Nike May Own Tiger's Name & Other Greater Jupiter Dining Notes

Michael Bamberger, filing for golf.com, tracks Tiger's movements around the greater Palm Beach area and suggests that the world's most famous golfer is pretty into the creation of his new restaurant.

So much so, he brought a special guest by to scout the locale...

“Tiger was behind the wheel,” a reporter told Mastroianni on Thursday. The surname is pronounced MAS-tree-on-eee. “Who do you think was riding shotgun?”

“Lindsey?” the developer said, referencing the skier Lindsey Vonn.

“Michael Jordan,” he was told.

“Yeah,” Mastroianni said, registering no surprise. He’s a mid-80s shooter at Old Palm and Trump Jupiter, two South Florida courses known to Jordan. “They’re friends.”

And they're probably hitting each other up to support restaurants and new golf courses. There's a duel to protect the wallet no one should interfere with.

Mastroianni said he has worked directly with Woods, with the CFO of ETW, Chris Hubman, and not at all with Mark Steinberg, Woods’s agent.

Poor guy! Who is going to lie to him?

He said Woods is spending $1,000 per square foot in the construction of the restaurant, about 30 percent more than most upscale restaurant owners spend. “He’s got marble from Italy, granite from another country,” he said. Mastroianni said he expected cocktails to cost about $15 each.

If I were your accountant I'd have to strongly advise against it. If I were your accountant.

He’s been impressed by Woods’s business acumen. “He’s very diligent,” Mastroianni said. “Everything he says, he thinks about it first.”

The developer was asked about the cumbersome name, The Woods Jupiter: Sports and Dining Club. He referred to it as Woods Jupiter and expects that’s what most people will call it. Mastroianni said he was told that Nike “has the rights to the name Tiger Woods,” which prevented Woods using his first and last name in the restaurant name. (Nike and Greenspan, Woods's spokesman, did not immediately respond to inquiries about the rights to use Woods's name in commercial ventures.)

They own his name?!

Golf Gods Alive & Well Files: DJ Wins WGC At Doral

I believe I mentioned that J.B. Holmes ripping the course he was leading on is just the kind of thing our friends upstairs notice (a.k.a. the Golf Gods). And Bubba Watson griping about how he can't play a course after a 69? Noted upstairs.

Oh sure, Dustin Johnson didn't three putt all week (!!!) on frighteningly fast greens and you say that's why he won. But we know better. The Golf Gods have always been architecture buffs. When players complain about the course they are shooting low scores on, they place a few calls!

Doug Ferguson on Dustin Johnson's first win after his six month vacation from golf to regroup.

Bob Harig of ESPN.com on how this sets up Johnson as one of the Masters favorites. Until the questions turn to DJ's leave.

"I would drink and drink to access,'' Johnson said in the ESPN interview. "The change I made is I just don't do that anymore. I definitely have given up hard liquor 'cause that was the thing that I went to ... it's been a big change.''

On Sunday, Johnson was asked point blank if ever flunked a tour drug test. "No. Thanks,'' he said.

Another question he dealt with why he hasn't been more forthcoming about his issues.

"It's personal and frankly ... it's not really anybody's business.''

Fair? Maybe. But still curious, especially when a top talent is gone for so long. If he entered some sort of rehab program, it wouldn't seem to have been for very long.

It would be easy to say Holmes and Watson handed this one to Johnson, but as Jim McCabe notes, DJ on this with his play.

Especially if you could play your weekend 36 in 69-69, hitting 26 greens and offsetting just three bogeys with a hole-in-one and seven birdies – which is exactly what Johnson did.

Linda Robertson of the Miami Herald says whatever criticisms that the fans-dressed-as-empty-seats vibe all changed with Sunday's finish. I'm not sure my remote would agree, since it was switching over to the more interesting Spotlight coverage on Golf Channel or spring training, but at least she gives the Commish reason to remember he's not a star in everyone's eyes.

A climax packed with high-stakes golf shots on every hole injected intensity into the atmosphere at Trump National Doral. The vibe had been a little too mellow over the first three days, maybe because too many fans were chilling inside the various cocktail lounges and corporate suites arrayed around the grounds, or maybe because Holmes built a cushy lead, starting with his incredible opening-round 62, which prompted Donald Trump to ask for tougher pin placements on his revamped course.

Even PGA Tour commissioner Tom Finchem acknowledged he’d heard the tournament described as “flat” and lacking “buzz.”

He heard it, but I'm sure it didn't sink in for Tom.

The highlights from PGA Tour Entertainment:

Update on 2015-03-09 17:56 by Geoff

**Brian Wacker on Johnson's new dedication to life and fitness.

Johnson changed his diet and his habits, losing 12 pounds in the process. "I was getting a little chunky," he joked.

Diovisalvi said Johnson is “beyond committed”in terms of his fitness regimen. He’s up early. He works out before his round when his tee time allows it. As Diovisalvi puts it, he is “trying to really stick to what it takes.”

When Johnson was asked Sunday what needed more work in his six months away from golf, his personal life or his game, his reply was simple.

"Both.”

Kid Rock On Joining The Bear's Club, Tiger's Reclusiveness

The February 28, 2015 Rolling Stone features a Patrick Doyle-authored story on Bob Ritchie, aka Kid Rock, who has joined the Bear's Club and hit golf balls at Tiger's house.

Doyle writes:

Lately, Rock has been getting into golf. He was just accepted into Jack Nicklaus' private Bear's Club, near Palm Beach, Florida. "If you told me five years ago I'd have to take my hat off and tuck my shirt in, I'd have slapped the taste out of your mouth," Rock says. "Now I'm like, 'Look at me, hair slicked back, shirt tucked in.' I'm like, 'What a fag!' "

What a lovely sentiment. I think Jack needs to call Bob into his office, too.

As for Tiger, his comments were of interest. Really.

Rock recently got some pointers at the range from Nicklaus himself, and he hit balls at Tiger Woods' nearby house. "Nice kid," Rock says. "A little bit of an Eminem and Axl Rose syndrome. Very reclusive, literal, and sometimes you feel a little bad for them. Sometimes they think the world's against them. You gotta loosen up, man! People are gonna talk shit. You just gotta enjoy it!"

Continuing the music metaphors, the March 3rd, 2015 issue of Rolling Stone featured this Michael Weinreb piece suggesting Tiger has moved into Michael Jackson territory.

He is, as Sports on Earth's Will Leitch wrote, firmly ensconced in his "freak show" phase; he now appears so far removed from normal life that it's getting more difficult to imagine he'll ever be an object of mainstream affection any time soon. In, say, 2002, it would have seemed utterly absurd to compare Tiger Woods and Mike Tyson; now it feels like an increasingly apt metaphor. The fact that he felt the need to publicly attack a biting satirical column by a legendary sportswriter best known for biting satire may have been the least self-aware and most humorless screed by an athlete who was never exactly known for his edginess.