Tiger To Play Bay Hill; Hires Bush’s Press Agent

Update: Now, the AP is saying Tiger will be out until at least The Masters. I can’t imagine he’d go into a Major without a warmup, though. Too many chances to embarrass himself.

I keep asking myself: Why do I care? I don’t have an answer. It is perhaps like watching a train wreck.

Original Post

ESPN is reporting that Tiger will make his return to competitive golf at Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill Tournament. They seem pretty confident about the report.

If it’s true, then so much for the tearful whining at Tiger’s media event/mea culpa, where he said “I do plan to return to golf one day, I just don’t know when that day will be. I don’t rule out that it will be this year.” That, quite understandably, led people to believe that he was sincere and might sit out at least a major portion of the season to work on his family life.

But there apparently has been a miracle at the rehab clinic, for Tiger now is back practicing as though nothing has happened. As it turns out, he was out of rehab within days after he selfishly interrupted the tournament funded by former sponsor Accenture. His excuse for causing a distraction that Friday was that he had only a short window to make his confession before returning to the clinic. We know now that he played Tim Finchem, the PGA Tour, Accenture and the rest of the public for fools with that line.

Is ESPN correct in their short timeline for his return? If they are, then Tiger has played the public for fools again.

Perhaps not coincidentally, Golf Channel is reporting that Tiger has hired Ari Fleisher, Bush’s Press Secretary to handle his media problems.

It isn’t the fan’s business whether Tiger cheated on his wife, and I really don’t care about his personal perversions. To some extent, I felt misled by Tiger’s Jekyll and Hyde persona, but that was balanced with a great deal of amusement over the public’s (and my own) gullibility. But with his public pronouncement and setting of expectations about his return, Tiger made it the business of the Tour, of golf fans and of the general public. And if it turns out to be true, my own bemusement will turn to disgust. A Nike boycott just might be in order.