Forget the brief, exhilarating moment at the Masters when Tiger Woods looked invincible again. That machine of golf greatness, who fell apart after blowing up his marriage, is gone for good, writes Buzz Bissinger.
Category: Tiger Woods
Serving up top turkeys in sports in time for Thanksgiving
Posted by – November 23, 2010
To help celebrate Thanksgiving, a day that has evolved into food and football and more food and football, Real Clear Sports offers its 2010 Top Turkeys in Sports.
If you haven’t gotten your fill of the Tiger Woods story …
Posted by – August 25, 2010
Some excerpts from Elin Nordegren’s interview with People magazine, courtesy of the Associated Press. Nordegren’s divorce from Tiger Woods was finalized Monday. Just a hunch, but People will probably sell a few extra copies of this edition.
On Woods’ infidelities:
“I’m so embarrassed that I never suspected — not a one. For the past 3 1/2 years, when all this was going on, I was home a lot more with pregnancies, then the children and my school.”
On her feelings when she first learned Woods was unfaithful:
“Absolute shock and disbelief. I felt stupid as more things were revealed — how could I not have known anything? The word betrayal isn’t strong enough.”
On the last nine months, since Woods’ infidelities were revealed:
“I’ve been through hell. It’s hard to think you have this life, and then all of a sudden — was it a lie? You’re struggling because it wasn’t real. But I survived. It was hard, but it didn’t kill me.”
On speculation she hit Woods the night of his accident that triggered the revelations about his behavior:
“There was never any violence inside or outside our home. The speculation that I would have used a golf club to hit him is just truly ridiculous. Tiger left the house that night, and after a while when he didn’t return, I got worried and decided to go look for him. That’s when I found him in the car. I did everything I could to get him out of the locked car.”
On why she is speaking out now:
“Before today I haven’t felt ready, but now I see it as a step toward putting it behind me. … I have no intention of addressing these matters again after this interview.”
On whether she’ll be able to forgive Woods:
“Forgiveness takes time. It is the last step of the grieving process. I am going to be completely honest and tell you that I am working on it. I know I will have to come to forgiveness and acceptance of what has happened for me to go on and be happy in the future. And I know I will get there eventually.”
No shortage of stories from first day of the Masters
Posted by – April 9, 2010
So much for Tiger Woods being rusty. Sure, he left a few putts out there Thursday in the first round of the Masters, but he still shot a 4-under 68 despite being under the glare of TV cameras and a normally tame gallery at Augusta National.
Otherwise, it was turn-back-the-clock day. Fred Couples, the 1992 champion (pictured at right with then-wife Deborah) and now a full-time member of the Champions Tour at age 50, became the oldest man to ever lead the Masters. That honor would have gone to 60-year-old Tom Watson, who finished at 5-under earlier in the day, had it not been for Couples.
Couples is one of the nicest guys in professional golf, and he has a swing duffers everywhere would kill for. There will be plenty of sentiment for him to hang around the top of the leaderboard until Sunday afternoon, just as many people were pulling for Kenny Perry a year ago.
And you can bet CBS is hoping Woods will be in contention. His return after five months of personal turmoil and humiliation is THE storyline of the tournament, and winning his fifth green jacket would go a long way toward mending his tattered image.
New Nike ad puts Tiger Woods in different light
Posted by – April 8, 2010
Richard Sandomir of the New York Times writes the new Nike ad featuring Tiger Woods, with a voiceover we’re led to believe is his late father, Earl Woods, has more questions than answers.
No other week in sports compares to this one
Posted by – April 5, 2010
This may be the best single week in sports.
Although the Red Sox and Yankees played the first game of the season Sunday night (and it was relaxing to watch a meaningful game for the first time since November), most Major League baseball teams begin their seasons today. As a friend once told me in comparing MLB to the National Football League, football is an event, while baseball is a companion.
Butler will try to cap its improbable run tonight when it plays Duke for the NCAA basketball championship. Can’t say it has been the most anticipated Final Four of all time, maybe because there really were no great teams this season, but I suspect most of America will be rooting for a mid-major to walk away from the biggest prize of all. And I say that despite having the utmost respect for Coach K.
Finally, the Masters tees off Thursday. The first major is the best of them all, in part because it is played at the same venue every year. There will be the Tiger Woods sideshow, but this is one tournament that can hold an audience no matter who is atop the leaderboard. There’s just something about Augusta National and the history of the tournament. Some of the best weeks of my professional life were spent there. I think Steve Looten will agree.
It’s time for three of the best weeks in sports – four counting Tiger
Posted by – March 17, 2010
* With all due respect to Winthrop and Arkansas-Pine Bluff, the NCAA basketball tournament really begins at 11 a.m. Thursday. On the eve of three of the best weeks in sports, Real Clear Sports offers this list of the top 10 storylines for this year’s tournament. And with Tiger Woods announcing he will play in the Masters April 8-11, it will be four great weeks in a row.
