When I first heard that Tiger Woods was "seriously injured" in a car accident, I was pretty shocked. That would have been a big story. Tiger is the greatest golfer of his time, and probably the greatest ever. A serious injury could have ended his career, and that would have been big and bad news, not only for Tiger but for the golf world.
When it became clear that Woods was not seriously injured, and the story changed into a gossipy, speculative one about Tiger,his wife and other women, I began to lose interest. After all, rumours that a very rich, celebrity athlete might have engaged in extra marital affairs, leading to domestic turmoil is not shocking. We read about it every day.
What interests me more now is Tiger Woods' behaviour since the accident. Playing a cat and mouse game with the police who were simply trying to do their jobs was chicken poop behaviour. The police have better things to do than to be jerked around by Woods. If Tiger Woods did not want to be interviewed, which is apparently his legal right, he should have had the decency to come out and say it in the first place. Having the police come back three times over phoney baloney excuses is beneath a person of character.
And what is this with his refusal to show up at his own charity tournament, which he is hosting? Granted, he probably is in no mental condition to play 4 rounds of golf, although with Woods, his victory at the U.S. Open with a bum leg shows that he probably could have played and won this tournament, even with his sore ribs, scratched face, and shattered pride. But not to show up at all?
The Chevron World Challenge is a major fund raising event to support the Tiger Woods Foundation. Woods' physical presence at the tournament even if he is not playing would demonstrate its importance to him and give it a big boost. Not showing up because he is embarrassed by his private conduct shows a lack of character and courage. Woods cannot hide forever. He will have to face the music soon enough. Get it over with, Tiger! Come out and support your own tournament. Be a man.
I hope Tiger comes out to the Chevron World Challenge. Let's see if he does.
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Lewis,
ReplyDeleteAssuming that the Tiger Woods rumours are true, I am shocked and saddened.
I have become accustomed to hearing the worst about celebrity athletes. But I had enjoyed thinking that golf emained more civil. Perhaps it's the nature of the game, with no body contact and no blind team loyalty. which, unlike football, hockey and boxing,Perhaps it's the written rules and longstanding subculture that emphasize decent, honest conduct. Whatever, the explanation, golf has seen little of the scandals of violence, performance-enhancing drugs, gambling, on-court trash talking, off-court rowdiness, contract reneging, and sexual indiscretion that have tainted other sports.
And Tiger has been the epicentre of golf for more than a decade. As an unabashed fan, watching him on televison, I have known that I was watching a great athlete, making an astounding variety of great shots, compiling one of the great careers of all time.
Beyond the obvious physical dimension, Tiger's psychology -- a key aspect of golf -- has been fascinating. He somehow combined absolute concentration with naked emotionality. Never distracted but always trasparent. He was Superman and Everyman -- the total sports hero.
Off the course, while Tiger has always been distant and inaccessible, this has not hurt his public image, perhaps because it enhances his image as a conusmmate professional, committed to his game -- and to his family. A champion of historical proportions, and an honourable man who won our adulation and deserved our respect -- or so we thought.
Alas, Tiger now is just one more celebrity jerk.
We all make mistakes; that's part of being human. But prolonged affairs are more than transitory mistakes; they were considered, calculated, scheming deceptions whose inevitable discovery has shamed Tiger, humiliated his wife, and will be part of the legacy he leaves to his children. The dishonour arises not from his sexual conduct per se but from Tiger's dishonesty toward the wife and family whom he has claimed to be so important.
Obviously, the public embarrassment is an enormous punishment that should satisfy even Tiger's most moralistic detractors. He and his family have my best wishes for surviving this catastrophe. But he's lost my respect, he's lost me as a fan, and I'm saddened to have lost my enjoyment of one more professional sport.
Ron Chalmers
I love the comment from Jesper Parnevik, the Swedish golfer who set Tiger Woods up with his wife and who apparently is quite a hilarious character (as a non-fan of golf, I don't know anything about him). His statement:
ReplyDelete"I really feel sorry for Elin -- since me and my wife were at fault for hooking her up with him. We probably thought he was a better guy than he is. I would probably need to apologize to her and hope she uses a driver next time instead of the 3-iron. It's a private thing, of course, but when you are the guy he is, the world's best athlete, you should think more before you do stuff ... And maybe not just do it, like Nike says."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/abraham/detail??blogid=95&entry_id=52806
Tiger who?
ReplyDeleteMy gracious, professor Klar, whatever are we to make of the Edmonton Indy race fiasco, the continued stonewalling of information about Afghanistan detainees, the rise of the Wildrose party, the RCMP commissioner's silence on the tasering incident, and the Copenhagen conference? Please, tell me what to think!
Sedgewick