Tiger Back Hitting Balls? In The Dark? At Bear's Club?

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Enough questions?

Maybe Tiger's taking comeback advice from Seabiscuit trainer Tom Smith. Or maybe he just loves the smell of the Bear's Club in the dark. Or maybe he doesn't want to see where his ball goes. Or maybe the photo just isn't current.

Either way, the elusive "Secret Tour Pro" is said to have contributed this image to ClubUpGolf.com, where David McCreery explains the back story.

More shocking than the sight of a longtime professional golfer hitting range balls is the location: Jack Nicklaus's Bear's Club. Does this mean Medalist has fallen out of favor?

I won't believe any of it until Senior Jupiter Correspondent Tim Rosaforte sets the record straight.

Roundup And Reminder: Tiger At 40

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If Tiger Woods needs motivational material, he should look no further than the obituaries stories posted today for his 40th birthday.

Bleak!

Well, not entirely. But the annual ritual that is golf writers penning one more possible GWAA-award worthy column did take on more of a post-mortem vibe after Tiger's depressing press conference in the Bahamas and the realization that he's had three back surgeries in a year. Nonetheless, there were some creative and thought-provoking efforts. The ones I enjoyed reading with highlights, though as always, I'd encourage you to click the links...

Steve DiMeglio reflects on the state of Woods and while he felt the mood brightened later in the week, had to note the Woods press conference as a low point for fans of the golfing great.

When he did talk golf at the Hero World Challenge, the tournament which benefits his foundation, it sure sounded like his playing days are over. In an uncharacteristically revealing news conference, the man with 14 majors and 79 PGA Tour titles painted a bleak future with a steady stream of telling comments.

Downtrodden and in obvious pain, Woods said there was no timetable for his return to the game, no light at the end of his tunnel. He said everything beyond this “will be gravy.” He’s looking forward to the 2016 Ryder Cup as an assistant captain (if he doesn’t play his way on to the team).

The Guardian's Ewan Murray wonders if Tiger's ever recovered from his scandal.

What does seem a fair analysis is that the sudden realisation that he was not infallible, either on or off the course, had a profound impact on Woods. Not only was he susceptible to the temptations and weaknesses of so many others, Woods had to carry out a supposed rehabilitation process, by way of the most cringe-inducing public apology in history, in front of the watching world.

Woods single-handedly dragged golf into a fresh commercial stratosphere, a matter not lost on the leading players of 2015 as they pursue multimillion-pound prizes week after week. When Tiger’s father, the late Earl Woods, insisted to anyone who would listen and plenty who would not that his son was going to revolutionise the game, it was portrayed as fantasy. Earl was right. Woods emerged as a sporting phenomenon.

Eternal optimist James Corrigan sees light at the end of the tunnel for Woods if post-40 career resurgences are any indication.

If he can feel like a proper, fit 40-year-old then the history of golf shows that his career does not have to be over. Woods evidently still wants to compete, but has allowed himself the privilege of looking back. In 20 years, he redefined his sport, broke down some of its barriers and brought so much pleasure and awe to so many. It is intriguing to read what he judges to have been his finest achievements.

Christine Brennan sees Woods turning 40 going on 70.

Just as Tiger was in a hurry to win majors, it turns out he also was in a rush to reach middle age. Not by choice, of course, but it appears to have been inevitable, considering how he lived his life outside of golf, how he contorted his body to make a golf ball do what he wanted it to do (putting tremendous pressure on a back that eventually couldn’t take it anymore), how he drove himself so hard so fast that he has driven himself right out of the game he once dominated, at least for the time being.

Mercer Baggs has warm memories of the younger Woods around Orlando and at Golf Channel.

Tiger’s talked a lot over the last two decades. Did you know he has 1,364 transcripts on asapsports.com since 1996? That’s about 72 transcribed interviews a year during that span. Well more – over 200 more – than Phil Mickelson has given in a greater time frame. And that only counts when a stenographer was around.

