Tiger Woods PGA Tour Groupies

Tiger Woods Golf Course Bankruptcy

2012-03-04T18:22:00.001-08:00

Original Article
http://blogs.wsj.com/developments/2012/02/29/tiger-woods-designed-golf-course-stuck-in-bankruptcy-filing/

Golfer Tiger Woods could have another headache on his hands: His first U.S. golf course remains in trouble.

The course, which was to be located at the Cliffs at High Carolina development near Asheville, N.C., grabbed headlines when it was announced in 2007. But its development stalled along with the economy and it was included in a bankruptcy filing by the Cliffs Club & Hospitality Group Inc. late Tuesday.

Like many similar developments, the Cliffs’s empire – eight communities spanning 20,000 acres across North and South Carolina — saw strong sales during the housing boom, but that changed after the housing and financial markets crashed. Now, the empire is clearly in trouble.

As we report today, Cliffs Club lists liabilities between $100 million and $500 million. (See the major creditors.) Many creditors are club members who together lent the Cliffs millions of dollars in a failed attempt to turn things around.

Steve and Penny Carlile, Cliffs land owners who are also creditors, have asked the court to take over the company for an unspecified amount of money. They plan to finish amenities and a separate golf course, which they hope will help attract new members and land buyers.

The future of the Tiger Woods golf course, however, remains up for discussion, Steve Carlile says. (Cliffs’s founder Jim Anthony had vowed to stand by Mr. Woods, but Mr. Anthony won’t likely be in control of the new company, according to people familiar with the matter. Mr. Anthony could not be reached for comment this week.)

Representatives for Tiger Woods Design couldn’t be reached for comment. It’s still touting the course that was expected to be completed this year on its website.

To be sure, no one blames Mr. Woods’s tabloid-grabbing headlines for the Cliffs’s woes. “Regardless of the Tiger Woods scandal, when the economy crashed, lost lot sales would have happened anyway,” says Cliffs resident Nancy Thompson

Hank Haney To Publish Book on Tiger Woods

2012-01-08T18:44:00.001-08:00

From the golf channel.com

KAPALUA, Hawaii – Hank Haney has written a book about the six years he spent as Tiger Woods’ swing coach, a volatile time in which Woods went from winning nearly half of his tournaments to a scandal that derailed his pursuit of golf history.

Without giving away any details until “The Big Miss” goes on sale in the spring, Haney believes the book will be hard to put down.

“I get asked all the time about Tiger, what it was like to work with him,” Haney said in a telephone interview. “I felt like I had a front row seat to golf history. It just kind of chronicles a little bit of what I went through, what I dealt with, how I coached and the observations I made.

“I think there’s a lot of things that people are going to find interesting.”

Haney began working with Woods at the Bay Hill Invitational in 2004. They parted ways a month after the 2010 Masters, where Woods made his return to golf after being exposed for multiple extramarital affairs that shattered his image and led to divorce.

Most of the people involved with Woods have signed a nondisclosure agreement. Haney said he signed no such thing – “I didn’t even have a contract,” he said – although he said the book was not intended to “take jabs at anyone.”

Mark Steinberg, Woods’ agent at Excel Sports Management, said he was aware of the book but that Woods had not seen any excerpts and would have no comment.

Haney was asked whether he thought Woods will like it.

“If he reads it, I don’t think it will be a book that bothers him. It’s hard to say,” Haney said. “I think anybody who reads it will think it’s interesting, very fair and honest, and that’s what I wanted to do. I was on that job for six years. There were 110 days a year I was with him. I stayed at his house for close to 30 days a year. You make a lot of observations.”

The book will be released by Crown Archetype, part of the Crown Publishing Group at Random House, Inc. It is scheduled to be published March 27 – one week before the Masters – and issued simultaneously in print and digital formats in the United States and Canada.

Haney wrote the book with Jaime Diaz of Golf Digest, whose coverage dates to when Woods was a teenager and Diaz played golf with Woods and his father. Diaz also spoke at the memorial service for Earl Woods.

He said the title was collaboration.

“It has multiple meanings,” Haney said. “`The Big Miss’ was golf jargon. The big miss of a drive, obviously that’s been part of his game. The big miss of an opportunity? That’s really where we got the idea. It was a missed opportunity that Tiger and I had that we experienced working together. That all comes out in the book.”

Haney was the second of three coaches Woods has used as a professional, though he was part of the most interesting times. He caught more criticism than any coach, even though Woods won 29 times and six majors during their six years.

“I think the period of time that I dealt with Tiger was much more unique, in terms of having the scandal, Torrey Pines with the broken leg at the U.S. Open, other things, too,” Haney said. “It was a totally different time.”

Woods went nine months without winning after going to work with Haney. Starting with the Dunlop Phoenix in Japan at the end of the 2005 season, however, Woods won 46 percent of the tournaments he played worldwide.

During their six years together, Woods got married and had two children. His father died in May 2006, and Woods missed the cut in a major for the first time at the U.S. Open a month later.

As for the serial adultery, Haney said he didn’t know about it and doesn’t delve into that chapter of Woods’ life in the book, except for his return from the scandal after going nearly five months without competition.

“It’s something you can’t NOT talk about it,” Haney said. “My last tournament was the Masters, and that was his first tournament back from the scandal. I didn’t know anything about the girls. That’s not something I could specifically comment on. Everything I comment on is what I observed and the facts I knew. I didn’t know anything about that.

“But I did know about how he interacted with me about that, what my observations were and other areas in terms of how I dealt with and the aftermath.”

The most compelling win under Haney came at the 2008 U.S. Open, when Woods learned he had a double stress fracture in his left leg, along with shredded ligaments in his left knee. Despite not competing for two months, he won in a playoff over Rocco Mediate.

Haney recalled doctors telling Woods before that U.S. Open that he needed to spend three weeks on crutches, followed by three weeks of rest. Haney says Woods told the doctors, “I’m playing the U.S. Open, and I’m going to win.”

Pressed for examples of his observations in the book, Haney declined, not even to mention his favorite moment or the low point in his coaching relationship with Woods.

Haney said he knew all along he would be writing a book.

He worked primarily with Mark O’Meara, which is how he got to know Woods. Haney said from the day he first went to work with Woods, he knew that would be his last pro client.

He took notes and kept his observations in diaries, then waited to find the right publisher and someone – Diaz – to help him with the book. Haney said he hasn’t seen the finished product, but “we’re very close.”

“It was an incredible opportunity,” Haney said. “We had a great run and I enjoyed it, but a lot of things happened in six years that made it feel a little longer. I had a lot of great observations from being in the position I was in.”

Tiger Woods Blog Post - December 2011

2011-12-15T18:02:00.001-08:00

It's hard to believe 2011 is almost over, and it was sure nice to get a victory! I played a lot of golf late in the year, and it was extremely satisfying to close out the season with a win at my own event, the Chevron World Challenge.

I basically did an exhibition tour right before the Australian Open. I played in Japan, Singapore, Perth and Melbourne, and then I went up to Sydney for the Australian Open. I did some clinics, and it was fun because I had to concentrate a bit because I was putting on exhibitions and had to play well. It was nice to have a semi-competitive environment before I played in the Aussie Open. In Japan, I did an exhibition with JLPGA players that benefited earthquake relief and tsunami relief. The women played great, and it was rewarding doing this event for such a good cause.

The great thing about the Australian Open and The Presidents Cup was that's basically how I've been hitting the ball at home. It was nice to be able to take what I had been doing into a tournament situation and play well. Although I didn't win the Australian Open, I finished third and hit a lot of quality golf shots.

The Lakes Golf Club in Sydney was very challenging. It's very modern and has a good mixture of short and long holes. Royal Melbourne was definitely an old-style course where you can run the ball up, throw the ball up in air and do a variety of different things. And with the green speeds being what they were -- especially the first day when they were running at 14 -- it was a little tough.

When I got to Royal Melbourne for The Presidents Cup, it was quite interesting because the people who questioned me being on The Presidents Cup team were not the players; they wanted me on the team. So when we came together, it was pretty neat to receive a warm reception and see how excited they were to have me be there with them.

It was great for Fred Couples, too. Fred stuck his neck out for me, and I was very grateful that he made me a captain's pick. To be able to secure the clinching point for the U.S. and play as well as I did down there was special for both of us.

As for the team room, it was a great mix of younger guys and older guys. It was pretty interesting to have Fred and assistant captains Jay Haas and John Cook. I've been on Ryder Cup teams with those guys, so it was a different perspective and was pretty cool.

I've heard people question whether Fred would be a good Ryder Cup captain, and I just don't get it. I think that Fred is a great captain. Whether it's The Presidents Cup or the Ryder Cup, it doesn't matter.

The way he keeps us loose and how much fun we have -- it's just great to play for him. He's a lot more competitive than people realize. He just doesn't show it. He shows it with us around, but the public doesn't see it.

Matt Kuchar dominated in pingpong again. It's not even close. He is far and away the best player. Nobody can beat the guy.

I came home and played in my Foundation's tournament at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, Calif., and I'm so excited to have won for the fifth time. Equally important, I gave the $1.2 million first prize to my Foundation's programs, which will help get more underserved kids into college.

Coming into the week, I was basically just trying to continue doing what I was doing in Australia, and I did that. I hit the ball just as well and made a few putts. It was tough playing against Zach Johnson on Sunday afternoon because he doesn't back up. He put a lot of heat on me and had the lead starting the final round, so I had to go and get him.

Zach hit an absolutely great shot on the 14th hole on Sunday, where he nipped a 60-degree sand wedge on the green and was able to save par. It was a big momentum switch. If he had tried to putt it, he can't keep it on the green. If he goes at the hole, there's a little fall-off on the left part of the green. If he had played short with a putt, the best he could do was about 15 feet. I thought if he made bogey there and I made birdie, it would be a two-shot swing. It was a big moment.

The shot that he played -- that little spinner in there -- he had to cut it to hold the hill. When he made contact, I could tell from the sound that he pulled it off. Man, that was impressive. You have to expect him to pull it off, especially a guy with his talent.

I felt very comfortable in the tournament from start to finish. Golf doesn't change. You should be all-systems go on the first day until the last day. I felt nervous coming down the stretch -- absolutely! You want to feel nervous because it means you care. When I stop getting nervous, it's time for me to quit.

I really hit three nice shots the last two holes. And then I made two nice putts on top of that. The best part about winning was the reinforcement that all the training and hard work I have put in with Sean Foley paid off.

It was also nice to get my first 'W' with Joe LaCava on the bag. He's been awesome. He's definitely very calm out here. That's why it's fun to be out there with him. We just have a great time. We do talk a lot of sports. We talk a lot about the New York Yankees and New York Giants, his favorite teams. We just have a ton of fun out there. Joe also spent some time with one of our Earl Woods Scholars who was serving as a course reporter at Sherwood. She wanted to interview a caddie, so we set her up with Joe, and I am grateful he took time to do that.

Speaking of Sherwood, one of our participants -- Keegan Bradley -- was named PGA Tour Rookie of the Year, and Luke Donald was picked as Tour Player of the Year. I'd like to congratulate them both. They're two outstanding players and equally good guys. Well done.

I just visited our newest Learning Center campus at Murray Middle School in Stuart, Fla. It's our fourth campus, and our first in Florida. It was a great afternoon, and I'm very pleased with how this model is allowing us to expand. Plus I always enjoy getting to spend an afternoon focused on science -- especially our Forensics class.

I did want to say the response I have received from the fans during my recent travels has just been fantastic. The people in Asia have always supported me my entire career. There's a level of excitement over there in golf; it's growing rapidly in these countries and other areas I went to, so it was great to be a part of it.

And of course, the fans in SoCal were tremendous. That's where I grew up, and it's always nice to play well in front of the hometown crowd. The reception I received coming up to the 18th green on Sunday at Sherwood Country Club felt very good. Really, since I've turned pro, fan support everywhere has been amazing. I want everyone to know how much that means to me. Needless to say, we did a little celebrating.

I debuted my new golf bag sponsor at my event in California. I'm very excited about Fuse Science and obviously the patents they have coming up and level of technology they're going to introduce. They're a game-changer in the energy, medicine and vitamin field, and I'm thrilled to be a part of it on the ground floor. Look for their new products to be introduced early next year.

I going to take a couple weeks off and let my body recover a little bit. And then I will start getting ready for 2012. My first event will be in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. HSBC has been a big supporter of my Foundation, and it sounds like they're going to have an excellent field. I've been to Dubai quite a few times, but never to Abu Dhabi. I'm looking forward to the experience.

Before I begin the new season, I will attend the Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 2 in Arizona to watch Stanford play Oklahoma State. Cardinal head coach David Shaw asked me to be an honorary team captain, and I happily accepted. For Coach Shaw to think highly enough of me to be involved in the game and be able to talk to his kids is very special.

I'm very close to Stanford. They've done so much for me in my life. Everyone knows Coach Shaw and I had a class together. We go way back. It's neat to be able to come back and help him any way that I can.

That's it for 2011. Thanks to everyone for your continued support.

Happy holidays and best wishes in the new year.

Tiger Woods New Caddie

2011-09-26T20:18:00.001-07:00

From golfchannel.com

The “talk” is never easy, however abbreviated the relationship.

We’ve all seen this transcript, it’s not you, it’s me. We can still be friends. There’ll be other caddies. But all that likely did little to soothe Dustin Johnson’s rattled psyche late Sunday in the plush East Lake locker room when caddie Joe LaCava informed him he was moving on to a bigger bag. The biggest bag in the game, to be accurate, but even that probably did little to ease the blow.

“Needless to say, Dustin and I were completely surprised, as they have enjoyed a great relationship and have been very successful together,” Johnson’s manager David Winkle with Hambric Sports Management said in a release.

The golf world is abuzz today with talk about a perceived lack of chemistry between Johnson and LaCava, but last month’s victory at The Barclays suggests the two were compatible enough. Let the record show that since the two began working together at The Players Championship, Johnson has posted three top-5 finishes and missed just one cut.

But this isn’t about irreconcilable differences or bad timing or even career advancement. Regardless of Woods’ current swoon he is still the player with the most major championship “upside” this side of Jack Nicklaus. It’s impossible to begrudge anyone that bag.

No, this is about locker room etiquette, about doing the right thing instead of taking the easy out, about taking the high road instead of the path of least resistance.

What exactly transpired in the weeks leading up to the Johnson and LaCava’s split will likely remain a well-guarded secret. It always is within the confines of Camp Tiger, but this much is certain – Woods did not contact Johnson until after LaCava had given his man the pink slip.

“(Woods’ manager Mark Steinberg) and I were approached by a lot of people, including Joe, who expressed an interest in becoming my caddie,” said Woods, who begins the LaCava era next week at the Frys.com Open.

“This was an important decision, and I wanted to think about it carefully. Also, out of deference for the FedEx Cup playoffs, I decided to wait until they were concluding to have substantive talks. We then spoke to Joe and came to an agreement.”

According to sources familiar with the situation LaCava did “reach out” to Woods but only after he learned he was being considered. More importantly, Woods did not contact Johnson before he began “substantive talks” with LaCava. There is no rulebook on caddie swapping, but as a general guide it is customary for a player in Woods’ position to approach Johnson about the possibility.

“My guess is Tiger just asked Joe with (Fred Couples’) input or help. In the end, caddies and players have to do what’s best for themselves,” said one Tour player. “Sometimes feelings get hurt. But I do think out of respect for a top player in the game Tiger should have given DJ a call.”

It’s worth noting, the same player pointed out that any caddie would jump at the chance to work for Woods, “Hell, I’d caddie for him,” he said. And there is certainly no faulting LaCava for either the move or the timing.

But the consensus across Tour lines was rather clear on this front. This isn’t about asking for permission, this is about common courtesy and a gentleman’s game.

“I would think he probably did call him or have (Steinberg) call him,” said another Tour type. “If not I’d be kind of surprised.”

If one needed a case study on how such matters should be handled look no further than LaCava’s split with Couples’ earlier this year. After two decades with one of the game’s most charismatic and popular players, LaCava moved slowly, some would say even sluggishly, to the conclusion that he and Johnson were a natural fit.

