The Scotsman has some intelligent questions they’d like to ask Tiger Woods upon his return to golf. None are salacious. All are pertinent, such as:
1. Do you expect open resentment from any of your fellow players? Do you feel like you have let them down in any way?
2. Do you feel you have damaged golf’s image over the last few months? You have already lost more than one corporate sponsorship and the PGA Tour is losing tournament sponsors. How much responsibility for that is down to you and your behaviour?
3. How hard will it be to not respond if/when you are heckled by a crowd? If/when that happens, will you ask for those responsible to be removed from the premises? Or do you feel that, having paid for their tickets, they have a right to openly express their opinions?
4. Will you play in the Open Championship at St Andrews in July? If not, why not?
5. Will you play in the Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor this year? If not, why not?
6. Your biggest edge over your competition has always been your mental strength under pressure. Has that been enhanced or diminished by what has happened over the last few months?
and my favorites:
22. Do you think, as your friend Steve Stricker recently pointed out, that coming back at the Masters is just another example of your apparently innate selfishness in that the authorities at Augusta would surely have preferred the tournament to be the focus of attention rather than your not-so-good self?
23. What decided the timing of your comeback announcement? Weren’t you tempted to keep stringing everyone along, just to underline the reality that you are the most powerful figure in golf?
To which I’d like to add one of my own:
Do you feel as though you have any obligation at all to the fans who made you a billionaire?
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If Tiger didn’t remember or recognize the obligation he had for his wife and kids, then I doubt if the fans ever crossed his mind or ever will cross his mind.
Good move by Tiger today granting interviews to Golf Channel and ESPN, both at 7:30pm. The story will die without the criticism of the last Tiger viewing in less than 24 hours. Nobody will have watched or cared with the tournament and the health care vote happening at the same time.
great questions!! 22 and 23 are my favorites. But i think we should leave the guy alone, he doesn’t owe anything to public.
great questions!! 22 and 23 are my favorites. But i think we should leave the guy alone, he doesn’t owe anything to public.
http://teetimes4charity.com
as much as i dislike the guy … and i do think a lot of these questions should be asked, there’s one point i dont totally agree with:
“another example of your apparently innate selfishness in that the authorities at Augusta would surely have preferred the tournament to be the focus of attention”
I think the “authorities” at Augusta are HAPPY that tiger is coming back for them. because lets face it, he was going to come back someday, and the day he did would mean huge audiences and lots of money regardless of the event. Augusta WANTS to cash in on this.
millions of people across the world will watch the masters this year for the first and maybe last time in their life … just to see what all the fuss was about.
I for one, will be up in the middle of the night to see if he shanks his drive on the first tee with the biggest audience in golf televsion history watching the sweat dripping from his forehead.
he’s a live media experiment … how much pressure can a single golfer handle while staring at a little white ball. I doubt it’s humanly possible to play in these conditions without drugs of some kind.
I wouldn’t be surprised if he wins, but my guess is that it will be a really tough tournament for him.
He doesn’t handle stress well – and given that he will be trying to stifle the swearing and club throwing, he won’t have his normal outlets of letting go of the anger.
Last year, I think, we actually saw Tiger under stress to perform in the majors. We thought he only cared about the 18 majors (now we know he was caring about quite a bit more) – but in golf it is those majors. As they went by one by one, Tiger playing brilliantly in most tournaments couldn’t get one major win – and a year slipped by on that record of Jacks.
That record is more important now than ever. The guy who doesn’t sweat a million dollar putt, because he makes that about every 3 days anyway – now HAS to get those majors or be defined forever by he one major failure. That is big stress.
There is also the little problem that his regular “release” probably hasn’t happened since the last porn star he was with. Or maybe it has, but his grip might be all messed up.