Back in the day, the early professional days, Tiger regularly came into Golf Channel studios. He did interviews. He even viewed tape. We could peek into the window of the library screening room and watch him watch footage of past majors, gleaning knowledge on an unfamiliar venue. We were told not to bug him, and we always kept a respectful distance. Think he drove a Mercedes.

Tiger seemed relatable back then. Like, if you just introduced yourself that would lead to a chat.

Ryan Lavner on why Tiger still matters, talking to some interesting folks about what makes Woods different, and how he impacted college golf and motivated the kids in spite of the hat he wore on Golf Talk Live.

Rex Hoggard wonders where Tiger goes from here and includes this from Arnold Palmer:

But as Palmer eyed that fateful cover from 1969, the conversation turned to Woods and his impending birthday. The signature smile vanished, replaced by the slightest hint of sadness.

“I’m afraid some of my thoughts about Tiger and his life and his future might be different. There are things that would be unfair, to him, for me to say,” Palmer said. “He has an opportunity and a talent that is something he should value more than he does.”

Jason Sobel talks to Jack Nicklaus, who is more optimistic given his post-40 career.

"Forty was just a number for me," he explained. "It really didn't make any difference. The hardest birthday I had was 65, because I knew 65 was the year I wasn't going to play anymore."

If you're looking for a group of golfers to take pity on Woods for hitting the Big Four-Oh, don't look to those who have already passed that benchmark, because most will simply echo Nicklaus' sentiments about the occasion.

Golf Central’s Tiger at 40 special airs at 6 and 11 pm ET today. Here's a preview where Rich Lerner, Brandel Chamblee, Jaime Diaz and Tim Rosaforte talk about moments that stand out from Tiger's career.

Brandel: Tiger's The Greatest Golfer Of All Time

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Between Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods, Brandel Chamblee says Woods is the greatest player of all time. For more watch a special Golf Central on December 30, Woods' 40th birthday.

For those of you keeping score at home, Golf Channel's Brandel Chamblee concludes in a year-end special that Tiger Woods is the greatest golfer of all time, edging out that Nicklaus dude.

The clip, where Chamblee boils it down to the dominance of Woods against his peers. The special airs December 30th, and I know Tiger will love spending his birthday hearing from Brandel, Jaime Diaz and Tim Rosaforte!

Jack Still Thinks Tiger Has "Good Chance" Of Breaking Majors Record Because Saying Otherwise Would Cause A Migraine

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Paul Gittings of CNN talks to Jack Nicklaus after Tiger issued his fairly grim assessment at the Hero World Challenge and the 18-time major winner wisely holds the line on his past view.

Because to say otherwise would have spokesman Scott Tolley carrying Costco-sized bottles of Aspirin.

Woods, who is 40 at the end of December, gave a decidedly downbeat assessment of his future Tuesday, saying he had "nothing to look forward to." However, Nicklaus told CNN that his fellow American could still challenge in golf's top tournaments, including the four majors held each year -- of which he has won 14 since 1997.

"He has always been a very focused young man with a great work ethic, and is tremendously talented. To count him out of that (the majors record) would be foolish, he certainly has a very good chance of doing that," the 75-year-old said.

Video: Tiger Gets In His First Ryder Cup Reps

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Tiger's taking the transition slowly, driving the kids and their nanny around the 2015 Hero World Challenge. But note how he deftly swirves away from McCabe and DiMeglio, handling the shuttle-model like someone destined to someday have his own Captaincy cart. Granted, he's working with a vehicle sporting a top and he's not getting vital pick-up instructions through an ear piece as he will at a Cup event.

Nonetheless, the reps are a start and his potential as a cart driver look solid:

It's About Time: Tiger Opens Up To Lorne

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Lorne Rubenstein may be golf's Barbara Walters after pulling off two incredible feats: getting a sitdown with Tiger Woods (at Woods Jupiter) seemingly without Steiny in the corner issuing a wrap-it-up-sign. More impressively, he gets all sorts of insights. Granted, I don't believe a few of them, but hey, it makes for great reading.