Even then, the veteran looper only made the move after Couples urged him to do so, and only after Johnson’s camp had cleared the switch with Couples. It seems simple, clerical even, but when it comes to the delicate balance of the player-caddie relationship it’s the only way.

It’s become good sport to shoot first and ask questions later when it comes to Woods in the post-November 2009 world, and given his close relationship with both LaCava and Couples the move has a low-hanging-fruit feel to it. But there is no denying that along the way Woods missed some steps.

It’s an even more curious outcome considering Woods’ split with his longtime caddie Stevie Williams this year. By some accounts, Williams’ moonlighting on Adam Scott’s bag was the tipping point in the relationship. Although he’d asked for Woods’ permission to do so, it seems the New Zealander had simply ran through too many stop signs.

On this it seems Woods suffered a similar faux pas that won’t easily be fixed. The world is eagerly awaiting a Woods-Scott duel filled with juicy subtext at November’s Presidents Cup. Just a hunch, be we’ve got about as much chance of seeing that soap opera as we do a Woods-Johnson pairing at Royal Melbourne?

Tiger Woods Returns to Golf

2011-07-29T02:30:00.001-07:00

The wait is over. No, not a debt ceiling deal, but learning when Tiger Woods will play next. On his website on Thursday evening, Woods announced he would be playing in next week’s WGC Bridgestone Invitational in Akron, Ohio.

“I’m excited to get back out there,” said Woods.

Woods tweeted, “Feeling fit and ready to tee it up at Firestone next week. Excited to get back out there!”

Woods has not competed since The Players Championship in May, withdrawing after nine holes of 6-over golf following a reaggravation of left knee and Achilles injuries tweaked at The Masters.

Golf Channel reports Woods will have pal Bryon Bell on the bag for the tournament. Bell has caddied for his childhood friend and employer twice – in 1999, when Woods was victorious at Torrey Pines, and at the same event in 2000 as a chance to “defend” that title. He was also the looper for Woods at Disney in 2003.

Bell was also cited in emails obtained by tabloid publications as the go-between for Tiger Woods and mistress Rachel Uchitel.

Woods is current ranked 21st in the world ranking, which is part of a slide stemming from his 11-week absence from action. He is also currently on the outside of the FedExCup playoffs, sitting at 133rd on the ladder and needing to be inside the top 125 to compete in at least one playoff event. The WGC Bridgestone Invitational is a no-cut event that Woods has won on seven occasions, which will assure him FedExCup and Official World Golf Ranking points.

On Tuesday of this week, Woods’ swing instructor Sean Foley told Rex Hoggard of GolfChannel.com, “I have seen him since then but we have just been chatting and setting a game plan for the future. This time off has been an excellent opportunity for us to put in place a plan with the big picture in mind.”

Woods, then, has hypothetically began hitting golf balls in the last 48 hours, or has been doing so for some time on his own, as his website says, “[Woods] just recently began hitting practice balls.”

The announcement did not share Woods’ status for the PGA Championship, played at Atlanta Athletic Club in the week after next week at Firestone CC.

Tiger Woods Joins Excel Sports Management

2011-07-11T20:08:00.001-07:00

Tiger Woods’s agent, Mark Steinberg, has joined Excel Sports Management, two months after leaving International Management Group.

Steinberg, who has represented Woods since 1999, confirmed the move in an e-mail. The Sports Business Daily reported the change earlier today.

“After meeting with a number of agencies and businesses, I decided Excel was the perfect fit,” Steinberg said in a statement released by New York-based firm. “I’m excited to serve as a partner in an agency positioned for growth.”
Steinberg, 43, announced he was leaving New York-based IMG in May.

The announcement follows a Golf Channel report that Woods would appear on the network today to make a “special announcement.” Steinberg denied the report. NBC Sports reported that Woods would sit down for an interview with the Golf Channel’s Kelly Tilghman at 11 a.m. New York time. The Golf Channel now plans to speak with Steinberg, according to its website. Both networks are owned by Comcast Corp. (CMCSA)

“No announcement today,” Steinberg said in an e-mail. “Something taken out of context.”
Asked if Woods was still scheduled to be interviewed by Tilghman, Steinberg said: “No. He never was.”
Dan Higgins, a spokesman for Golf Channel, referred questions about the interview report to Jeremy Friedman, another spokesman for the network, who didn’t immediately return an e- mail and telephone message seeking comment.
Woods, the winner of 14 major golf championships, hasn’t played in a tournament in two months. He said last week that he’d skip this week’s British Open, the season’s third major, as he recovers from knee and ankle injuries and wouldn’t return to competition until he’s 100 percent healthy.

Woods hasn’t won a tournament since November 2009, one month after he claimed the last of his 71 U.S. PGA Tour victories. He’s fallen to No. 19 in the Official World Golf Ranking after holding the top spot for a record 281 weeks.
To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Buteau in Atlanta at mbuteau@bloomberg.net; Mason Levinson in New York at mlevinson@bloomberg.net;

Tiger Woods on Jimmy Fallon

2011-03-17T20:13:00.000-07:00

From: http://progolftalk.nbcsports.com/2011/03/17/did-tiger-earn-points-for-taking-jabs-from-jimmy-fallon/related

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

It was quite intriguing that Tiger Woods would make his first talk show appearance since his divorce last summer on a late night comedy program. The prior, friendly, video game-based relationship with Jimmy Fallon aside, Woods had to feel certain that a shot was coming at some point.

It did - for about 90 seconds in the interview segment of Woods’ appearance, before the pair and guest Amy Poehler played the video game with Woods’ name (but not image) on it.

“From a comedian’s standpoint and my monologue writers’, thank you so much” Fallon said. “We laughed at your pain. I mean, not even making jokes — it kind of wrote itself. I mean, balls, shaft, holes, foursomes… It really writes itself. I just want to say thank you, thank you, thank you.”

This is not the first time Woods has taken jabs in a public forum. In Australia last fall, Woods appeared with beleaguered cricket player Shane Warne on a nationally televised program. Warne took a shot at Woods, saying, “I think we have a little bit in common probably. We play a lot of golf.”

Tiger Woods replied in-kind with a clever retort, “I’ve always wanted to hear some of the stories about [Warne]…on the cricket pitch.”

That moment was a rare one for Tiger, perhaps made easier by the fact that the American press were less likely to parse his words for meaning.

Woods’ father, Earl, taught him to be respectful of the people who ask him questions, but to only answer the question asked – no more, no less. It’s why Woods said just about nothing to Fallon after the awkward almsgiving to the golfer for being a national joke for over a year. A question wasn’t answered, so Woods simply nodded his head and laughed.

What was he to do? Look mad? He did it to himself – all of it. The divorce, the swing change. It’s all on him and he knows it.

Woods also knows that he will be taking shots like that for the remainder of his professional career. Until he becomes an elder statesman of the sport and the natural course of revising history in a favorably tinge for our beloved athletes, this is a way of life.

So, for Tiger Woods to sit there and take a couple of minutes of awkward commentary, it’s no big deal. The big deal for Woods is getting his game back. It’s the only way Woods will be able to win back fans that had lost faith in him as a person – to prove to them he is a champion in something else.

Tiger Woods Won't Play Honda

2011-02-25T04:35:00.000-08:00

From ESPN News

Tiger Woods will not play in the Honda Classic next week at PGA National in Palm Gardens, Fla., his agent said Thursday.

Speculation had begun that Woods would play at the Honda Classic because of his first-round loss Wednesday in the Accenture Match Play Championship in Arizona.

But Woods' agent, Mark Steinberg, said in a statement to the media that Woods will not play at Honda because of "existing commitments." The Honda Classic is March 3-6.

Woods lost to Thomas Bjorn in match play, his first PGA round since finishing in a tie for 44th place at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines in January. Woods also tied for 20th at the non-Tour Dubai Desert Classic in February.

Woods is expected to play next in the Cadillac Championship at Doral on March 10-13.

A different year for Woods, and his caddie

2010-12-14T18:51:00.001-08:00

By DOUG FERGUSON
Associated Press
Posted: December 14, 2010
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – Steve Williams never imagined that losing his wallet could fuel so much speculation that he was on his way out as Tiger Woods’ caddie.

Hours after the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, where Woods closed with a 75 and offered some veiled criticism of his caddie’s advice in the final round, Williams was sitting alone in the Monterey airport while staring intently at his cell phone.

A golf blogger recognized him, took his picture and posted it with the headline, “Steve Williams at the airport, without Tiger Woods.” Never mind that Williams lives in New Zealand and Woods lives in Florida. Along with Woods’ post-round comments, it was enough to wonder if Williams would be employed much longer.

Told about the photo months later, Williams started laughing.

“I left my wallet in the rental car,” he said, explaining the text he was reading on his phone. “The speculation is incredible, how many people thought I would be fired or that I would retire. People just make up these stories. Look, I work as a golf caddie. It’s all I’ve ever done. I’m working for arguably one of the greatest players who ever played, who is fully committed to breaking Jack Nicklaus’ record.

“Why would I quit in midstream?”

Williams has been on the bag for more than a dozen years with Woods, and they have shared some happy times – 72 victories around the world, including 13 major championships.

He also was guilty by association through some unpleasant times.

Williams never heard from his boss a year ago in December when Woods’ personal life was collapsing with each report of infidelity. Most people assumed Williams was part of the deceit, and even his repeated denials didn’t change some opinions. Getting through the gossip on and off the course wasn’t easy on Williams or his family.

Getting back to the golf hasn’t been as fun, either. Woods not only failed to win for the first time in his career, there were a couple of times when they finished a weekend round before lunch.

The caddie sure wasn’t expecting a year like this.

“When you compete at this level, a large percentage of your success is due to your mental preparation,” he said. “And evidently, Tiger’s mind wasn’t as sharp due to his own personal problems. He’s come back from an injury before. I’ve caddied for him for 12 years, and the two times he had long layoffs, he came back like nothing had happened. I didn’t think a lot would change.”

It didn’t take long to realize he was wrong.

Sure, Woods returned at the Masters and got right back in the mix. He opened with a 68, closed with a 69 and tied for fourth. Williams knows his game better than anyone, and none of the indicators were appealing.

“It was evident after Augusta that it was going to be a bit of a struggle,” Williams said. “Then, of course, he was questioning his own swing and whether it might be time to change his swing. As soon as he made that decision, I knew right there and then it was going to be more of a rebuilding year. Which is fine.”

No one felt sorry for Williams.

His worst year working for Woods was in 2004 – two victories, fourth on the PGA Tour money list with over $5 million, top 10s in all but five of his 21 tournaments. Which caddie wouldn’t take that?

The feeling among some of his peers was, “Welcome to our world.”

For most of the year, Woods looked no different – certainly no better – than some of the players in his group, whether it was Jason Bohn at the Memorial, D.A. Points at Aronomink or even 22-year-old Kieran Pratt, who made his pro debut at the Australian Masters and beat Woods by one shot when they were paired together.

“I race cars to win, and I caddie to win,” Williams said. “I certainly couldn’t be out here working for a player that can’t win tournaments. That would have no appeal to me at all. Winning is what you want to do.”

So what was the appeal this year?

“I quite enjoyed the challenge sometimes,” Williams said. “The battle this year was making it to the FedEx Cup, then trying to make it through. It’s not a position we’re used to being in. But it was not frustrating at all.”

What he found frustrating was wondering which guy was going to show up for work.

Three days after his divorce, Woods missed only one fairway and two greens and opened with a 65 at The Barclays. Two days later, he opened his round by hitting a 5-wood off the property.

He was in last place at one point late in his first round in Boston. The next day he shot a 65.

“When he got it right, it was great to see. But he couldn’t keep doing it,” Williams said. “You go to the golf course and wonder if he’s got what he had yesterday, or can he improve from what he had yesterday. But that’s what happens when you change your swing.”

Early in the second round of the Chevron World Challenge, Williams had seen enough.

“The tide is turning,” he said as he walked off the third green.

He was impressed with the progress Woods had made on his new swing in just four months. The last swing change took close to a year.

Williams left California believing the worst was behind them.

“I’m pretty confident when the new year starts that Tiger will be fully ingrained with this new swing,” he said.

The old year could not end soon enough.

Woods was signing autographs at Sherwood when he was asked about his longtime caddie.

“He’s been a heck of a caddie, there’s no doubt about that,” Woods said. After a few seconds of silence as he continued to sign, Woods looked up and added for emphasis, “And he’s a great friend.”

Woods needed a little of both this year.

Tiger Woods Chevron Interview

2010-12-01T19:21:00.001-08:00

MARK STEVENS: We'd like to welcome tournament host Tiger Woods, four-time winner here at the Chevron World Challenge. Tiger, I know this is a special event. Not only does it support your foundation, but it's also near where you grew up, so if you want to talk about coming back after two years off and then we'll take some questions.

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, we're looking forward to it. I mean, this is going to be another great week. Our field is the deepest, the strongest it's ever been. The golf course is in amazing shape. Weather looks like it's going to hold out pretty good for the rest of the week, and we're really looking forward to getting out there and hopefully putting on a good show for everybody.

Q: After being No. 1 in the world for as long as you were, "were" sounds kind of strange right now, and then there are those doubters who say he'll never win another major, he'll never do this, he'll never do that, how much does that motivate you to get back to that dominance that you had?

TIGER WOODS: Actually it really doesn't. That's not why I play the game. I learned that from a very early age. My dad has always been adamant, all throughout my childhood, only play the game of golf and go after what you want to go after, don't let anyone else influence you, play from your heart and soul. That hasn't changed.

My goal is to win every tournament I tee it up in and be prepared for every event. But that does entail right now learning a new golf swing that requires a lot of work, some new motor patterns. It's not exactly easy, but it's a fun challenge.

Q: How seriously did you consider leaving golf during this year's hiatus, and if you had, what would you have done?

TIGER WOODS: I didn't. I love playing the game of golf. It's fun, it's certainly challenging, and it's also something that I know when I do it right, I'm pretty good at it.

Q: There's a quote in Tom Callahan's book saying he wouldn't have been surprised if you had gone into the military, followed your dad. Where do you think he got that?

TIGER WOODS: Well, I've always wanted to become a Seal. That's something that I told my dad from the very get-go, either I'm going to become a professional golfer or I'm going to go become a Navy Seal. A lot of my friends are spec ops operators, and that's not new. A lot of people know that.

Q: I asked you before at the time of the Masters how you thought sponsors would react to you and how the reaction would be over this past year. Kind of turn the page a little bit and sponsors are starting to discuss you as a potential endorser again. How do you think you play right now to sponsors, and what do you expect in the future on the endorsement point of view?

TIGER WOODS: Well, I think that's up to the sponsor. If they feel that I can help their brand in some shape or form, it's up to them to decide that. My whole goal is to try and become a better person and a better golfer each and every day, and that hasn't changed.

Q: Over the past year we've heard golfers talk about -- some of your contemporaries talk about how difficult it is to play at a high level out on the TOUR when there is turmoil in one's life. How difficult was it looking back for you to focus on the game of golf when you were on the golf course this year?

TIGER WOODS: Harder than anyone could ever imagine unless you've actually gone through it before yourself.

Q: I wanted to ask you, in Newsweek you talked about being a new man and having learned a lot in this last year. How would you describe this past year, and how do you look forward to the one ahead?

TIGER WOODS: It's been difficult, but also it's been very rewarding at the same time. It forced me to look deeper into myself and look where -- how I grew up and how those things didn't match with the person who I am, and getting back to that, getting back to how my parents raised me basically. It's been good. I'm very excited about the future because of that.

Q: One follow-up. So you said you're a new man now. What does the next year bring us, the new man?

TIGER WOODS: Just live it day by day. That's all I can do. Each and every day just try to become a little bit better.

Q: When you go through what you've gone through, do you yourself put some kind of plan in place to make sure that there'll never be any kind of repeat? I don't necessarily mean the same kind of stuff, but just your own discipline, your own integrity, do you think about, okay, this is how I need to lead my life and have that discipline?