• Give my good friend and golf magazine supplier UMR a gold star for suggesting the following annoying phrases be banished from talk about next year’s NCAA basketball tournament:
“body of work”
“eye test”
“bracketology”
“peel the onion”
While we’re at it, can we tone down Joe Lunardi? I’m sure he’s a fine fellow, but he’s Mel Kiper on steroids. I’m hearing “first three teams in” and “first three teams out” in my sleep. And Mississippi State seems to be on both lists.
* Columnist Bryan Burwell predicts the NCAA will expand the field to a bloated 96 teams for one reason — money. Basketball pays the freight for the NCAA, and it can opt out of its deal with CBS and go on the open market. More teams could mean more money, but it’s not going to improve the quality. Stat of the day: Since 1985, the 14h, 15th and 16th seeds have won 19 of 300 games played. And the teams that would be added to a larger field would be worse.
Friday feeding frenzy: It’s gonna be all Tiger, all day
Posted by – February 19, 2010
How big is the Tiger Woods press conference today? ESPN is going to be all Tiger, all day, on all platforms. You can follow the press conference live below.
Meanwhile, Mike Bianchi, a sports columnist with the Orlando Sentinel, says he doesn’t want to hear an apology from Woods today. All he wants to hear is when Tiger will be playing again.
I want to hear Tiger Woods talking about his birdies and bogeys; not about his babes and bimbos. If you want to see him fall on a bloody sword, fine. I’d rather see him lift up a Claret Jug. … the public apology given by Tiger’s speechwriter today is completely and utterly meaningless. America is not going to fall for any more white lies or red herrings. But a green jacket? Now that’s a discourse of a different color.
Columnist Jason Whitlock, on the other hand, in an open letter, urges Woods to retire. Whitlock says having a life is more important than dealing with today’s media frenzy and breaking Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 major titles.
That’s not advice. I’m not even sure it’s what I would do if I was in your position. It’s simply what I feel 24 hours before your news conference announcement. Take your golf clubs, go home and raise your kids. Don’t let for-profit “journalists” turn you into Michael Jackson. Walk away.
Woods once again running the show as he re-enters public eye
Posted by – February 18, 2010
Tiger Woods plans to speak publicly Friday for the first time since his personal life began to unravel on Nov. 27. But his “press conference” will consist only of friends, a select number of media representatives and one pool camera. No questions will be entertained.
As Dan Wetzel of Yahoo! Sports writes, it is vintage Woods, a perfectly scripted event with him squarely in charge. And Wetzel doesn’t have a problem with that, considering it’s another example of how Woods has lived his life.
Writes Wetzel:
Tiger owes a public apology to his wife, children, mother and in-laws because he has publicly humiliated them. Other than that, I don’t think he owes anyone else a whole lot – other than an admission to the public that his well-crafted image was a complete lie. Although I think we all get that by now.
There’s no need to detail every transgression. No need to discuss girlfriend No. 1, cocktail waitress No. 6, or Perkins breakfast value meal No. 3. Once the Florida Highway Patrol closed its investigation on the November car wreck, that may or may not have included Woods being chased by a golf club-swinging wife, the incident no longer was a public issue.
This is no apologist column for Woods. I’m just a realist. He’s a lousy guy. It’s just he was a lousy guy before, and he may be one in the future, also. He often treated people poorly. He often acted like a boor. Fans didn’t want to hear it because they enjoyed how he played golf. It was fair enough; he wasn’t running for president. We liked him because he won. When you’re choosing which movie to see, you’ll almost always favor the superior actor without regard to his marital fidelity.
You can bet the folks at Augusta National are glad this is playing out now. They desperately want Woods to play in the Masters in April, but they certainly didn’t want him issuing any mea culpas on Bobby Jones’ course.
Want to know how nutty this is getting? Aside from the seven satellite trucks parked a mile away? The Associated Press reports British bookmaker William Hill has set odds at 4-to-7 that Woods wife, Elin, will be with him. It offers 8-to-1 odds that Woods will announce he is getting a divorce, 12-to-1 odds that his wife is pregnant and 100-to-1 odds that he is retiring.
The PGA Tour returns to TV, but will anyone be watching?
Posted by – January 28, 2010
The first network broadcast of the PGA Tour season will beam into living rooms this weekend from Torrey Pines in San Diego, the site of the 2008 U.S. Open playoff duel between Tiger Woods and Rocco Mediate.
Golf is a perfect companion on cold winter weekends, but with no Tiger on the tour, Jeff Neuman of Real Clear Sports offers his suggestions on who we should root for.
