of caddies who would go to the grave before they spilled any dirt about their bosses. In the case of Tiger, one of the two most important figures in modern golf, stories about him carry historic significance since Tiger is closed off from the public behind circled wagons. So Williams, like Hank Haney, provided historical clarity to something that mattered. But I'm sure a lot of caddies and players will believe that Williams broke the code.

PASSOV: In today's tell-all climate, are there any confidentiality codes to be respected anymore? If you still harbor old school values, then yes, Williams' nasty jibes and ill-conceived recollections are out of bounds. I'm in favor of adding caddie-player to the list of Constitutionally protected conversations that apply to doctor-patient and lawyer-client.

BAMBERGER: There is no code. There's an individual's sense of right and wrong. Once you decide to write, the question becomes what to leave in and what to leave out. It wouldn't be my place to judge what Williams decided to include, but I will say that I never thought for a minute, He's gone too far.

Tiger Only Missed The Seven Hole Opening Of First U.S. Design

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One of the strangest things about Tiger's follow-up surgery to his follow-up back surgery was the willingness to miss the opening of his first U.S. course design.

Yet, reading Art Stricklin's account of the opening, I'm starting to understand why alleviating back pain took priority over what seemed like an important career moment. Why? Turns out this is only the opening of seven holes, not 18. That suggests a certain (not unprecedented) anxiety by the developer to generate publicity but also makes me understand why Tiger put his ailing back ahead of the opening.

From Stricklin's report:

“For this day to finally come is very exciting,” said Bryon Bell, President of Tiger Woods Design. “It’s really important for this course to finally be open, and the real payoff is to hear the members talking positively about it.”

Nearly 100 members were on the grounds at Bluejack, which had a seven-hole loop open for the initial play, with the full course expected be ready by early 2016.

Wake us when all 18 are open. Right Tiger

Two Polls: Can Caddies Ever Write Memoirs And How Many Majors Was Steve Williams Worth To Tiger Woods?

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On Monday's Morning Drive, we kicked around the new Steve Williams book which has resulted in the caddie taking a huge credibility hit (if social media is to be believed).  I'm more fascinated by what the book could do to his re-emerging role as Adam Scott caddie, which is utterly fascinating to watch in person if you're a golf fan, as he clearly raises the level of Scott's game (to the point I was sure after 54-holes that Scott would win The Open last year).

Doug Ferguson talked to Scott this week and he doesn't see the book as a distraction. We shall see.

That said, the comments here and elsewhere suggest strong objection to the Williams book. The combination of a slave reference, the surprise timing and the New Zealand e-book release approach suggests that the former luggage handler was working around a non-disclosure agreement of some kind. Williams now tells AAP he regrets the use of "slave" and isn't pleased with the publisher for pushing that as the first glimpse of the book.

It all does feel a bit unseemly, yet at the same time, as Jaime Diaz notes in his reading of the book, there are some fantastic golf nuggets.

Williams has vital stories related to the history of the game that should be shared for future generations who will marvel at the accomplishments of his most famous client. Like Hank Haney's book, the more sordid moments are forgotten because the golf stories are so incredible.

I've also heard bits and pieces suggesting that caddies are like lawyers, bound to protect client confidentiality by an unspoken code? Therefore, this leads to two very separate questions.

The first: Is there a good time for a caddie to write a memoir?

Is there a good time for a caddie to write a memoir?
 
pollcode.com free polls

The second question, prompted by a very interesting discussion on this week's By-The-Minute Golf Podcast featuring Lawrence Donegan, John Huggan and guest Robert Lusetich: how many majors was Steve Williams worth to Tiger? Yes, it's a number that can't be known, but I think a gut reaction poll result is still intriguing to get a better sense of how we all view the importance of this particular caddie who is widely considered one of the best at his profession. (For the record, I'm voting two.)

How many majors was Steve Williams worth to Tiger Woods?
 
pollcode.com free polls

Bamberger On Stevie's Book: "Trite, superficial and vindictive."

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Michael Bamberger admires Steve Williams after having worked with him on a story but after spending his Monday reading the looper's book about his caddying years, the golf.com writer comes away disappointed.

The full review is here.

Oh, and this was an interesting insight into why this may be an Amazon-only digital publication for most of the world:

He thought his best chance to evade the long arm of Mark Steinberg and American jurisprudence might be to get the book published in New Zealand, where he lives, and that’s what he did.

Hank: Tiger's Been Out 6 1/2 Of Last 9 Years

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Brentley Romine notes Hank Haney's Monday comments on Sirirus/XM about news of Tiger's latest "procedure" along with his reaction to Steve Williams publishing a tell-all book.