TIGER WOODS: Absolutely. It's creating boundaries, and like I said from the very get-go, there was certainly some boundary failure, and it's about creating proper boundaries. I'm excited about the future because of that.

Q: You mentioned talking about your swing. In your opinion what is the main reason you haven't won since you came back? Is it mechanical? Is it mental? Is it the long game, short game, putting? What exactly is holding you back?

TIGER WOODS: I think it's been all of the above. I think I've dealt with a few things off the golf course, and on the golf course I've had to make some changes in my game. You combine all that together, it's very hard to be efficient for 72 straight holes.

Q: How is it different being back in southern California compared to other places that you have lived?

TIGER WOODS: Oh, this is home. This is where I was born and raised. I grew up about an hour from here, and I remember coming up here and watching the guys play, watching Mark and Curtis play in the first Shark Shootout, and that was a long time ago. It's actually when O'Meara had hair.

Q: Speaking of home, have you had any discussions about coming back to Riviera this next year? And a little bit about has the passion for winning changed at all because of the outside distractions?

TIGER WOODS: As far as coming back here to Riviera, I don't know yet. As far as the passion goes, that hasn't changed. I love winning. That's just fun. Coming down the stretch on the back nine with a chance to win, I mean, that's the rush and that's the thrill of why my practice, and it's why we train, why we hit all those balls tireless hours is to put ourselves in that one position. Whether you succeed or fail, it's about being there, and once you get a taste of that, you want to be there time and time again.

Q: You've referenced a couple times now already the personal difficulties you went through this year. Was there ever any point during that time where you were able to think about the foundation and maybe have -- obviously you've got a lot else going on, but your concern for maybe hurting it or --

TIGER WOODS: We had to deal with that on a daily basis, as well. There was a lot -- people don't realize how difficult it was. There was a lot going on. Yeah, the foundation was certainly one of the items that we were thinking about and talking about on virtually a daily basis.

Q: Was that difficult for you, though, because it would seem you had other things more important for you personally, but as important as this is to you, and obviously you got your golf game and everything else, I mean, how did you --

TIGER WOODS: Well, the great thing about the foundation is that all our sponsors and donors as well as our staff, board members, everyone stayed. Everyone believed in what we were doing, and we actually grew this year. You know, with everything that's gone on, our foundation grew, and I am so proud of the staff for what they've done and all of our supporters and board members and everyone who's involved in our local communities. To have the belief in what we're trying to do for kids and how we're doing that, that's so important, what we're doing, that we actually grew this year.

Q: As a follow-up to the brand question, you said it's up to a sponsor whether or not they think you can help the brand. Do you think you can help a brand in the current state of your golf game and in your personal life? What are your thoughts on that? And I have a follow-up if I could.

TIGER WOODS: Yes. Go ahead.

Q: Why so do you think you can help a brand?

TIGER WOODS: I think I've helped out brands in the past as well as currently.

Q: And the second question on schedule, as the year comes along there's been some reports or suggestion that Tim Finchem has spoken to you about your schedule and possibly playing more events, playing different events than usual. Has he, and your thoughts on that, and what is the most important thing that will determine your schedule this year?

TIGER WOODS: Has he? Yes, he has. He's done that every year since he's been a commissioner. So that subject hasn't changed. That's on more than one occasion per year every year that I've been out here that he's been commissioner, yeah.

Q: Are you thinking about changing, adding things?

TIGER WOODS: Well, we'll see what the schedule holds. There are a lot of things that we're trying to adapt to, our new living conditions. That's most important. We're trying to figure all that out, and then obviously I still want to play golf at a high level and win golf tournaments. But it's about getting a balance and trying to find what the right balance is going forward is the key.

Q: It seems at some point throughout this year it became a chore, it became difficult to go to the golf course to play in PGA TOUR events. Has that changed at all over the course of the year going into next year?

TIGER WOODS: Well, as things got more solidified off the golf course it certainly became much easier to go to the golf course and enjoy it and enjoy practicing and enjoy the trials and tribulations and the struggles of the game of golf and trying to become better each and every day.

Q: Did you ever think you had it? It looked like a few rounds you'd play very well and then all of a sudden you'd lose it. The last round of the year, 65, 66, did that make you think, oh, boy, here it comes?

TIGER WOODS: You know, over the last I'd say probably five to six tournaments I played, I'd get in these hot streaks where I'd do it right, and before they would come in as a streak I'd get it going for two, three, four holes and now they're lasting close to nine holes, and now I've got to get it for 18 holes, eventually all 72, and then eventually down to the entire major championship. So it's a process.

I've been through this process before. I went through it twice with Butch, I went through it with Hank and now with Sean. So I'm excited about the process of it becoming more sustained, and I showed some good signs over the last two tournaments, actually last three tournaments including the Ryder Cup, with what I'm doing.

Q: When people change their swing many times they have to believe and they're afraid because they've done the same thing for so many years. Do you have that feeling now? Do you believe in your swing?

TIGER WOODS: You know, it's what I explained to you guys at the PGA and in subsequent weeks. It's wrapping my head around making another change, and once I make the change, I'm full go. But it's committing to that. And there was times, yeah, where it was like, okay, I've got to do this again. It's my fourth time since I've been out on TOUR that I have to rebuild this thing. Am I committed to it? Once I made the decision yes, then I'm full go. There's no looking back. It's about moving forward and getting this thing better and more refined.

Q: I know you said you've rebuilt it and you certainly have, your swing, but in a sense you didn't change the angles a lot of your swing, the way you looked at the ball more from behind the ball. Now you seem to be like really on top of the ball, and a lot of guys have in the past kind of struggled with that because since they were kids they always saw the ball coming off the club face a certain way and seems like now you're more on top. Have you felt that that makes this change maybe even more difficult in some ways?

TIGER WOODS: Well, I know what you're saying. In years past when I was a junior I used to get into the same impact position I'm in now, but I used to get into it a different way. And that's why I've said during this press conference that I've picked up on some of the things quicker, but some of the other stuff is very new. So with that being said, yeah, the staying over the golf ball like I am now, that's something I've never done. We're always taught to move off and drive ourselves back onto the golf ball. Well, I used to drive myself onto the golf ball in the same position I'm in now when I was much younger, but I'm just doing it a different way now. I'm getting to the same impact position a different way, and that is very different. But also some of the motor patterns when I feel impact, I've been here before. So that's not that new.

Q: When was the first change with Butch?

TIGER WOODS: First change with Butch when we shortened up my golf swing?

Q: What year was that?

TIGER WOODS: '95.

Q: From the time you returned at The Masters -- are you going to clarify?

TIGER WOODS: Early '94, yeah.

Q: From the time you returned at The Masters, how soon did you realize you had to change your swing, and why did you need to change it?

TIGER WOODS: Well, as I played throughout the summer, I kept trying to do the things that I was working on with Hank over the years, and it just wasn't working anymore, and it got to a point where I just couldn't do it. It's kind of hard to try and play tournament level golf, major championship golf especially, when at the time I was struggling with which way the ball was going to go, was it going to go right or was it going to go left. That's not fun.

Q: Did it ever work for you?

TIGER WOODS: It did, it did, and for some reason it just wasn't, and it was time to go a different route.

Q: You've said in the past that your evaluation process at the end of every year was usually asking yourself if you have gotten better and improved. Can you kind of walk us through the evaluation process from this past year and what you've concluded?

TIGER WOODS: As a golfer I learned so much more this year than any other year, and as a person infinitely more. So it's been a very successful year even though it was a very painful year, as well.

Q: You were talking about this past year. With all the talk about this past year, are you tired of or is it --

TIGER WOODS: Yes. (Laughter.) Did I answer that too fast? Oh, sorry.

Q: The other part of it is is it still good therapy for you?

TIGER WOODS: I love coming out here. I love coming out here and playing. You've seen me for over 30 years now, man. We've known each other for a long time, and you know how much love playing the game of golf. It's been fun to get out there and start shaping shots and hitting the ball the way I know I can hit it. Now I just need to get myself there in contention and eventually start winning golf tournaments.

Q: You're a sports fan; you watch a lot of sports on TV. The TOUR has its contract coming up and they're going to start doing negotiations on that. As a fan, what would you like to see done differently with golf on television, if you are a golf fan and watch it when you're not playing?

TIGER WOODS: I'd like to see me win more tournaments (laughter), as a golf fan, yes.

Q: As a viewer?

TIGER WOODS: I am a viewer.

Q: Can you just talk about the support you received since you came back from the fans, especially in places like China and Australia and Thailand and how gracious they've been?

TIGER WOODS: I was blown away actually. The reception this year has been just -- I'm so grateful. The support I've received day in and day out, not just at golf tournaments alone, just from when I'm just out, out and about. You know, people really do care, and it's -- it was eye-opening for me to see that because I haven't seen that side, and how many people really want me to do well and be happy again. So that was -- I mean, that was so nice of everyone to be that way.

Q: You were talking about being committed to the new method and not looking back. When exactly do you remember saying, okay, I'm going for it? And secondly, you had a great Saturday at Pebble at the U.S. Open. A lot of people were excited, here we go again, he's going to do this on Sunday. When you went to the golf course Sunday morning, how confident were you that you were going to be able that win that golf tournament?

TIGER WOODS: I was very confident, and I just didn't -- I didn't putt well at all starting out that Sunday, and then I hit that one terrible tee shot on 3 which really hurt. But that's the way it goes.

But as far as deciding when to make the commitment to whether I'm going forward or not, I talked to Sean at length every night during the PGA Championship, and we worked every night, and he was trying to explain his methodology, and it was certainly eye-opening because there was a lot of terms I didn't know, just about coming to grips and understanding the terminology, and then how I can even implement it and whether I even can.

And then after the PGA Championship I had that little break before we played Barclays, and during that break is when I got committed to what I was doing and moved forward with it.

Q: I hate to bring up the winless season again, but first time in 14, I guess 15 years that you didn't win on TOUR. Would you think it's more lack of confidence, distractions or what? How do you attribute --

TIGER WOODS: I think it's all of the above. There was quite a bit going on this year.

Q: Curious if you go back to the start of your golfing season what you find more surprising, not winning or being on Twitter?

TIGER WOODS: It's definitely both. Definitely both.

Q: In years past on some of your really big margins of victory, you've been asked if you enjoyed those as opposed to maybe having a closer win, something maybe more competitive, and I'm wondering now as you go forward and you want to start winning tournaments again, do you want to just win or do you want to dominate again?

TIGER WOODS: I'd prefer winning by double digits or more. It's certainly a lot easier. Yeah, that's a lot more fun.

MARK STEVENS: Thanks a lot, Tiger.

Tiger Woods To Play Chevron

2010-09-21T03:23:00.000-07:00

World number one Tiger Woods has confirmed he will play at the lucrative Chevron World Challenge in December.
Woods, a four-time winner at the Sherwood Country Club in California, said he was thrilled to be ending a three-year absence from the event.

"It's always fun to come home and play in front of the Southern California fans," Woods said on his website.
"The Chevron World Challenge is a great event, and there is always a fantastic international field. I'm really looking forward to competing."

The prize purse for the tournament, which is not an official PGA Tour event, is US$5 million, with the winner to net $US1.2million.
Woods' end-of-year schedule also sees him playing the Ryder Cup in Wales, the HSBC Champions in China and the Australian Masters.

The American did not qualify for this week's Tour Championship, the final event of the PGA Tour playoffs.

Tiger Prepares With New Golf Ball

2010-07-10T18:30:00.001-07:00

Players often match their equipment to the needs of a specific course. For the upcoming British Open at the Old Course at St. Andrews, Woods is extending that philosophy to his golf ball. At the AT&T National at Aronimink GC, Woods used a ball called the Nike One Tour Star -- a prototype ball that is slightly firmer and less spinning than the One Tour he had been playing. In reality, the ball is closer to Nike’s One Tour D model than the One Tour, the idea stemming from Woods’ long-held belief that reduced spin is needed at the British Open.

"He tested several versions," said Rock Ishii, Nike’s product development director for golf balls. “He wanted a less spin 'wind advantage' ball for St. Andrews." Woods saw the benefits at Aronimink, ranking second in driving distance at an eye-catching 324.8 yards. “I’ve driven the ball better this week than I have in a very long time,” said Woods. “It’s fun to hit the driver that way.”

While fun to hit the driver that way, Woods may opt not to make this a permanent switch. Although Woods historically sticks with equipment once he has switched, this change of ball appears to be British Open-specific. However, going back and forth between the two balls may not be out of the question. “I tried about eight years ago to get him to play two types of golf ball depending on conditions but couldn’t,” said Ishii. “This ball is eight points softer compression which reduces spin while the 336-dimple pattern gives him a slightly higher launch. Now he is more willing to take advantage of the technology if he sees a true benefit.”

Stay tuned.

-- E. Michael Johnson, Golf digest.com

Photo by AP

Read More http://www.golfdigest.com/golf-equipment/blogs/bomb-and-gouge/2010/07/woods-preps-for-open-with-new.html#ixzz0tKiIBfD0

Hawkins Misses Tiger Woods

2010-07-07T15:16:00.000-07:00

From the Golf Channel.com

I’m beginning to miss Tiger Woods more than I care to admit – the guy who finished 14 strokes out of first place in Philly last week had to be an impostor. The Dude in the Red Shirt, whoever he is, currently sits 74th on the money list. Not only is he winless in 2010, Woods really hasn’t worked himself into the thick of final-nine contention. Those T-4s at the Masters and U.S. Open are a bit misleading. Tiger was on the outside looking in as Phil Mickelson and Graeme McDowell claimed the year’s first two major titles.

Six starts, 21 rounds – Woods has been keen to remind us how little competitive golf he has played this year, which sounds like a lot like another one of those personal problems. Normally, he would have appeared in 10 events at this point in the season, but if Eldrick Almighty has made a rather nice career out of a limited PGA Tour schedule, he hasn’t done a thing in ’10 to make up for the four tournaments he lost in the first three months.

The guy flies to Ireland to participate in some celebrity pro-am, then jets home for a few days before returning for the British Open? I’ve never been one to question Woods’ major-championship preparation, but you’d think going back and forth would set him back in terms of the acclimation process. He’s such a terrific golfer that he can finish in the top five at the majors without his best stuff, especially when the winning score ends up close to par. But nothing he has done since his return can substantiate his 7-to-2 odds as the favorite at St. Andrews.

You can point to the eight-stroke romp on the Old Course in 2000, Woods first claret jug, and the follow-up triumph on the same venue in 2005. In both instances, however, Tiger was at the top of his game. He’s nowhere close to that level now. More than two years have passed since his last major title, making this the third such stretch in his 14 years as a pro, which makes this a good time to examine the two prior droughts: when and why they happened, and what Woods did to end them.

1998: Less than three months after his historic, 12-stroke Masters victory in ’97, Young Tiger picked up his fourth win of the year at the Western Open. His first full season on the Tour could not have been proceeding more smoothly, but just like that, Woods stopped hoisting trophies. He managed just one top-five finish in his final eight tournaments in ’97, then won just once in 20 starts in ’98. The first of his seven career wins at Torrey Pines got him back on track in early ’99, but it wasn’t until the second half of the year that Woods reached a level of dominance that would make him one of the greatest players ever.

Tiger Woods
Tiger Woods celebrates at the 2008 U.S. Open (Getty Images)
Among the dozens of statistics that help define his extraordinary accomplishments, Woods’ 10-1 playoff record is largely overlooked. That lone loss occurred at the 1998 Los Angeles Open, which was played at Valencia CC because Riviera’s greens were being rebuilt. In falling to Billy Mayfair on the first extra hole, Tiger debuted the wild, spin-out driver swing we’ve seen so often in recent years. To this day, my Golf Channel colleague Tim Rosaforte and I refer to Tiger’s reckless thrashing off the tee as his “Valencia swing.”