As always, I urge you to read the entire piece for context at Time's website. There's lots of great stuff on his ex and his kids that will pull at your heartstrings and make his accountant sleep (a little) better.

But more fun is the golf and media talk.

First comment I don't fully believe (Lorne in italics):

Do you watch golf?

I can’t remember the last time I watched golf. I can’t stand it. Unless one of my friends has a chance to win, then I like watching it. I watched Jason [Day] win the PGA. But it was on mute. It’s always on mute and I have some other game on another TV.

 Always on mute!

How do you feel about the way the media have covered you?

There’s no accountability in what they say. And what they say, it’s like it’s gospel, there’s no source behind it. Nothing like, yeah, I talked to X number of players, I talked to this player, this player, this player. It’s none of that. It’s jus, some of the announcers, they don’t even go on the golf course. And they look at a pin sheet from the booth, but they’ve never surveyed the golf course, even though the television coverage doesn’t come on until the afternoon. You have all that time to go walk the golf course, to see some of the early rounds, see what guys are doing, how they’re hitting it, how’s the course playing, is the wind coming up? All those different things that you could do. The only one who does that is Finchy [golf broadcaster and former PGA Tour pro Ian Baker-Finch].

I'm sure he meant to include Notah.

How do you handle the speculation about you?

One, you don’t listen to it. And two, in today’s world, you don’t go online.

You don’t read what’s written about you? Was there a time when you did?

Not really.

Eh-em...let's not forget just above you vented about what people are saying but you have the TV on mute and you don't read stuff. Go on...

And that has served me well. It has served me well. Like my dad said when I was young, Were any of these guys there? If anybody has any kind of perspective on it, it would be the caddy. He saw the shot, he understood what the circumstances were. Other than that, there’s nobody else. So what’s their take on it? Who cares? They weren’t there. They didn’t see how difficult it was, what’s going on.

Lorne asked another media question later on..

How would you characterize your relationship with the media over the years?

I have a lot of good friends in the media.

Pausing for laughter to die down in Hero World Challenge media center.

Guys I’ve gone out to dinner with on countless occasions. With respect.

Countless! With respect!

There’s also a flip side of people that I really don’t care for. Hey, they made their career being negative and being outlandish. They’ve made a career out of it. But that’s their take. They’ve almost created a character, per se.

Impressive he knows that without reading or listening.

Alright, let's get to a very interesting observation about today's greatest young crop of talent in the history of world athletics. Sounds like, even though he's not listening or reading, Tiger is understandably perplexed by the surprising lack of consistency from otherwise very talented modern golfers.

What’s it like for you sitting and not being able to compete against the current crop?

I don’t think you’ve played against any of them at full strength.
I haven’t. It’s interesting to see how the game has changed. In today’s game you don’t have to make cuts. And I see these guys miss so many cuts when they’re that good. To go out five times in a year and miss cuts, I just don’t see that. It doesn’t compute, because I haven’t done it. I think I’ve missed only 15 cuts in my career.

And Lorne also gets an admission from Tiger about how bad his short game woes got and how they even impacted him merely practicing at home.

What about in chipping, and those little shots you’ve missed or chunked?

That was a total technique, shifting away from [former swing coach Sean Foley’s] motion to going back to our older motion. It was completely different, what Sean teaches and what I was trying to go back to are polar 180.

Can you describe what he was teaching and what you were trying to do?

What I can say is it was a tough time, being out in my backyard and not being able to make contact with the golf ball.

Finchem: Appearance Fees Can Go To A Player's Head?!

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Commissioner Timmy Fallon is fresh off his year-end employee summit where he actually put on a wig to look like Jimmy Fallon and delivered a, gulp, humor skit (thanks for the blog shoutout "Timmy"!).

So apparently emboldened by his effort last week in Ponte Vedra, the Commish was asked about the prospects of a bleak start to the 2016 as top stars chase appearance fees.