I thought this was especially interesting:

"My diagnosis is the fact that he’s missed so much time. ... You add up the knee injury, you add up the scandal, you add up everything you want to add up and it equals 6 1/2 years of the last nine years.

"You take a superior athlete – I don’t care what sport they are in – and you take them out of their sport for six out of nine years, and then you couple that to the fact that it is a 40-year-old professional athlete, so you are competing against a lot of great young players that just seemingly get better all the time, that aren’t scared of you because they’ve, frankly, a lot of them have never seen his greatness, at least they’ve never competed against it, and you think, ‘How can you get your game back?’ And especially when your game is in the state that Tiger’s was in last year, which was not good.”

Stevie Williams Book Excerpt: I Felt Like Tiger's "Slave"

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Break out the tissues because Stevie Williams is finally telling all about his days carrying Tiger's luggage (with help from journalist Michael Donaldson) and it's a tearjerker.

In the excerpt posted by New Zealand's stuff.co.nz, Williams explains how he knew nothing of Tiger's philandering and was kept in the dark during Tiger's rehab, except for an email from the boss. But he sets things up with the week in Melbourne when Tiger's affair with Rachel Uchitel was about to be revealed and the boss got out of town in a hurry.

But the joy of winning dissipated in the strangest fashion. No sooner had Tiger fulfilled his media obligations than he fled to the airport in a chopper, leaving me to head back to the hotel on my own. As I was driving, I got a text from Mark Steinberg which read, 'There is a story coming out tomorrow. Absolutely no truth to it. Don't speak to anybody.'

Steiny!

Williams goes on to explain all of the things he got off his chest about how he was treated during the scandal by Tiger, Steiny, Steiny's "lackeys" and had this to say about Tiger's most irritating traits.

One thing that really pissed me off was how he would flippantly toss a club in the general direction of the bag, expecting me to go over and pick it up. I felt uneasy about bending down to pick up his discarded club – it was like I was his slave.

Technically, I believe that is part of the job if the boss says so. Go on...

The other thing that disgusted me was his habit of spitting at the hole if he missed a putt. Tiger listened to what I had to say, the air was cleared and we got on with it – his goal was to be the best player in history and my goal was to keep working as best I could to help make that happen.

For a little while longer, anyway.

The book goes on sale Monday.

Tiger To Design Course In Nashville?

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With his golf game looking increasingly like it'll be on ice for the forseeable future, Tiger Woods at least has picked up another design job.

According to GolfNewsNet, the job comes from the same developers of Bluejack National, which opens this week without Tiger able to appear at the ribbon cutting due to this second back surgery in a little over a month.

Dallas-based Beacon Land Development is planning on a 1,200-acre development, located 30 miles south of Nashville, that would feature a Woods-designed golf course, according to the Nashville Business Journal. The community, as one might guess, will also feature a music venue.

Beacon Land Development is the firm which hired Woods to redesign Bluejack National.

Golf.com Q&A: Tiger's About To Open His Second Course

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Art Stricklin talks to Tiger Woods about his second original 18-hole design, Bluejack National, where of course it's playable for the average man and challenging for the elite player, etc...

But what is interesting: the extra amenity that every new course should build.

The entire development is focused on creating an atmosphere where the whole family can come together. We’ve taken this to heart in the design to create a course that will be enjoyable for all. The design has integrated a number of techniques to facilitate this – there is no rough, the fairways are generous, and the front of the greens are open and grassed with a greens grade quality grass to promote creative shot making. These qualities help to create a golf course where different levels of golfers can play at the same time for an overall enjoyable, fun experience. We’ve also created "The Playgrounds,” which is a 10-hole short course that is ideal for golfers of all ages and skill levels. The Playgrounds is going to be wonderful for families and entertaining friends, but I also see it as an ideal place to introduce new players to the game in a fun and relaxed setting.

Nick Faldo: Another Tiger Major Win Unlikely

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While the sentiment is probably accurate, I'm still not ready to write off Tiger Woods and am a little surprised Nick Faldo is.

But he is!

Ray Slover with the quote from the six-time major winner Faldo.

Tiger Woods' future in professional golf has reached a crossroads with his latest back surgery. Count Nick Faldo among observers who doubt Woods can return to being dominant.

"It's really, really unlikely he could win another major," Faldo told OmniSport.

Woods hopes to return to PGA competition in 2016 following Sept. 16's surgery. He last played at mid-August's Wyndham Championship, showing flashes of gret play while leading early in the tournament.

A checkup after that tournament found Woods needed further surgery in the area doctors operated in March 2014.