Early ’98, however, was a period of mechanical reconstruction for Woods. If his weak second half in ’97 was the result of rookie-season burnout, which Tiger has cited on numerous occasions, his woes the following year can be attributed to his adjusting to a shorter, more controlled backswing. Butch Harmon, Woods’ coach at the time, was steadfast in his belief that Tiger would not dominate consistently until he eliminated the excess action at the top, which often led to his “getting stuck” en route to the ball.

It took a while, but Woods obviously began to master the tighter move in 2000, when he won nine times in 20 starts, claimed three majors and finished the year with 47 consecutive rounds of par or better. If many regard Tiger’s 2000 as the greatest year in golf history, there is no question in my mind that three key occurrences in ’99 precipitated this unparalleled stretch of brilliance.

In late March, Tiger was unseated atop the World Ranking by David Duval, who finally reached No. 1 after winning the Players Championship. For a man who can find motivation in things no one else notices, this served as a five-alarm wakeup call. Woods needed to get better, and he needed to get better in a hurry.

In August, Tiger was taken to the wire at the PGA Championship by Sergio Garcia, the dashing Spanish teenager whose exuberance and shotmaking skill had quickly christened him as Woods’ competitive equal. Tiger would hold off Garcia to win his first major since the ’97 Masters, ending a 2 1/2-year famine, but again, there was a ton of incentive to be gleaned off the emergence of a player seemingly as talented as Woods – and four years younger.

John Hawkins appears on Golf Central every Tuesday at 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET and on the Grey Goose 19th Hole every Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET.
About a month later, Tiger was part of the U.S. Ryder Cup team that rallied from four points down to beat Europe with a stunning rally in the Sunday singles. If nothing else, the experience wiped out the lousy memories of his inaugural Ryder Cup in 1997 and alerted Tiger to the precept that golf should be fun, that other Tour pros weren’t out to get him, that playing for your country (and winning) can be close to as satisfying as winning a stroke-play event by yourself.

2004: The second gap in the Woods Dynasty was far more scrutinized than the first, largely because Tiger had left Harmon in mid-2002 and operated without a swing coach for the better part of two years. The coachless stretch neatly coincides with the period of almost three years between Woods’ seventh and eighth major titles. Although 2003 was hardly a bust – five victories, a 68.41 scoring average – Woods’ only top 10 at a major came at the British Open, where he finished T-4.

At the Bay Hill Invitational in March ’04, Woods was seen working for the first time publicly with swing coach Hank Haney. This would lead to a pronounced transition in his swing, and predictably, the results, at least initially, were not what we had come to expect. Tiger’s only victory that year was at the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship. He didn’t threaten at any of the majors, a T-9 at the British was his best showing. When Vijay Singh stared him down that September in Boston, defeating Woods in a head-to-head Labor Day matchup, he had surrendered the top spot in the World Ranking once again.

It was the year of Butch vs. Hank, and many people, including some fellow Tour pros, wondered aloud why Tiger would attempt to grasp the theories of Haney when his work with Harmon had produced such a productive blend of power and control. While Sir Eldrick struggled to replicate the Haney’s “perfect plane” concept, however, he was also courting the woman he would marry that October. To say that Woods spent much of ’04 in a state of highly distracted bliss would not be a reach. Winning golf tournaments was what he did for a living, but for the first time ever, there was actually more to life than cashing a first-place check.

2010: Here we are, six years later, and the marriage is over. Woods appears agitated and short-tempered, his body language reflective of a man who would rather be somewhere else. Golf has given him everything, but much of that has been lost by virtue of his own selfish behavior, and a guy who has glided through life on a 30-year run of success now finds himself waking up every morning to a giant pile of personal issues. Maybe Tiger will win the British Open. Maybe he’ll break out of his funk with one of those stretches where he wins five times in six starts and leaves all his would-be rivals stranded in a cloud of late-summer dust.

Maybe, or maybe not. Until Phil Mickelson takes over the No. 1 position in the World Ranking, until the man still clinging to the top spot finally comes to terms with himself and the behavior that caused this entire mess, until the best golfer of this generation enlists the services of a swing coach who will offer advice and gentle suggestion, not instruction, Tiger Woods will continue to struggle. Sometimes, you can find the future hiding in the not-so-distant past.

Tiger Woods Using New Golf Ball

2010-07-03T15:23:00.000-07:00

NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. -- Tiger Woods has switched to a Nike golf ball that has a slightly harder cover and spins less than his previous model, which might explain why he has been hitting his tee shots farther than he has all year.

Woods says his swing has something to do with it, too.

"The more I keep playing, the better I get," Woods said Saturday after recovering from an atrocious start to shoot even-par 70, making up little ground in the AT&T National. "It has a little bit to do with the ball."

Woods still uses a One Tour, this ball marked with a star symbol between the two words. He started using it this week at Aronimink, most likely as part of his preparations for the British Open in two weeks at St. Andrews, where the wind is often a major factor.

The world's No. 1 player often has talked about how he uses one of the softest golf balls on tour, which gives him greater control around the greens. This version would be helpful in windy conditions because it spins less.

Once among the longest hitters in golf, Woods was 21st in driving distance last year. Going into the AT&T National, he was ranked 78th based on two measured drives per round. Through two rounds on a fast, firm Aronimink course, Woods was leading the tournament in driving distance at just over 328 yards.

His additional length was most evident during the second round, when he was playing with Dustin Johnson. On consecutive holes, Woods hit one drive 26 yards past Johnson, and another 10 yards past him. Both led to birdies.

It continued on Saturday.

"Wow," Scott McCarron whispered when Woods hit one driver 322 yards down the middle on the fourth hole, 37 yards beyond McCarron.

The only trouble this week is that it's not helping with his scoring. Woods remained well back in the pack at 3-over 213, which left him 10 shots behind even before the leaders teed off.

He hit one of his best tee shots on the sixth hole, which sweeps to the right around trees and a bunker. The shape was perfect, and Woods hit it so pure that he had only 60 yards to the hole. What followed was amateur hour.

Trying to play a low, running shot to get over the ridge and funnel to the hole, Woods couldn't figure out what he was doing in the middle of his swing and wound up chunking the shot. It didn't even reach the green, and he three-putted from there for a bogey, his third one in the early going.

"That was just awful," Woods said. "I was trying to hit a low ball in there, trying to scoot it up that hill, and I was not committed to where I was going to land it. Lack of commitment, ended up hitting the ball fat."

He turned another easy birdie into bogey on the opening hole by coming up short of the green. Woods has said his distance control is not quite sharp, although he put more of that on himself than the change to different golf ball characteristics.

Woods settled down after the sixth, nearly holing his tee shot on the tough par-3 eighth and making a 5-foot putt for his first birdie of the round. After missing four putts inside 10 feet in his opening six holes, it was probably good to have made that birdie.

"I was going to make that putt or that putter was going to be in the water," Woods said. "So it was one of those two."

Woods came close to getting back under par for the round with another big tee shot and wedge to 5 feet for birdie on the 11th, and a 15-foot birdie putt on the 13th. Then came another shot that went according to plan -- a high cut right at the flag about 6 feet behind the hole on the par-3 14th. He missed the putt, and the momentum was gone.

By that point, any hope of defending his title was long gone. One more round for Woods, then he's off to Ireland for a charity pro-am and then home to practice for the next major.

"The more tournaments I play this year, I'm getting better," Woods said. "The feel is getting better. I feel more comfortable with what I'm working on. It's so much more comfortable than it was at the beginning of the year."

Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press

Tiger Woods, Elin Woods have options if they divorce - Tours & News - Golf.com

2010-06-25T23:21:00.000-07:00

Tiger Woods, Elin Woods have options if they divorce - Tours & News - Golf.com

Tiger Mentally Weaker

2010-06-25T18:08:00.000-07:00

By Johnette Howard NBCSports.com updated 1:44 p.m. ET June 22, 2010

Johnette Howard

If youre the No. 1 golfer in the world and a man with aspirations of passing Jack Nicklaus for best ever, you dont publicly blame the guy carrying your bag for losing the U.S. Open for you. You just dont. Theres a reason Tiger Woods is the global icon with the endorsements and Carnival Cruise Line-size yacht and billion dollars in career earnings, and Stevie Williams, his caddie, is stuck cleaning the grooves of Woods clubs every night: They arent equals. Williams makes his suggestions. And everything after that is on Woods.

That bargain between pros and their caddies is as old as tournament golf itself. And Woods knows the decorum as well as anybody. Yet there Woods was Sunday, complaining about some club selection advice that Williams gave him during a train wreck of a final round that featured six bogeys on his first 12 holes. Instead of Tiger the Worldbeater which Woods seemed poised to return to after a sizzling third-round 66 on Saturday pulled him back into contention what we got on Sunday was Tiger the Whiner. Story continues below advertisement | your ad here

Theres no use even mentioning the old Woods wouldve never yelped like he did about how Williams final-round advice doomed him, or about the difficulties of putting on the Pebble Beach greens, as Woods whined Saturday and Thursday before that.

Sunday, Woods was trying to explain why he couldnt take advantage of final-round leader Dustin Johnsons death spiral into a total collapse. Johnson blew his entire five-shot advantage over Woods before hed even finished the front nine on Sundays closing round.

The U.S. Open was there for the taking for anyone who could shoot even par or 1-under for the day, and maybe put a little pressure on eventual winner Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland. McDowell didnt gripe, didnt mutter and not surprisingly, conquered a course that Ernie Els, another thwarted contender, staggered away comparing to links golf on steroids.

Yet Woods not only didnt charge into the lead. He made excuses for the 4-over 75 he shot. He threw around blame. All the speculation that Woods would not come back to golf with the same impenetrable mental makeup he had before the Thanksgiving Day car wreck looks more than prescient now. It looks as if his sour state of mind could stick around for awhile. At times Sunday he looked like just another guy in a baseball hat and logos getting beat up by a tough course.

And the odd thing was, Woods game shows promising signs now and then. Whats changed about him is this new fragility hes showing, this inability to not only overcome setbacks but avoid turning them into public Shakespearean dramas where he tosses his head, drops his clubs in anguish after a bad shot, and later insinuates that the world or even those closest to him like Williams, his caddie of 11 years are betraying him.

I told Steve we made three mental mistakes and the only thing it cost us was a chance to win the U.S. Open, a glowering Woods said in brief TV interview.

It was a far cry from the predatory Tiger who persevered through the tortuous rain and chill and mud at Bethpage Black a few years ago to win the U.S. Open. At one point during that tournament, Woods shrugged and said the course wasnt all that hard at all only to have Nick Price scoff and bark back, If he doesnt think this is hard, Ill take my bat and ball and go home.

Slideshow U.S. Open - Final Round Back at Pebble Beach Take a look at some of the best photos from the 110th U.S. Open.

NBCSports.com The new Tiger is not that guy anymore. Woods opened his round Sunday with a three-putt bogey on No. 1.

On No. 4, he snap-hooked his drive and ended up with a bogey on the short par 4 that had been coughing up birdies all weekend.

On the par-5 sixth the first of those three mental mistakes Woods referred to Woods hit a 3-wood off the tee that bounced over the cliffs. He finished with a bogey again, this time on a hole that had been lit up for 38 birdies and four eagles by everyone else Sunday. That really hurt.

It shouldve been a 2-iron down there, Woods muttered later.

Yes, well the drive shouldve been hit straight too.

Then his round got even worse.

Woods said taking some more advice from Williams to take dead aim for the flag on the 10th hole when In my heart I said, No, you cant play at that flag, led to another bogey.

Any hope Woods had of charging into the lead fell away for good two holes later. On his tee shot at the par-3 No. 12 a 203-yard downhill shot Woods said his instincts were to hit a 5-iron to the right of a green. But again he wavered. We thought a 4-iron would be better, and I just made an awful swing.

His ball plopped into the heavy rough, and his bogey left him six shots behind with six holes to play. He was done.

Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 11 offers video game realism at its best

2010-06-14T06:47:00.000-07:00

From foxsports.com

It used to be that Tiger Woods and John Madden perennially boasted some of the highest Q scores, which measure the brand familiarity and likeability of athletes and sports personalities. Madden, despite retiring from sportscasting last year at age 73, is still running a close second behind Michael Jordan.

Woods, meanwhile, has plummeted from being the most likeable athlete in America to a mediocre 25th on the list -- surpassed this year by winter Olympians and retired golfers Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus. His negative perception, according to Marketing Evaluations, Inc., has increased about 160 percent in the past year.

Indeed, it would seem that Woods and Madden have little in common at this point, but each has an EA Sports video game title that bears his namesake. And these aren't just any video game titles. The Tiger Woods PGA TOUR franchise and the Madden NFL franchise are the most successful of all time in their respective sports. Last year, Tiger's title surpassed $500 million in sales since the first edition -- Tiger Woods '99 -- was released.

Of course, Woods' free fall in popularity is directly attributed to the highly publicized sex scandal that began with a car wreck on Thanksgiving Day 2009 and continues with never-ending tabloid speculation about his likely forthcoming divorce. The change in public perception has far less to do with the fact that he missed the cut at Quail Hollow, pulled out of The Players Championship with an injury and finished in the middle of the pack at the Memorial in his latest outings.

When Madden announced his retirement, EA Sports said it had no intention of changing the name of the game that has given so many would-be athletes hours of joy and ensuing tendonitis. And when it was revealed that Tiger had cheated on his wife again and again ... and again and again ... (et al.), EA said it would stick with him for Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 11, which hit the shelves last week. EA made this announcement at a time when AT&T, Gatorade and Accenture had all dumped Woods as spokesman.

Sure, EA added wunderkind Rory McIlroy to this year's cover, but we all know it's still Tiger's game. McIlroy, who thrilled golf fans in May when he celebrated his 21st birthday with a record-setting win at Quail Hollow, leads a pack of exciting newcomers to the Tour who look to challenge Woods in his bid to return to dominance. It's not likely he'll take over as the face of the franchise, but it sets a new precedent -- perhaps EA's recognition that Tiger is no longer the only exciting name on Tour. It also opens the door for other young stars to become more involved in the marketing of the game's future.

In terms of gameplay, PGA TOUR 11 is, hands down, the most innovative and intricately detailed golf game ever made -- just as Madden fits that bill for football titles. And like the Madden franchise, each successive year has seen either vast improvements or minor tweaks, all to correspond with emerging gaming technology.

At this point, EA could rest on its laurels, say, "We have a virtual monopoly on golf games and we no longer need to try." Instead, they strive each year to bolster the gameplay, make the courses more realistic and provide exactly the types of interactive online features gamers crave.

It'll be interesting to see how Tiger's misadventures will affect the sales of PGA TOUR 11. Those who purchased the game because of the name recognition may shy away, but those who play it because it's an unrivaled golf gaming experience will be back no matter what face they smack on the front cover.

EA's PGA video game franchise will survive and continue to thrive just as the Madden titles will continue to shatter sales records for the simple reason that EA is the hands-down leader in video game realism. This game doesn't need Tiger Woods to keep you engaged or give you a reasonable facsimile of what it's like to tee off on the seventh hole at Pebble Beach.

It's more than possible that Tiger Woods PGA TOUR will one day be called something else and another Tour pro will be doing the bulk of the promoting. But as long as improvements keep coming to this already-strong title, that shouldn't be a difficult job.

Tiger Woods To Play Memorial

2010-05-25T15:18:00.000-07:00

Tiger Woods' aching neck has apparently recovered enough for the world No. 1 to return to competition. Golf Channel is reporting that Woods will defend his title in next week's Memorial, where he'll also play in the pre-tournament Skins Game.

The Memorial commitment had been expected after Woods received positive news about his neck, which had caused him to withdraw from the Players Championship early in his final round. Originally fearing a bulging disk, Woods learned from an MRI that he had merely an inflamed facet joint, and that a full recovery was expected.

Following the Memorial, Woods has already committed to play the U.S. Open, the AT&T National, and the British Open. He is the de facto defending champion of all three tournaments -- winning the last U.S. Open at Pebble Beach in 2000, last year's AT&T, and the last British Open at St. Andrews, in 2005.

From golfdigest.com

Elin Goes for $750 million: Report

2010-05-21T15:39:00.000-07:00

Tiger Woods soon to be ex-wife Elin Nordegren has decided to change from playing nice to taking Tiger to the bank.