The question prompted a strange response. From Rex Hoggard's GolfChannel.com report:

“There isn't anything happening out there that would say the guidelines are starting to get pushed by players in typically unique situations,” Finchem said. “Certain places have a fair amount of appearance money and it can in turn go to the player's head.”

Good thing money never goes to Timmy's head!

Meanwhile the Commish was cracking jokes about the reaction to Tiger's press conference, reports Jim McCabe at Golfweek.com.

“I saw Tiger. It was good,” Finchem said. “It was fun. He seemed fine to me. I kidded him, because based on the media reports I read before I came down this morning, I thought he had actually died. I said, ‘Tiger, you’re supposed to be dead.”

Finchem chuckled, then confirmed, “he’s alive.”

Maybe if the narrative was not to Finchem's liking, he can always rely on the TigerWoods.com account which noted how the injury time is allowing Woods to improve "his already proficient skills in video games."

"Tuesday’s press conference was an unburdening that left Woods looking relieved"

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I was waiting for Jaime Diaz's assessment as the closest Tiger Woods watcher and he did not fail to deliver a smart take on a press conference that was noted and analyzed around the world.

Diaz writes:

He seemed to take pleasure in putting himself among them, an athlete who nobly gave his all until his body wore out. It’s a better narrative than the supremely gifted golfer on track to be the greatest ever who self-destructed.

The weight of that latter persona over the last six years has surely been immense. And on some level, Tuesday’s press conference was an unburdening that left Woods looking relieved. Or at least OK with taking a break.

Honestly, a break—a long one and a real one, not one filled with training and updates and range sessions—is the wisest, best thing at this point.

Draft: Tiger's Players Tribune Poem That Never Was

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As Brian Wacker noted at PGATour.com, the Tiger-Kobe parallels are pretty incredible. So it's little coincidence that they seem to be saying goodbye around the same time.

Even more eerie? That Tiger sat down to pen a poem for The Players Tribune, only to be beaten to the punch by felling contributing editor Kobe Bryant.

Mercifully, I was able to get a draft of Tiger's poem, which was oddly similar to Kobe's in structure. Here goes. The ultra-exclusive to GeoffShackelford.com...

Dear Golf
by Tiger Woods (almost)

From the Moment
I started rooting for my dad’s missed putts
And making imaginary
Putts to overtake Y.E. Yutz
And appeared on the Mike Douglas Show
I know one thing was real:

I fell in love with you as a way to make a lot of alimony and hush money.

A love so deep I gave you my all —
My leg, my knee, my shoulder
And eventually my back three times each time I visit Dr. Rich a whole lot older.

As a young boy
In love with the game
I never saw a time I could not beat Brandel with eyes closed left-handed
I only saw myself
Winning major after major

And so I practiced
Running like a Navy Seal
Hitting every loose ball on the chipping green
From Butch to Hank to Sean to Dr. Galea to Chris
I gave you my heart
Because it came with so much more cash

I played through sweat, a broken leg, even pro-ams
Not because drug testing was the following week
But because Jack’s record called me, and so did Phil Knight
I did everything for that record
Because that’s what you do, Steiny squeals
When someone makes you feel
As alive as bonus checks made me “feels”

You gave a six-year-old boy his Masters dream
And my accountants will always love you for it
But, I can’t love you obsessively for much longer
This season is about the big payment I have to make to Elin yonder
My heart can take the grinding
My mind can handle the missed cuts
But my wallet won’t let me say goodbye

And that’s ok
I’m almost ready to let golf go
I want you to know that now that January’s payment is coming
So we can savor the moments before I shuttle Kevin Kisner to Ryder Cup dining
The good and the bad
We have given each other
All that we have, almost.

And we both know, no matter how many times Tim Finchem calls
I’ll always be Pop’s kid
Making his putts
Chasing the Golden Bear
Taking dead aim
Saying It Is What It Is
Fist Pumping to the Skies
The Second best Golfer of all time

Love you always,
Eldrick “Tiger” “Tont” Woods