"The Temptation Of Tiger Woods"

I've read the Vanity Fair story on Tiger's mistresses and it's safe to say that it doesn't cover much new ground if you've read the tabloid reports and believed them. However, Mark Seal pieces together various elements of the Tiger saga in a way that is quite powerful and ultimately very unflattering to Woods, Earl Woods, IMG, Mark Steinberg, Bryon Bell and the National Enquirer (which is hilariously still denying the Men's Fitness quid pro quo deal).

What's interesting is that most of the information in the article has been available for some time, yet news reports only went with the story after Vanity Fair put it all together. And the thinnest component of the story was what got picked up most: the role of Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley in encouraging Tiger to gamble and fool around.

But the story is only impactful because of Woods' poor choice to lie in his 5-minute interview with Kelly Tilghman about his enablers. Had he just answered somewhat honestly (as I noted recently), the Vanity Fair story would not haunt him or those around him. But since he chose to make the silly claim that he had no enablers, the story has cachet and will greatly impact the credibility of Steinberg in particular. 

What does this have to do with golf?

Steinberg's few comments have been of the "media is getting it wrong" variety and he has denied the few reports he's chosen to acknowledge. When it came to Dr. Galea, he strongly denied that IMG or he made the connection between Woods and Dr. HGH. But at this point, and in large part because of Tiger's untruthful statements to Tilghman, it's hard to believe anything the Woods camp puts out.

Here is a Today Show feature on the story, with an interview of Seal:

"One look at Augusta in 3-D will make high-definition seem obsolete."

Richard Sandomir got a sneak peek at the Masters in 3-D and appears to have been blown away by what he saw.

If the test footage shot recently at the Augusta National Golf Club is an authentic gauge, the Masters in 3-D will look terrific. Only a few thousand early adopters with 3-D television sets will be able to see the tournament in this manner, but they will be fortunate: one look at Augusta in 3-D will make high-definition seem obsolete.

This had to make Tim Finchem's morning...

Golf may be perfect for 3-D. It is a slow sport, one player in action at a time. Cameras need not pan quickly and can be closer than they are in, say, football or baseball.

Third Master Question: How Is Tiger Going To Play?

We're about to be hit with a bunch of Masters preview stories and a boatload of Tiger talk. So as the bookies make him the favorite, it'd be nice to think ahead a bit and make some completely useless predictions about Tiger's play based on little fact or inside knowledge about his game. (That said, I find it astonishing he's been installed as the favorite when he hasn't teed it up since November and by most honest accounts is said to be understandably rusty.)

The bookies are also offering some bizarre bets.

“We’ve got a whole host (of markets), the funnies around to the serious,” Ladbrokes spokesman Nick Weinberg said. “Obviously, (we’ve) priced him up to win the major, to miss the cut, to have a fight with a fan on the first tee, to kiss an anonymous blonde – which doesn’t include (John) Daly, we point out.”

Despite any off-the-course problems, both Adams and Weinberg said that bettors will stand behind Woods with their money.

“He could have 10 years off the sport and there’d be punters backing him,” Weinberg said. “Even a 50 percent-75 percent Tiger Woods should have more than enough to see off the field.”

But I'm curious how you all would wager (if you were to succumb to a life of sin). Personally, I'd have to think about a bet where he's missing the cut, though Tiger knows the course so well he could probably get around there in 144 with one arm tied behind his back.

Your predictions please.

"The silliest question anyone can ask is, 'How has this changed you, Tiger?'"

John Feinstein says Tiger doesn't need to answer any more questions about Nov. 27th, the answers can be seen in his post-accident behavior.

Look, we all have a pretty good idea what happened Thanksgiving night: His wife confronted him in some way about his serial extra-marital escapades, and he fled the house in a T-shirt, shorts and bare feet clearly in no condition to drive a car. Do we really need to know more than that? No.

The silliest question anyone can ask is, "How has this changed you, Tiger?"

I'll answer that one: Not at all.

He's still an absolute control freak as demonstrated by his first two public appearances since the infamous accident. The Feb. 19 Tiger-and-pony show would have been fall-down funny if it hadn't been so excruciating. It looked like a "Saturday Night Live" skit, Tiger pausing dramatically to check his script and then saying, "I am so sorry," while those in the invited audience -- including his poor mother -- looked as if jumping off a building would be a welcome relief from sitting in that room.