According to published reports, Elin has decided to increase her "demands", by seeking full custody of the couple's children as well as an estimated $750 million "package".

Tiger, who decided to play it safe from the media, is rumored to have ordered an iron clad confidentiality agreement that would enable her from releasing information about their marriage in interviews or books.

As of press time, no information regarding the terms of an agreement or if an agreement had been reached was available.

Seems like some of these rappers need to learn from Tiger and make these groupies start singing gag orders, maybe then it would officially put an end to the "video vixen" phenomenon.

Tiger Woods Wants Lifetime Confidentiality From Elin

2010-05-18T17:07:00.001-07:00

This Tiger Woods divorce looks like it's going to be fought with conventional weapons, and cost thousands of lives. Bill Zwecker of the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting that negotiations are bogging down over Tiger's demand that Elin Nordegren sign a confidentiality agreement, prohibiting her from writing a book or doing any interviews related to the marriage. Oh, and there's this:

In addition, I'm hearing Nordegren is ramping up her financial demands -- to an estimated $750 million package -- and wants full custody of their children.

Whoa; 750 million bucks, and no kids. I guess the moral is do not ever get involved in divorce proceedings with a viking.

So as one might expect, Tiger and Elin are no longer speaking to each other, according to Radar Online.

"Elin has the nannies take the children back and forth," one source told RadarOnline.com about how the children are moved to and from Tiger and Elin's home. Elin moved out of the home they shared and into a rented house about a mile away.

Recently, one of Tiger's employees spent 20 minutes with Elin at her house, going over upcoming logistics and schedules. "They've had no conflict over the children but they've also had no contact," the source said. "Elin has made it very clear this is the way she wants it."

Meanwhile, Elin is doing what most about-to-be-divorced women do; she's going back to college. Because what if that 750 mil runs out, and she's caught without a marketable skill? Then where would she be?

Woods Adds British Open

2010-05-18T16:22:00.001-07:00

ORLANDO, Fla. – Tiger Woods has added the British Open to his summer schedule.

Woods has a chance to become the first player in the 150-year history of the British Open to win three times at St. Andrews, where golf’s oldest championship will be held July 15-18.

He added the British Open to the schedule on his website Monday.

Woods, who withdrew from the final round of The Players Championship on May 9 with a neck injury, also has the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach and the AT&T National at Aronimink on his schedule.

He has yet to enter the Memorial, where he is the defending champion.

Woods Responds To Haney

2010-05-11T14:20:00.001-07:00

Hank Haney stepped down as Tiger Woods’ swing coach on Monday and on Tuesday Woods responded to the move via his website.

“Hank Haney and I have agreed that he will no longer be my coach. Hank is an outstanding teacher and has been a great help to me, but equally importantly he is a friend. That will not change,” Woods wrote. “I would like to thank him for all he has done for me the past six years.”

Woods began working with Haney in March 2004 and since then he was won 32 PGA Tour titles and six majors.

“It was my choice,” Haney told ESPN on Tuesday. “Six years is plenty

“In many ways because of all of the time that I have spent with Tiger, I may have learned more from him than he has ever learned from me,” Haney said in a statement issued to Golf Channel on Monday. “However I believe at this time that it is in both of our best interests for me to step aside as Tiger's coach.”

Hank Haney Fires Tiger Woods

2010-05-11T14:18:00.001-07:00

Haney walks away from Woods
By GolfChannel.com Team
Posted: May 10, 2010

Hank Haney’s six-year run as Tiger Woods’ swing coach is over.

Haney told Golf Channel late Monday that he informed Woods that he will no longer be his coach.

“Just so there is no confusion, I would like to make it clear that this is my decision,” Haney said in a statement first released to Golf Channel.

“Tiger Woods and I will always be friends, but I believe that there is a time and place for everything, and I feel at this time and at this place in my life I want to move forward in other areas.”

Haney has endured harsh scrutiny almost since the day he first teamed with Woods in March of 2004. The criticism of Woods’ swing has heightened the last two weeks, since Woods missed the cut at the Quail Hollow Championship and again last week when Woods struggled with wild shots at The Players Championship.

NBC analyst Johnny Miller said last week that Woods ought to abandon Haney’s swing principles and return to the swing he used under Butch Harmon when he won four consecutive majors in 2000 and ’01.

Woods won 31 PGA Tour events and six majors in his six seasons under Haney.

Here is Haney’s complete statement:

“I have informed Tiger Woods this evening that I will no longer be his coach. I would like to thank Tiger for the opportunity that I have had to work with him over the past 6 plus years. Tiger Woods has done the work to achieve a level of greatness that I believe the game of golf has never seen before and I will always appreciate the opportunity that I have had to contribute to his successes.

“I have also enjoyed the association that I have had with Tiger both on and off the golf course as I have had some incredible experiences. “In coaching and teaching Tiger I have also learned a lot, not only about golf, but about people and life in general. It has been a great learning experience and along the way Tiger has elevated me in my own profession to a level that I never thought I would achieve before I had the opportunity to work with him. In many ways because of all of the time that I have spent with Tiger, I may have learned more from him than he has ever learned from me.

“However, I believe at this time that it is in both of our best interests for me to step aside as Tiger's coach. I will always look back upon our past half dozen years together as my best days in professional golf. It would be a dream of any coach to have a student like Tiger Woods and for me it has been a dream come true.

“Just so there is no confusion, I would like to make it clear that this is my decision. Tiger Woods and I will always be friends, but I believe that there is a time and place for everything and I feel at this time and at this place in my life I want to move forward in other areas. “Tiger has been just an incredible performer in golf and he has achieved great success throughout his career. First with his father Earl, and then with Butch Harmon as his coach, followed by me, I know Tiger Woods will be successful in the future no matter who helps him. He is an incredible athlete with an incredible work ethic. As we all know, Tiger has been through a lot in the last six months, and I really believe that given the chance, mind free and injury free, we will all see Tiger Woods play once again like we all know he can. I wish Tiger well, not only with his golf, but in finding peace and happiness in all aspects of his life. Tiger knows that if he ever needs me in anyway, whether it be with his golf or just as a friend he can always call. I will always, as I have been in the past, be there for him. From a personal standpoint, I look forward to being able to make many more contributions to the great game of golf in the days and years ahead.”

AT&T National Tiger Woods Interview

2010-05-10T15:32:00.000-07:00

Read the full transcript from today's Media Day Press Conference

EMILY TAYLOR: Welcome to Aronimink. We are all very pleased you could join us today. My name is Emily Taylor, and I am the vice president of communications for the AT&T National.

I'd like to begin today by recognizing and thanking our title sponsor, AT&T, along with all of our supporting tournament sponsors and the media for joining us here today.
I would also like to thank the members and board of Aronimink Golf Club, along with the people of Newton Township for their generous hospitality for being our host for 2010 and 2011.
At this time I would like to introduce the president of Aronimink Golf Club, Mr. David Boucher, for a few remarks.

DAVID BOUCHER: Thanks very much. My name is David Boucher, I'm president of Aronimink Golf Club. It's my great honor and privilege to be president. It's my second year, having succeeded Mike Higgins, who is our tournament chairman for the AT&T.
On behalf of myself, the officers, governors, members, welcome to AT&T National Media Day. As all of you probably know, especially if you played this morning, we have a Donald Ross gem of a golf course. We have had a number of outstanding events here in the past, including the PGA, U.S. Amateur, the Junior Amateur and the Senior PGA, and now topping that off with the AT&T National in 2010 and 2011.
So thanks to our sponsor, AT&T, and other sponsors, the tournament is going to showcase Aronimink bringing professional golf back to the Philadelphia marketplace, which is so exciting for us and for everybody who lives and plays golf in this region. This tournament also carries the mission of the PGA Tour and Tiger Woods Foundation by providing charitable funding for Boys & Girls Club of Philadelphia, Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation, and of course the Tiger Woods Foundation.
For those of who you played the golf course this morning, I hope you enjoyed it. I'm sure it was challenging with the wind up. We are hoping that a combination of fast greens, wind, high rough is going to provide some entertainment for our players and also entertainment for our spectators.
So again, welcome to AT&T National, welcome to Aronimink, thanks for coming today. Special thanks to Tiger Woods for coming today. Thanks, Tiger.

EMILY TAYLOR: Next I would like to welcome our 2009 defending champion, Tiger Woods.
Tiger, welcome to Philadelphia. What do you think about being here?

TIGER WOODS: Well, it's great to be here, first off. Hard to believe we are wearing sweaters.
Today, this morning, actually was a great morning. I got a chance to go down and visit the Honickman Learning Center that Jon Bon Jovi, his Soul Foundation is involved in. Just absolutely phenomenal what they are doing down there. Very similar to what we are doing out in Anaheim, but with the live in component because of the homelessness and the problems that that causes. And seeing the kids and how excited they were about going to college for the first time, where they are going; it's just really neat to see that people like Jon are taking the initiative to do these great things, and it's one of the reasons why we have come here, to try and do the same things that the Boys & Girls Club and what Jon is doing here for the kids.
We are excited to be here with AT&T and Aronimink. This golf course is hard. So I think it will be playing right about 7,200 yards, par 70, and it will be quite a test being at an old Donald Ross golf course. And I think all of the players will thoroughly enjoy it. Right now the greens are up to speed. And this early in the season; still got eight more weeks, so it's going to be fun.

EMILY TAYLOR: Thanks, Tiger.

Q. Just wondering about your back which you hurt yesterday and the reason you withdrew from the tournament; did you get any examinations or see any doctor about it?

TIGER WOODS: Well, it's not my back like it's been reported. It is my neck.
Yesterday I did pull out and it was because the pain is such that, yeah, it is annoying and it's painful, but I can deal with the pain. But once it locked up, I couldn't move back or through. I couldn't actually turn going back and I couldn't turn coming through.
Was it frustrating? Yeah. For me not to play all 18 holes, that was as angry and as frustrated as I've been in a long time. But yeah, it is sore. I haven't had any treatment except for right after the round yesterday. I flew up here as soon, as I get back down to Orlando I'm going to start getting more treatment.
I'll have an MRI on it and see exactly what's going on, why it's behaving the way it's behaving. I'm answering all of your questions before. (Laughter).
It actually started bugging me two weeks before the Masters, and it was just on and off. I thought it was just sore and no big deal. But as I kept playing, kept practicing, it never got better. It actually was getting worse, and now I'm at a point now where I just can't go anymore.

Q. Physically you are having some problems right now, but are you also struggling with your mental game a little bit, given the recent turmoil in your life?

TIGER WOODS: Well, it's certainly not where I would like to have it, there's no doubt. There's a lot of things going on in my life, period, right now. And just trying to get everything in a harmonious spot, and that's not easy to do.
I'm also trying to make life changes, as well, and trying to do that under the microscope of everyone asking me and watching everything I do doesn't make it easy. But I have just so many great friends and peers that have gone through things that I am going through and battling; people have been at it for a lot longer than me, and that helps to be able to talk with them and share my feelings with them. It really does help.

Q. At the Masters, you mentioned that after the accident, you had a busted up lip and sore neck, is there any connection

TIGER WOODS: Zero connection. Absolutely zero. My neck started to bother me when I really started to practice a lot and tried to ramp up.

Q. Why Aronimink? What made you choose Aronimink, as opposed to many other golf courses in the area? Had you ever heard about it before? Have you ever played it before?

TIGER WOODS: Haven't played it. Been out here, walked it, been around it, but just it's also the rich history that Aronimink has. We were at Congressional, another golf course that has a rich history, and I have always been a proponent of why don't we go to golf courses that are like this. We don't get a chance to play too many golf courses like this; so it's a treat for us as players.
One of the reasons why you see a lot of players play Quail follow is it's a great golf course; Riviera, it's a great golf course; Torrey Pines. We don't get a chance to play old style venues like this very often, and when you do, you take advantage of it. And Aronimink was as nice as can be to allow us to come here for two years.
It's going to be a great test for the players. I mean, this is an old Donald Ross golf course, and any time you get to play on a venue that has had so much rich history and a designer look at Pinehurst. All of the guys can't wait to go play Pinehurst, and some of the greens look like that. It's going be to be a great test.

Q. There's speculation about tournaments you may or may not play because of the injury. No. 1, do you have any idea what you may not play now or what you may play? And No. 2, can you assure everybody that if you're that if you're playing, that you will play here?

TIGER WOODS: Oh, if I'm playing, I'll play here, no doubt. A lot is up in the air still, which I don't like. I still need to go home and get a picture on this and see what's going on.
I'll want to come back, and obviously defend at Memorial and play the U.S. Open and obviously play here. But a lot of that is still up in the air right now, and that's not a place where I want it to be, no doubt.
But I'll have a lot more answers after I get the picture.

Q. Is there anything you're going to change about your swing and who works with you on that? And if you show up at a tournament expecting to win, should the public still expect you to win these days?

TIGER WOODS: Well, changing anything in my swing, yeah: Don't hit it left and don't hit it right (laughter). I would like to change that. Also like to make more putts and shoot lower scores (laughter).
I talked to Hank about some of this stuff and we are still working on it. Still got a lot of work to do, and a lot of it is I can't make the same moves as I could before because my neck is not allowing me to do that. I need to get organized. I need to get healthy in order for me to swing the club properly.
As far as the fans expecting me to win, that's their own expectations. If I enter an event, I expect to win. I try to win. I do everything I can to win that championship, and that hasn't changed and nor that will ever change.

Q. Have you thought about the fact that if you had this MRI and they say to you, you could have surgery, but you're going to have to sit out for X amount of months, or you can just play through which way you might lean?

TIGER WOODS: You're taking a big leap there. I don't know. I'll have a lot more answers obviously after the picture and see where it's at.
You know, I know it doesn't feel good right now, and I want to feel better, and how am I going to get there is the task at hand.

Q. In the past you have ignored doctor's advice, in particular, before at the U.S. Open, when the doctor somewhat famously told you not to play, and you had a pretty sharp response to him and you went out and played, and you won. Given that, how will you determine what your competitive schedule might be, based against what the medial advice is that you receive? In other words, how important is what the doctor tells you?

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, it is very important, Tom. Before the U.S. Open, going into that U.S. Open, I knew that I may it's probably like a 90 percent chance I wasn't going to play again that year with my leg broken. So with the instability of having no ACL, even if the bone heals, I still have instability in the knee and I'm going to keep rebreaking it. So I knew that my last shot was going to be that U.S. Open. So, I went after it and somehow it worked out.
This is a little bit different. This is an injury that I know that can get really bad. And I've had numerous friends who have had injuries in their necks, and you just don't want to mess with this. And this is one of the reasons why this picture, it is important to see what's going on so I can do some rehabbing and get back at it.
I want to practice. I want to play. I want to compete. But this is not allowing me to be able to do the things that I need to do in my golf swing to hit the proper shots.
I need to get to where I can do that again.

Q. What are the most difficult shots for you to get on after you've had a layoff? You've just been through a couple of them; what's the hardest thing to work on?

TIGER WOODS: Well, I think it's just the time of practicing is something that I like to spend a lot of time working on my game, and it's also one of the reasons why I think this thing flared up is because I wasn't conditioned to it. I had been away from the game for such a long time and came back and ramped up really quickly in order to try and play the Masters. The body wasn't quite ready for that. You can be in lifting shape, but then to play in sport shape is two totally different shapes, and I wasn't quite ready for that.
As far as shots, I think it's just once I'm able to do the work on the range and get comfortable, then all shots are fine. But I need to do the work.

Q. Is this the furthest your game has been away from your A Game, and if so, what are some of the determining factors?

TIGER WOODS: No, it's not. I've been further away. I made a swing change in '97. I made a swing change again with Hank. I made a swing change back in '93 with Butch, and I remember the first my first weekend playing, I played as hard as I could, and I shot at the time I was still a pretty good player, won a couple U.S. Juniors, and the best score I came up with was 83; this is probably not a good sign.
But you've got to stay the course. And I believed what Butch was trying to get me to do; it turned around. I had a lot of success. Changed again in '97; believed it, turned around in '99. And worked with Hank and took about just about a year and then from basically '05 to now, I've had a pretty good run, as well.

