Stricker Commits To Bay Hill...Therefore Tiger Must Be Playing!?

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One joy in the otherwise messy Tiger saga will arrive in the form of watching mainstream news media and sports blogs attempt to cover golf. For example, there's today's hilarious SportsByBrooks.com post suggesting that a Tiger appearance at Bay Hill is looking more likely after Steve Stricker committed to the even for the first time in years. They even went to the trouble to make a snazzy graphic to commemorate this great moment in utterly comical dot-connecting.
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“We are not involved in any discussions to add to his sponsorship portfolio at this time."

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Alex Miceli reports that Irish bookmaker PaddyPower.com has proposed a deal to Tiger Woods' camp that would top out at $75 million over five years. Agent Mark Steinberg says it's not an option.

“We are not involved in any discussions to add to his sponsorship portfolio at this time,’’ Steinberg said in an e-mail response to Golfweek.

Can we really call it a portfolio at this point?

 

"Frankly, it's the tour that should be admonishing Daly in public, since he dragged his laundry into the public square on Twitter."

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Steve Elling files an extensive look at John Daly's attempt to harrass Florida Times-Union's Garry Smits via Twitter and notes the absurdity of Daly going public with this but the tour still insisting it's a private matter, even though the entire Daly file has gone public!
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"If enough letters were written to the PGA Tour maybe it would bring enough attention to it and something could get done because it's vile. But the Americans just don't seem bothered about it."

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Dave Tindall looks at spitting in golf and wonders why Americans are much more tolerant of it than the British. Warning, yours truly provided my thoughts. And something tells me that you all will have plenty to say as well.

In the UK, there will be an appalled reaction from the anchor, even an apology to viewers. In the US, discussion will simply focus on the shot ahead or current state of the leaderboard.

So what's going on here? Does the UK have more prudish presenters?

Probably not but that isn't the point away. The general feeling on these shores is that spitting looks terrible when done by a golfer who is hardly generating loads of the stuff simply by walking.

In fact, it would be more unusual for our TV presenters NOT to mention it when it's done so brazenly.

The other general concensus is that it appears to be, shall we say, an American disease.

What baffles many UK golf fans is that it's not just the American young bucks (i.e. Dustin Johnson, whose phlegm levels were clearly set to high during his win at Pebble Beach) who are guilty but also some of the well-to-do veterans such as 'Gentleman' Jim Furyk.

Tiger Woods is a serial spitter too, prompting well-known cricket commentator Jack Bannister to tell Talksport viewers last week: "Tiger's speech lasted 13 minutes and I think it's the longest time I've seen him go without spitting."

"Is the tour afraid it would have to announce too many of these annoying indiscretions, that its players are not as pristine as advertised?"

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Bob Harig wonders what might have happened to John Daly had his fines, suspensions, warnings and other assorted disciplinary red flags been made public years ago. And he asks why the tour is so determined to keep disciplinary actions private.
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