Q. There seems to have been an intimidation intangible to your game. Do you feel like because of the last couple months of you being off that that's no longer there, and if so, how do you deal with that with the other players feeling you're gettable now?

TIGER WOODS: Well, in order to, as you say, intimidate someone, you have to play well, and I haven't done that, at least this year. I've played, what, three events? Last year, I thought I had a pretty good year. And you know, this year hasn't been that, at all.

Q. Good in the wake of everything you've been dealing with in your personal life and coming back to golf, fans in Philadelphia are known for being rowdy or loud; what will you expect from the fans here when you come play here?

TIGER WOODS: I expect them to be loud and rowdy, there's no doubt. You know, I think that they will be supportive. I think this is a great sporting town, period. And to have golf come back to this city, I think is something that they are going to be very excited about.
I hope that people come out and support this event. We are trying to do a lot for kids and for our military, and this is one of the reasons why I started this tournament is you know, I believe and the kids need help. They need to have a direction; in order to have that, we need to have money so we can create more programs, get kids developed. What Jon Bon Jovi is doing here in town is incredible, and we are supporting these type of endeavors.
And the military, I grew up in a military household and my dad was in spec ops. So to have a military component, as well, that's very important to me, especially with a lot of men and women down range right now putting their lives on the line. We need to remember what they are doing right now.

Q. Considering what you've been through off the course and you said right then you can't wait to get back on the course, and now you have the neck; do you say, what's next? Just the frustration level?

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, it is really frustrating, there's no doubt, because I know what I'm capable of doing, hitting shots, and I just can't feel it right now. I just need to get this thing healed up so that I can start working. So spending the time it takes to get better; I haven't been able to do that. I've been able to work in spurts and trying to have to work around this, it's annoying. Before, the knee was good, but the Achilles was bugging me last year, and now that's good. And now this thing is flaring up. It's just getting old, dude (laughter).

Q. When you won the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, it was obvious the pain you were in with each swing; it was visible. This time, no one knew about it and yet the pain was enough to force you to quit mid round. Can you be more specific about the pain, also, I saw you mention tingling fingers; that has to be scary. When did it hurt and how did it feel? Was it a sharp, shooting pain?

TIGER WOODS: Yes, it was. It was very sharp. It's been that way for, as I said, off and on, since before the Masters. And the pain I can deal with, but when it spasms and you can't physically move your neck either way, then I can't play. But I could play through the pain, which I was doing.

Q. Which side?

TIGER WOODS: It's on the right side. You know, as I said, the pain is fine, okay. I can deal with that. I can deal with the headaches and I can deal with the pain, but when it spasms to the point where I can't turn, you can't make a golf swing if you can't turn. That's awfully frustrating for me, because I know what I can do, and I just can't do it.

Q. Have you ever played golf, tournament or otherwise, in the Philadelphia area?

TIGER WOODS: I have not. No, I have not. This is the first time.

Q. At the beginning of this year, they said that you used to be the host of this tournament, but you're no longer the host; is that still true?

TIGER WOODS: That is true.

Q. How will that affect how you deal with raising money for your foundation and the other charities? Is that rule changed at all?

TIGER WOODS: No, nothing changed at all. Still have the same responsibilities. I still do the same things. We are trying to do everything we can to raise as much money as we can for the Philadelphia area and help as many people as we possibly can.

Q. Given the circumstances of everything outside of golf, and watching you at Quail Hollow, looked like you were just going through the motions, how committed are you to honestly playing golf this year?

TIGER WOODS: I am committed. Unfortunately I haven't been able to practice like that, like I want to, spend the hours that I used to to get better. And hopefully I can do that, soon.

Q. Johnny Miller criticized Hank Haney, saying that you need a new coach now. What's your comments to that?

TIGER WOODS: Well, Johnny Miller criticizes everything I do. (Laughter).

Q. You mentioned, you said about two weeks I believe before the Masters is when you first started feeling this? What kind of treatment have you had since then? Have you been taking anything for the pain? How have you been dealing with it?

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, I've been taking anti inflamms to try to calm it down. Been going to the trailer every week to have it worked on. I've got a guy where I live working on it, as well.
So I'm doing everything I can, but it's not getting better. It's actually going the other way. So we need to figure out what's going on.

Q. If you don't get back to the pace you were before, when it's all said and done, would it be fair or unfair to look at this period and say, that's what derailed it; and if that is the case, how would you think you would deal with that?

TIGER WOODS: Well, it's what's happening right now. I've dealt with other things in my life, where people said that I was pretty much done and come back. So the whole idea is just to keep fighting every day. It's all I can do is just fight today.

Q. Will this be the first MRI in this process, and if it's been going on just two weeks before the Masters, was there ever an indication that maybe you should have won previous to this?

TIGER WOODS: No, it never got this bad where I would need one, whether it was the traction or anti inflamms or manipulating the neck, that was all it took to relieve it. But then it would keep coming back and it would keep recurring faster and faster and faster. So it's been kind of unfortunately a sliding slope the wrong way.

Q. Johnny Miller isn't the only guy, analyst, who sees who thinks he sees flaws in your mechanics. Is what they think they are seeing, physical stuff, or is there anything to what they are saying?

TIGER WOODS: Well, I think you can probably pick apart every golfer and they will have flaws in their golf swing. I know I have my flaws, and I'm trying to get those better, as well.

Q. It's been ten years since Pebble does it seem like it's been ten years, first of all, and how is your game different since then?

TIGER WOODS: It's hard to believe it's been ten years. Time flies by. You know, how is my game different? It's a lot different. I hit the ball a lot further now than I did then. Technology has changed so much since then. I remember I had a 43 and a half inch steel shafted driver, and that was the normal in those times. There were still I think one or two guys still playing sorry.
What I remember even before that, like in '96 when I played Davis in the playoff, he was using a Persimmon driver. So we thought that was the big advancement from Persimmon to where we were at, we thought they had big titanium heads in 2000 and now we are with the 460s and you've got Paddy Harrington using 47 inch driver now. Just the game has changed so much; the balls are going so much further. I know I'm hitting it a lot further than I did then. The whole game has changed, and I know mine has, as well.

Q. Just sitting here today, knowing your body the way you do, can you handicap whether you would be able to play at Pebble, or not?

TIGER WOODS: I'm trying everything I can to just get back as soon as I can, and that's just normal even normal practice regime, without having to feel it every time I practice.

Q. When was the last time you played a competitive round and felt 100 percent, and when was it?

TIGER WOODS: Might be December when I was 11 (laughter) Christmas tournament yeah, I was on then. It's been a while. It really has.
My knee was bugging me for over a decade. Now that's fixed. Then I hurt my Achilles in end of '08 and now I've got this. I guess it's I became accustomed to the knee not feeling good, so that game the norm, but now it's feel great. So I can't believe I actually lived through that, I was functioning through that.
Now my Achilles is feeling good and I'm able to run and do things again. But now this thing has acted up. I guess it's been off and on for a while.

Q. While you were out of golf, there was so much speculation about how you would be received when you returned to golf. How do you feel? From your perspective, how have you been received?

TIGER WOODS: Absolutely incredible. The receptions, I'm blown away by it. So many people have been so nice and so supportive of me getting back and playing the game. That's certainly something that I explained at Augusta, I was kind of worried about, hesitant going to play that I didn't know how I would be received.
But there's been so many people that have been so supportive of me, it's made life just so much better, so much more enjoyable on the golf course. You know, I haven't been playing the way I want to, but just to have that type of support, it means the world to me.

Q. This has been such an important event for you, personally and with the foundation; in the past, it's been sort of a festive thing. Do you anticipate any members of your immediate family may accompany you or is it too early to do that scheduling?

TIGER WOODS: It's a little too early for that.

EMILY TAYLOR: Thank you, Tiger and David.

TIGER WOODS: Appreciate it. Thank you, guys.

EMILY TAYLOR: Thank you for coming out. We look forward to seeing you in late June.

FastScripts by ASAP Sports

Woods Withdraws From Players

2010-05-09T13:38:00.000-07:00

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- Dressed in his Sunday red shirt, Tiger Woods bowed his head and sat in silence in front of his locker.

He was supposed to be on the ninth hole at The Players Championship. In another stunning twist for someone whose life used to be so predictable, Woods withdrew suddenly with neck pain that he fears might be a bulging disk.

Woods was so frustrated that he slammed his golf shoe to the floor while taking questions from three reporters.

Sobel's Live Analysis
Jason Sobel is on the grounds at TPC Sawgrass and will be discussing all things golf, from Tiger's WD to the final round of the Players Championship. Jason Sobel

"I've been playing through it," Woods said of pain he first felt before the Masters. "I can't play through it anymore."

Woods said he did not know what caused the injury, only that "playing doesn't help it." He took 10 questions before going into a physical therapy trailer for 37 minutes and leaving the TPC Sawgrass.

This is Woods' first withdrawal from a tournament since the Nissan Open at Riviera in 2006, when he narrowly made the cut and withdrew from the final two rounds because of the flu. He also withdrew from the 1995 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills as a 19-year-old amateur because of a wrist injury from hitting out of deep rough.

The only time he has mentioned his neck was during his news conference last month at the Masters.

Woods was taken to the hospital Nov. 27 after driving his SUV over a fire hydrant and into a tree, the infamous accident that set off shocking revelations of extramarital affairs that led to his five-month break from golf.

Asked at Augusta what injuries he suffered that night, Woods said, "I had a busted-up lip and a pretty sore neck, and that was it."

He didn't mention the pain when he missed the cut last week for the sixth time in his career at Quail Hollow. But it became obvious something was wrong Sunday on the par-4 seventh hole at Sawgrass.

Pinched Nerve Likely Culprit For Tiger
All signs point to a "pinched nerve" in Tiger Woods' neck, particularly with the tingling Woods describes into his fingers on the right side.

This can be caused by a bulging disc, but also by other things including bone spurs -- sometimes there is inflammation in the area that irritates the nerve without an obvious mechanical cause (such as a disc or bone spur).

An MRI may help clarify, but it may not show much, either.

The rotation of his swing is clearly what aggravates the injury since Woods said setting up over the ball is fine, but backswing, downswing and follow-through bother him.

After hitting his tee shot well right, Woods called for an official. He hit his second shot and grimaced, then walked to the middle of the fairway, shook hands with playing partner Jason Bohn and left in a golf cart. Fans gave him a warm ovation, with one man shouting, "Hurry back, Tiger."

Bohn noticed that Woods loosened his neck muscles on the first tee, but he didn't see any signs Woods was in pain until they exchanged pleasantries in the seventh fairway.

"He just said, 'I'm done,' " Bohn said. "Then I kind of inquired about it. I said, 'Are you OK?' ... I said, 'Is it your wrist?' He said, 'No, it's my neck.' I could tell when he shook his hand; he kind of stiffened up. When your neck hurts, it's pretty severe. But you could tell when he was leaving he was in pain."

The large gallery following Woods dispersed soon after he did. Bohn played the final 11 holes alone -- without all the FBI agents dressed in plain clothes, sheriff's officers and extra volunteers who followed Woods around the Stadium Course all week.

"I was a little disappointed," Bohn said jokingly after shooting an 8-over 80. "I thought they were there for me to be honest."

Woods said he plans to have an MRI next week. He said he was having a hard time with the pain, and that there was a tingling sensation on his right side down to his fingers. As he was driven from the golf course, Woods continually squeezed his right hand and released his fingers.

"I might have a bulging disk," he said.

Nearly a hundred reporters and photographers waited outside the physical therapy trailer for Woods, who was whisked away in a black SUV without taking more questions.

Woods started the final round 10 shots out of the lead and was 2-over par through six holes. He struggled on just about every hole, finding a bunker off the first tee, coming up short on several approach shots and pushing several tee shots right.

He said pain was bothering him from the time he took the club back until he finished his swing.

"Setting up over the ball is fine, but once I start making the motion, it's downhill from there," he said.

It was only his third tournament back from a five-month hiatus after he was caught having extramarital affairs. Woods tied for fourth at the Masters, then missed the cut last week at Quail Hollow with the second-highest round (79) and the highest 36-hole score (153) of his PGA Tour career.

Whether Woods keeps his top ranking now depends on Phil Mickelson, who tees off later Sunday and would become No. 1 should he prevail.

ESPN's Jason Sobel breaks down the latest on Tiger Woods, after Woods withdrew from the Players Championship on Sunday with an injury that Woods fears might be a bulging disk in his neck. This could be an injury that takes a long time to come back from.

Woods at times stretched and rolled his neck between shots over the last three days, when he produced some good golf along with some shots that didn't remotely resemble Woods. He popped up two tee shots with his 3-wood, and hit another one at a 45-degree angle. In relatively easy scoring conditions, Woods had rounds of 70-71-71 and was tied for 45th going into the last round.

On Friday, Woods was asked specifically about his left knee, for which he had season-ending surgery in 2008, and his right Achilles, which he disclosed at the Masters

Asked if he had any issues, Woods said; "No, zero. Absolutely 100 percent.'' Asked about the Achilles, he said. "No, I started back running again. Haven't had any swelling. I still feel that I'm explosive in all my exercises I'm able to do now, which I wasn't doing any of that last year. So it feels good.''

Woods didn't volunteer anything then about his neck, but his swing coach, Hank Haney, acknowledged Sunday that it had been an issue going back before the Masters.

"Tiger doesn't make excuses, but I know it has been bothering him,'' said Haney, who has not been at the TPC Sawgrass this week. "I don't know how bad. Tiger is a tough guy. He played the U.S. Open on a broken leg. So when he says something is bothering him, it's probably not real good.''

The recent injury might explain some of the puzzling distance issues Woods experienced. He was last in the field through three rounds (70 players) on the measured holes and was just 65th out of 70 in driving distance on all holes. Woods has traditionally been among the longest hitters of the ball.

Woods has won 71 times on the PGA Tour, including six victories in 2009. He has been top-ranked for nearly five years, after going back and forth with Vijay Singh during the 2004 and 2005 seasons.

Information from The Associated Press and ESPN.com's Bob Harig was used in this report.

Tiger Woods Still With Haney

2010-05-06T23:54:00.000-07:00

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- Golf is the ultimate individual game, the player who swings the clubs bearing the responsibility for where the ball flies and how many times it is struck.

A golf coach doesn't call plays, doesn't make personnel moves. He can't even give advice during a round, per the game's rules.

So how is it that Hank Haney is to blame for Tiger Woods' woes?

Coming into the Players Championship, Woods had played a grand total of six competitive rounds of golf, with an amazing performance at the Masters followed by one of his worst ever at the Quail Hollow Championship, where he missed the cut.

Now the golf world is buzzing with speculation about Woods replacing Haney, who has worked with the game's No. 1 player since 2004 and has been in his employ while Woods won 31 PGA Tour titles and six major championships under his tutelage.

[+] EnlargeTiger Woods and Hank Haney
Scott Halleran/Getty ImagesTiger Woods and Hank Haney have been working together since 2004. Starting with the 2005 season, Woods has won 31 PGA Tour titles and six majors along with 57 top-10 finishes in 76 tournaments. Not a bad run for the world's No. 1 ranked player.

NBC analyst Johnny Miller bluntly called for a change Wednesday in a conference call with reporters to hype the Players Championship, and plenty of others have speculated that Haney's days are numbered.

"Tiger's record speaks for itself," Haney, 55, said Thursday by telephone. "If everyone wants to say it is my fault. ... People are entitled to their opinions. You can't do anything about that. But the results are what they are and the facts are what they are. What can I say?"

What Haney says is that he just received a quarterly payment, that he has not been told his services are no longer needed and that Woods is enduring a complicated time in his life that is bound to affect his golf.

What Haney does not say is that Tiger probably could do better by him in the public arena. Haney will never go there, and it's understandable, but Woods does his coach no favors by not clearing up the matter.

"I'm still working with him, yeah," is all Woods said when asked Tuesday about their relationship.

When asked about Haney after Thursday's 2-under-par 70 in the first round of the Players Championship, Woods made light of the situation.

"Hank and I talk every day, so nothing's changed," Woods said. "According to the press, I've fired him five times by now over the course of my four years or whatever it was, six years.''

That is unlikely to stop the endless speculation about Woods and his coach -- something that doesn't occur with any other player.

Then observers tried to put two and two together Wednesday when Woods played a practice round at the TPC Sawgrass with Hunter Mahan and Sean O'Hair -- both of whom work with Orlando-based instructor Sean Foley, who was walking along outside the ropes and works a short distance from Woods' home.

Hmmmm.

Maybe Woods will ditch Haney for Foley tomorrow, next week or next year.

But is a swing coach among his biggest concerns at the moment? Is a new philosophy, with majors at Pebble Beach and St. Andrews coming up, the way to go for a player who won seven times around the world in 2009 coming off knee surgery?

"He needs a new, fresh, either teacher or just go back to what is natural to his game," Miller said. "What he is working on now, I believe is ... no disrespect for Hank Haney, but it is not working. And sometimes when it is not working, sometimes you have to get off the fork in the road and get back to what brung you there and what won all these championships for him. He needs to do that, and if he was here right now, I would tell it right to his face."

Tiger Woods Get all the latest news, highlights and commentary about the world's No. 1 golfer on ESPN.com. Tiger Tracker

With all due respect to Miller, a two-time major championship winner and a longtime golf analyst, what better endorsement of Haney could there be than for Woods to come back from major knee surgery and win six times on the PGA Tour?

After missing his only cut last year at the British Open, Woods went on this run: 1-1-2-T2-T11-1-2. He helped the U.S. Presidents Cup team to victory by going 5-0, tied for sixth at the WGC-HSBC Champions in China and then won the Australian Masters.

This season also was set up to be phenomenal. Woods won seven of his 19 worldwide starts last year, this year's majors were at favorable venues and nobody was overanalyzing Haney's work with Woods.

Then Nov. 27 happened along with revelations of marital infidelity, an indefinite leave from the game, myriad distractions, tabloid reports, rumors, embarrassment and all manner of gossip.

And three tournaments into the comeback, it is Haney's fault?

Even Woods' old coach, Butch Harmon, suggested this is about far more than swing mechanics.

"Tiger Woods is, to me, his game is in disarray," Harmon told the PGA Tour Network/Sirius XM Radio on Thursday. "There's no doubt about that. That's obvious. Anybody that plays golf can look out there and see that. That he's not Tiger Woods.

"But until he gets his head on straight and he gets his things in his mind settled, with some professional help I would add, I think it's going to be a while before we see the old Tiger Woods. He will figure out the mechanical part of it, the physical part of it. It's the mental part of it, I think, that's hurting him right now."

Miller suggested that Woods view tape of his 15-shot victory at the 2000 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach and try to get back to the way he played when he won three straight majors and nine times on the PGA Tour. It was an incredible year, but it also was three knee surgeries ago for Woods.

There is no denying the excellent work Harmon did with Woods from the time before he turned pro through the 2002 season. Some questioned why Woods would want to make a change, but he did. By 2004, he was working with Haney and part of the burden the instructor undertook was to alleviate the immense pressure on Woods' left knee.

Getting into swing theory is dangerous business. Who is to say what is correct? Such debates have raged for more than 100 years, and there is a reason the likes of Haney, Harmon, David Leadbetter and others become famous. There is more than one successful way to do it, and not everything works for everyone.

Yet starting with the 2005 season, Woods has won those 31 PGA Tour titles and six majors and has 57 top-10 finishes in 76 tournaments. In all that time, he's finished worse than 30th just eight times, with five of them missed cuts. (For comparison, Phil Mickelson has 15 wins and one major, 42 top-10s and 32 finishes outside of the top 30, including eight missed cuts in 110 events dating to the start of 2005.)

Just two weeks ago, Woods reported on his own website that he made a double eagle and shot 63 at Isleworth, one of the toughest courses in the country. And then last week at Quail Hollow, Woods admitted he's had difficulty taking his game from the range to the course.

"I've had moments where I didn't hit the ball very good coming in, and you've got to turn it around," Woods said. "That's the whole idea of practicing and really working on being focused on what I'm doing and being committed to what I'm doing.

"I know what the fix is, and I've proven it to myself, and it's just a matter of going out there and executing it consistently over 72 holes."

Haney is not here this week, another fact that raised eyebrows, even though Haney is rarely with Woods on tour. He went to just four tournaments last year -- Tiger's first event after returning from knee surgery and the three U.S. majors, where he was present only for the practice rounds.

This year, Haney was with Woods at the Masters, where he tied for fourth, then not at the next two events, which is standard operating procedure.

"His clubs are the same, his coach is the same, his caddie is the same, his putter is the same. What's changed?" Haney said. "I don't want to sound like I'm making excuses. I think it's obvious that he has a lot of things going on in his life. I'm sure that if people will give him a little bit of a chance that he'll [be] back to playing golf the way he knows he can."

And if he does, will Haney get any of the credit?

Bob Harig covers golf for ESPN.com. He can be reached at BobHarig@gmail.com.

Tiger Woods Interview at TPC

2010-05-04T15:11:00.000-07:00

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- Tiger Woods, coming off just his sixth missed cut in 241 professional starts on the PGA Tour, shrugged off those questioning the state of his game Tuesday in advance of this week's Players Championship.

"Well, it's getting better, no doubt. It couldn't get any worse," said Woods, who posted rounds of 74-79 at the Quail Hollow Championship. "It's just one of those things where just a little bit of work, tighten things up a little bit and get refocused for this event."

In his previous four appearances following a missed cut, dating back to 2005, Woods has finished third or better each time, including a win at last year's Buick Open after failing to reach the weekend at the Open Championship.

"I've had moments where I didn't hit the ball very good coming in, and you've got to turn it around," he said. "That's the whole idea of practicing and really working on being focused on what I'm doing and being committed to what I'm doing. I know what the fix is and I've proven it to myself, and it's just a matter of going out there and executing it consistently over 72 holes."

Tiger Woods Get all the latest news, highlights and commentary about the world's No. 1 golfer on ESPN.com. Tiger Tracker

Woods discussed how his preparation for tournament play has been affected more following a layoff which included publicly acknowledging extramarital affairs and a stint in rehab than in previous returns from his father Earl's death four years ago and a knee injury last season.

"Well, it's certainly different," he said. "You know, certainly didn't have the distractions last time getting ready for events. You know, helicopters don't normally fly over you on the range and kind of hover and film you. That wasn't the case then, but that's the case now."

Asked whether his errors at Quail Hollow were more mental or physical, he answered, "All of the above. Didn't hit the ball very good, didn't think myself around the golf course very well and didn't putt well, didn't chip well."

Despite rumors that Woods was on the verge of severing ties with longtime instructor Hank Haney, he maintained the two are still working together. He contends that his current swing thoughts remain unchanged from those he and Haney have worked on for years.

"[I'm] just trying to get my posture, my takeaway a little bit more organized," he said. "Certainly trying to make sure I get enough width in the swing. As we all know, I tend to get a little bit narrow at times, and making sure that that gets organized again so I can get the ball up."

Woods also discussed how the mental aspect of the game has affected his performance.

"It's just a matter of, for me, getting my mind where it needs to be," he said. "Certainly I've made a lot of adjustments in my life, and I've gone through a lot. A lot.

"I remember the hard part when my father passed [in 2006] is I really struggled with practicing. That's when I mourned the most because that's when my dad taught me all the basics, the fundamentals, and I really had a hard time practicing and working on my game initially, and my performance showed it at Winged Foot. This time around, practicing has been a place where I can get out there and enjoy it again and get out there and work.

"I've always loved to practice. I'd much rather practice than play, any day. That's always been my entire life. That hasn't changed, and it feels good to get out there and be able to practice all day."

For just the second time in the past decade, Woods can fall from the No. 1 spot in the Official World Golf Ranking this week.

Masters champion Phil Mickelson, coming off a solo second-place finish last week, will leapfrog Woods if he wins the Players and Woods finishes outside the top-five.

"I've had it happen before -- Double-D [David Duval in 1999] and Vijay [Singh in 2004]," he recalled. "The whole idea to be No. 1 and to continue being No. 1, you have to win golf tournaments. And I haven't done that in a while."

Woods also addressed a claim that the clubs from his "Tiger Slam" seasons of 2000-01 -- when he held all four major championship titles at the same time -- are currently up for auction on the eBay website.

"He may have my set of irons, but they're not from those tournaments. They're in my garage," he explained. "I don't know where they're from, but the sets that I won all four major championships with, they're in my house."

Woods Misses sixth Cut

2010-04-30T16:24:00.000-07:00

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- For just the sixth time in his PGA Tour career, Tiger Woods has failed to qualify for the weekend rounds of a tournament.

Woods shot his second-worst round as a professional on Friday, a 7-over 79 during the second round of the Quail Hollow Championship, to miss the 36-hole cut by a whopping eight strokes.

How bad was it?

For only the 6th time in 241 career PGA Tour events as a professional, Tiger Woods missed the cut at the Quail Hollow Championship on Friday.

• Worst 36-hole total of professional career (153)
• 2nd-worst 18 hole score of professional career (79)
• Ties worst 9-hole score of entire career (43 on back 9 today)
• Hit 6 fairways over first 2 rounds, worst of his professional career
• 1st missed cut in non-major since 2005
• Back-to-back double-bogeys (or worse) for 3rd time in entire career (14th and 15th holes today)

Billy Mayfair birdied his final hole for a 4-under 68 and was the 36-hole leader at 8-under 136. He had a one-shot lead over two-time major champion Angel Cabrera, who played in Woods' group. J.P. Hayes matched the Quail Hollow record with a 64 that put him in the group at 6-under 138 along with Masters champion Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson and Paul Goydos.

Playing in just his second tournament since returning from a self-imposed leave after disclosures of marital infidelity, Woods' difficulties are understandable and yet still surprising given his tie for fourth at the Masters -- where he broke par all four rounds -- three weeks ago.

"I didn't play well," Woods said. "More importantly my short game wasn't very good."

Woods put himself in a bind by shooting an opening-round 74 and then compounded matters by being unable to take advantage of three birdies on the front side Friday because he also made three bogeys.

When he bogeyed the first three holes on the back nine -- including the par-5 10th, which he would have expected to birdie -- it was unfamiliar territory.

"That was a pretty big deflator," he said.

Woods has a remarkable record when it comes to making cuts on the PGA Tour. The only other times he has missed the cut is at the 1997 Canadian Open, the 2005 Byron Nelson Championship, the 2005 Funai Championship, the 2006 U.S. Open and the 2009 British Open. He holds the record of 142 consecutive cuts made from 1998 through 2005.

There were plenty of other negatives. The 79 was Woods' worst score on the PGA Tour in the United States, surpassed only by the 81 he shot during the third round of the 2002 British Open at Muirfield played in a driving rainstorm.

His 36-hole total of 153 is his worst as a pro, and the 43 on the back nine ties his worst nine-hole score.

Among the issues: Woods hit just six fairways over two rounds and had back-to-back double bogeys on the 14th and 15th holes.

Now it's on to the Players Championship next week, although Woods first has a weekend off.

"I'll get to watch how it's done," he quipped. "I'll get to see how real golfers do it."

Asked if his problems were due to lack of practice, playing or mechanics, Woods said: "It is what it is. Whatever it was, it wasn't good enough."

Woods Misses Cut

2010-04-30T16:04:00.001-07:00

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – So much for Tiger Woods wanting the attention to return to his golf.

In a shocking meltdown Friday at the Quail Hollow Championship, Woods matched the worst nine-hole score of his PGA Tour career and wound up with a 7-over 79 to miss a cut for only the sixth time in his 14-year career.

He had three-putt bogeys on consecutive holes. He hit a flop shot that ran over the green and into the water. And he bottomed out on the 15th green with a four-putt double bogey from just over 30 feet.

“It is what it is,” Woods said when asked if rust or mechancis were the culprit. “Whatever it was, it wasn’t good enough.”

Not even close.

Making the performance even more surprising is that Woods was coming off a tie for fourth at the Masters three weeks ago, a remarkable performance considering it was his first competition since a five-month break after being caught cheating on his wife.

This was a big step back.

The 79 was his second-worst score as a pro behind an 81 that Woods shot in the wind-blown third round of the 2002 British Open at Muirfield when he was going for the Grand Slam. His 43 on the back tied his worst nine-hole score on tour; he also shot 43 at the Bay Hill Invitational three years ago, and the 1996 Tour Championship.

“He’s obviously got things in his mind other than what’s going between the ropes right now,” said British Open champion Stewart Cink, who played with Woods. “You’ve got to learn how to balance what’s going on in your life with your golf. And if you’re not in a great place mentally, then it sometimes shows up out there.”

This was his first time playing at a regular PGA Tour event with public ticket sales, and the crowd was gracious as ever with a few exceptions. Two fans, including a woman, held thumbs-down as Woods walked off the 15th green. Police also escorted away a fan who apparently heckled Woods as he left the 17th green. A friend of the fan, who declined to give his name, said the fan only said, “No red shirt for you on Sunday.”

Otherwise, it was clear over the last two days the fans were more interested in Woods as a golfer than anything to do with his personal life. He just didn’t give them much to cheer. And he won’t be around for the weekend.

Billy Mayfair was the leader through 36 holes. At 8-under 136 after a 68, he had a one-shot lead over two-time major champion Angel Cabrera, who played in Woods’ group.

For Woods, it was the first time he had missed a cut since the British Open last summer at Turnberry, and the first time at a regular PGA Tour event since the Disney Classic at the end of the 2005 season.

“Give this guy a chance, though. He’ll bounce back,” Mayfair said. “We all know that. Everyone on Tour knows that. By him missing a few cuts here and there, it’s just going to make him come back even stronger. I don’t think anyone out here is worried about Tiger, and I’m sure Tiger is not worried about it right now, either.”

One shot over the projected cut going to the back nine, Woods bogeyed the next three holes before it really turned ugly. He hit driver on the 329-yard 14th hole well to the right on a hill, leaving him a downhill shot to a green sloping toward the water. His flop shot came out too hot and went into the water for a double bogey.

He had little chance of making the cut at that point, though more drama followed. He four-putted the 15th, missing a 30-inch putt.

“I’ve seen him struggle like that off the tee,” said Cink, who also missed the cut. “But he’s usually the magician that gets the ball up and down from everywhere, hits some miraculous shots out of the trees and stuff. But you’ve got to remember, he hasn’t played a lot of golf since about November. It’s hard to just come back and be the magician instantly.”

Tiger Woods adds Quail Hollow to schedule

2010-04-15T15:34:00.001-07:00

By Associated Press
Posted: April 15, 2010

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Out of golf for five months until the Masters, Tiger Woods will tee it up again in only two weeks at the Quail Hollow Championship.

Woods announced on Thursday he will play in the PGA Tour event which begins on April 29. It will be his first time playing at a tournament where tickets are sold to the general public since his spectacular downfall from a sex scandal.

Woods tied for fourth last week at the Masters, which has the most controlled gallery in golf. Weekly badges are secured months in advance, and fans fear losing them if caught showing poor etiquette. Woods received warm applause when he teed off in the first round, and the support was steady throughout the week.

Kym Hougham, tournament director for the Charlotte event, said they’ve been preparing for Woods’ possible participation for some time, and will need to make only slight tweaks with security plans.

Hougham doesn’t expect Woods to run into problems from hecklers at Quail Hollow Club.

“I think our crowds are very respectful and they always have been. The players have always told us that,” Hougham said. “If there is inappropriate behavior, we’ll act on it swiftly. I’m sure that if Tiger didn’t feel we could handle it he wouldn’t be coming here.”

The early commitment was a sign that Woods plans to be helpful to the promotion of tournaments. He had been criticized over the years for waiting until the last day to announce he was playing, except for tournaments to which he had a sponsorship connection.

The commitment deadline for Quail Hollow is April 23.

“It’s going to be a huge benefit for the people who have been waiting to buy tickets,” Hougham said. “Ironically, our Saturday daily tickets sold out yesterday. Friday and Sunday are not far behind, so this will probably put us over the top, which we’re excited about. The economy has made people change their buying habits and people are waiting longer.”

Woods has played the Quail Hollow Championship four times, winning in 2007. He finished fourth last year, two shots behind Sean O’Hair.

But his return will be unlike his other visits after his Nov. 27 car crash near his home led to salacious details about his infidelity.

Tournament media director Lee Patterson said the media credential request deadline was April 2, and there were 72 requests on Thursday. Patterson said they’ll make room for reporters with PGA Tour national badges.

What about others, such as celebrity magazines and tabloids?

“We’ll try the best we can,” he said. “At some point, I’ll be maxed out.”

It’s uncertain what Woods’ pre-tournament plans will be, and how often he’ll be available to the media.

Last year, Woods spoke to reporters in Charlotte after playing in the Wednesday pro-am.

Tiger Woods You Suck

2010-04-10T21:46:00.001-07:00

Masters Chairman Rips Into Woods

2010-04-07T15:04:00.000-07:00

Scandal-hit Tiger Woods has failed to live up to expectations as a role model, Augusta National Golf Club chairman Billy Payne said.

In an unexpected departure from the southern reserve Payne usually displays at his pre-U.S. Masters news conferences, he said one of the world's most marketable sportsmen would be judged in the future by the sincerity of his efforts to change.

"Our hero did not live up to the expectations of the role model we saw for our children," said Payne.

"It is not simply the degree of his conduct that is so egregious here, it is the fact he disappointed all of us and more importantly our kids and our grand kids."

The disgraced Woods is returning to professional golf this week after a break of nearly five months, following startling revelations he had had a string of extra-marital affairs.

"Is there a way forward? I hope yes," Payne said. "I think yes. But certainly his future will never again be measured only by his performance against par but measured by the sincerity of his efforts to change.

"I hope he now realises that every kid he passes on the course wants his swing but would settle for his smile."

World number one Woods, whose golfing dominance has placed him in the pantheon of sporting greats since he turned professional in 1996, had his squeaky-clean image ripped apart after he crashed his car in the middle of the night in November.

EXTENDED BREAK

The bizarre incident outside his Florida home triggered a storm of media speculation over his private life and the 14-times major champion took an extended break from the game to try to repair his marriage to his Swedish wife Elin.

Woods, 34, admitted cheating on his wife and entered rehab for sex addiction before announcing last month he would return to competition at the year's opening major.

In a highly anticipated news conference at Augusta on Monday, he took full responsibility for the marital infidelities which led to his fall from grace and he pledged to be more respectful of the game.

"He forgot in the process to remember that with fame and fortune comes responsibility, not invisibility," Payne said. "I hope he can come to understand that life's greatest rewards are reserved for those who bring joy to the lives of other people.

"We at Augusta hope and pray our great champion will begin his new life here tomorrow in a positive, hopeful and constructive manner but this time with a significant difference from the past."

Tiger Woods Full Press Conference

2010-04-05T15:12:00.001-07:00

Skank Calls Tiger Woods a Liar

2010-04-03T15:40:00.000-07:00

ESPN.com

A woman who said she had an affair with Tiger Woods claims that members of Woods' inner circle, including his agent, knew of the extramarital affairs that resulted in Woods missing four months on the PGA Tour and spending 45 days in a rehabilitation clinic.

In the April issue of Vanity Fair magazine, Mindy Lawton -- an Orlando, Fla.-area waitress -- said that Woods put her in touch with his agent, Mark Steinberg, when the National Enquirer learned of her affair with the golfer.

Woods said in interviews last week that people around him were unaware of the extramarital affairs that landed him in the tabloids.

"It was all me," he told the Golf Channel in a March 21 interview. "I'm the one who did it. I'm the one who acted the way I acted. No one knew what was going on when it was going on.

"I'm sure if more people would have known in my inner circle, they would have stopped it or tried to put a stop to it. But I kept it all to myself," he said.

According to Lawton, when she contacted Steinberg at Woods' request, Steinberg said, "We'll take care of it."

She told Vanity Fair: "That's when their brush-under-the-rug, the cover-up, happened." She was referring to a deal that the Enquirer allegedly made with Woods' handlers to hold the adultery story in exchange for Woods giving an exclusive interview to its sister publication, Men's Fitness.

A spokesperson for the National Enquirer denied to Vanity Fair that the publication held the Lawton story in exchange for an exclusive interview with Woods, who was on the cover of Men's Fitness in August 2007. A former Men's Fitness editor-in-chief told the New York Post in December that the cover story was in exchange for silence regarding any affairs.

Steinberg did not respond to requests for comment from Vanity Fair. ESPN has not received a comment from Steinberg.

Vanity Fair says it interviewed four women who claim to have had affairs with Woods.

Another reported mistress, Jamie Jungers, told Vanity Fair that Bryon Bell, a longtime friend of Woods and the president of Tiger Woods Design, would arrange travel for her to meet Woods. Vanity Fair said Bell did not respond to requests for comment.

Woods crashed his car into a fire hydrant outside his home in the early morning hours of Nov. 27, which unleashed a torrent of stories about his off-course life. He said he went to a rehabilitation clinic in late December for 45 days.

He is scheduled to return for the Masters, beginning April 8. He has not played competitive golf since a win at the Australian Masters in November.

He will hold a news conference at 2 p.m. ET Monday, which will be the first time he's taken questions from reporters, other than five-minute interviews with ESPN's Tom Rinaldi and The Golf Channel, both on March 21.

One-on-One With Tiger

2010-03-23T19:53:00.001-07:00

By KELLY TILGHMAN, The Golf Channel

Posted: March 21, 2010
WINDERMERE, Fla. – There I was, sitting by myself in a spacious room in a beautiful Isleworth home, combing over the list of questions I had prepared for this highly anticipated one-on-one interview with Tiger Woods. This is his first interview since the night of the accident that sparked what many have called an athlete’s single greatest fall from grace. While our production crew meticulously prepared the stage, I waited alone and deep in thought. Then he walked into the room.

I hadn’t seen Tiger in person since we were together at an EA Sports launch party in September. I had no idea what to expect. When he turned into the room and looked at me, a warm smile came over his face. I was happy to see that. It indicated that he is in a good place. As we put on our microphones, we had a few small conversations. He said he hadn’t been watching much golf. He expressed that he couldn’t wait to get back to the golf course. He said that with vigor and passion. You could tell how much he has missed it. He said he’d been hitting the gym hard. It has always been a sanctuary for this man. He looked trim and incredibly fit. All in all, he seemed in good spirits and he had a gentle look in his eyes. It was not the vicious competitor that could easily look through you at times. This was a man who was in touch with his heart.

Watch continuous coverage of Tiger Woods' one-on-one interview with Golf Channel all week!
We began the interview with the simple question of how he, who has controlled everything so tightly his entire life, could let things get so out of control. His answer was honest and contrite. It became obvious to me after a few questions about the night of the accident and his marriage that he was determined to protect those details of his private life. But I could also sense that he wanted to share the pain that he’d been feeling for months. Woods wants the world to know that he’s sorry. He is clearly speaking the language of therapy and it is something he’s prepared to embrace for the rest of his life. I asked him if the therapy that he’s received is similar to an Alcoholics Anonymous program and he said it’s exactly like it. He added that he will be in inpatient and outpatient therapy for years to come, maybe forever.

When you cover an athlete for the better part of 15 years, you get to know everything about his appearance. Before the interview started, I couldn’t help but notice a bracelet he was wearing. I asked him about it. He said it was a reminder of Buddhist principle. He first put it on right before he entered 45 days of therapy in late December. He’ll be wearing it at the Masters and likely for the rest of his life.

I did see the old Tiger emerge when we spoke of him getting back to the golf course. He is hungry for competition. Like the gym, the golf course is a sanctuary for him. That will never change. Tiger admitted that he’s nervous about how the galleries will receive him at the Masters but he’s excited about reuniting with his colleagues and soaking up the memories of his wins there in years past. His mental state might be in question when he tees it up at Augusta National, but physically he’s doing all he can do to assure that he’s prepared.

Tiger Woods ESPN Interview

2010-03-22T22:19:00.001-07:00

Tiger Woods To Return at Masters

2010-03-16T17:50:00.000-07:00

Thegolfchannel.com

Woods said Tuesday he will end more than four months of seclusion and play at Augusta National in three weeks, shielded by the most secure environment in golf as he competes for the first time since a sex scandal shattered his image.

"The Masters is where I won my first major and I view this tournament with great respect," Woods said in a statement. "After a long and necessary time away from the game, I feel like I'm ready to start my season at Augusta."

The Masters begins April 8.

No other major championship attracts such a large television audience, and that's under normal circumstances.

Already the most popular figure in golf with his 82 worldwide victories and 14 majors – four of them at the Masters – Woods returns as a disgraced star who will be under the greatest scrutiny of his career.

"We're all looking forward to having him back. We want him playing," Jim Furyk said. "I'm sure we're also looking forward to everything being business as usual. And it's going to take awhile. We know that."

Woods last competed Nov. 15 when he won the Australian Masters in Melbourne. Twelve days later, he rammed his SUV over a fire hydrant and into a tree outside his Florida home, an accident that set off sordid tales of extramarital affairs. Woods announced Dec. 11 that he would take an indefinite break to try to save his marriage.

"The major championships have always been a special focus in my career and, as a professional, I think Augusta is where I need to be, even though it's been a while since I last played," Woods said.

"I have undergone almost two months of inpatient therapy and I am continuing my treatment," he said. "Although I'm returning to competition, I still have a lot of work to do in my personal life."

Augusta National chairman Billy Payne said the club supported Woods' decision to make his return at the Masters, adding that "we support and encourage his stated commitment to continue the significant work required to rebuild his personal and professional life."

PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem also said he was pleased to learn of Woods' return.

The Associated Press first reported last Thursday that Woods would not play until the Masters, despite other published stories that he would return this week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando, Fla. There has been so much buzz that when Finchem held a teleconference Monday on an undisclosed topic, the call was loaded with media suspecting an announcement on Woods' return. Instead, it was to announce a new title sponsor.

Small wonder that CBS Sports president Sean McManus said last week of Woods' return to golf: "My only prediction is when he comes back, it will be, other than the Obama inauguration, one of if not the biggest media spectacle in recent memory."

ESPN will televise the first two rounds of the Masters, and CBS Sports has the weekend. The highest TV rating for the Masters in the cable era was a 14.1 on the Sunday in 1997 when Woods, then 21, became the tournament's youngest champion with a record 12-shot victory.

"Wow I've had a lot of calls today from friends who have decided to come to the Masters this year," British Open champion Stewart Cink said on Twitter.

"Obviously, the ratings will be off the chart," said PGA Tour player Heath Slocum. "It will be interesting to watch – not only the reaction from him, but from the fans, the media, the players. I would venture to say he might be nervous."

The Masters – "A tradition like no other" is a longtime CBS promo – has restrictions like no other major. Media credentials are limited even in normal circumstances, and the club has tight control over who gets in. Some fans with season badges risk losing them forever for violating rules, such as being caught with a cell phone or a camera. Among the rules: No running.

Most players expect Woods to be heckled, although not as much – if any – at the Masters.

"That's why Augusta makes such good sense," Furyk said. "There's less of that than anywhere else. Everyone is afraid to lose their ticket. The etiquette and behavior is far better than anywhere else because of the fear factor."

Still to be determined is the state of his game.

Woods left for a Mississippi clinic for therapy on Dec. 31 – the day after his 34th birthday – and returned Feb. 11 to prepare for his first public appearance at the TPC Sawgrass when he apologized for his behavior and confessed to extramarital affairs. He took no questions.

He spent another week in Arizona for family therapy, returning Feb. 27 and heading to the practice range to get back into a routine. His coach, Hank Haney, was with him at Isleworth last week.

There had been reports he would play the Tavistock Cup exhibition next week in Orlando, followed by the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill, where he is the defending champion and a six-time winner.

"When I finally got into a position to think about competitive golf again, it became apparent to me that the Masters would be the earliest I could play," Woods said.

Woods twice has gone to a major without having competed after a long layoff – nine weeks – and had mixed results. He missed the cut at Winged Foot for the 2006 U.S. Open after his father died, and he won the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines while playing on a shattered left knee that kept him out the rest of the year.

"It's obviously great for golf that he's back," three-time major champion Padraig Harrington said. "It shows the commitment he has to his family. If he came back earlier, that would give him a better chance at Augusta. He would have been putting golf first. Putting his family first by not warming up for Augusta, it's a good statement."

Woods has been the biggest draw at the Masters since that watershed victory in 1997. That likely won't compare to this year.

His world came crashing down Nov. 27 when he fled his house in the middle of the night, an incident still filled with questions that Woods might never answer: Where was he going? What caused him to hit the tree? What injuries sent him to the hospital? And how could the world's most famous athlete keep secret so many affairs?

Woods lost three corporate sponsors – Accenture, AT&T and Gatorade – and became the butt of jokes nationally, from TV talk shows to Disney stage productions.

This will be the first time Woods has missed Bay Hill as a professional, the only regular PGA Tour event he has played every year. Palmer told the Golf Channel that Woods called to apologize for not being there.

"He sounded good. He had some zip in his voice," Palmer said. "He knows what he wants to do with his life and the way he's going to handle it, and I guess we're going to give him that respect. I would think for Tiger it's going to be tough. It's going to be something that's going to take him a little time to get used to."

Palmer said Woods told him he didn't feel his game "was up to speed to start playing this early."

Keep your SMS private with TigerText

2010-02-28T01:32:00.001-08:00

Tiger Woods might have learned a harsh lesson when text messages sent to his mistresses came back to haunt him but you might not have to.

A California company has launched an iPhone application that lets people kill embarrassing text messages after they've been sent, Agence-France Presse reported.

X Sigma Partners founder Jeffrey Evans told AFP that the program was named after Tiger Woods, who had an embarrassing fall from grace after a number of affairs came to light.

His alleged mistresses used text messages sent by the world's greatest golfer as proof of their liaisons.

"I understand part of the reason people want to talk about it today is because of the name but this is not about people trying to cheat," Evans said.

"If you send a private text message it should stay private."

TigerText sends the intended recipients a message prompting them to visit the website where the message can be viewed.

The message is stored on the company's servers and can be deleted on demand, automatically after it's been read or after a specified amount of time.

The messages cannot be saved, copied or forwarded by the recipient.

Users must download the application, which is also expected to be available for BlackBerry smartphones, in order send or receive the private texts.

Mr Evans said the inspiration for his idea was the belief that text message conversations should remain private.

"Ninety-nine per cent of what people want to keep private has nothing to do with cheating on a spouse or doing anything illegal," he told AFP.

"How many times have you sent someone a text message and told them after they read it to delete it?"

The service costs US$1.49 (NZ$2.13) per 250 messages a month or US$2.49 (NZ$3.57) for unlimited messaging.

Nike sticking by Woods despite off-course problems

2010-02-25T14:14:00.001-08:00

By Associated Press
Posted: February 25, 2010

LONDON – Nike will continue to support Tiger Woods even though the world’s best player has taken an indefinite leave from golf to deal with personal issues.

Nike brand president Charlie Denson said Thursday he does not want Woods back on the course until he sorts out his private life, which has been in the public spotlight since a bizarre car crash outside his Florida home last November revealed allegations of marital infidelity.

Woods issued a public apology last week and has sought inpatient treatment.

“Under the circumstances, the more he deals with the issues and the better he deals with them, the better off he’ll be when he does return,” Denson told The Associated Press.

The sports giant’s $650 million golf sector has been one of the hardest-hit segments of its business during the global recession, but Nike is standing by Woods despite any damage done to its imagine by his high-profile transgressions.

AT&T and Accenture dropped Woods from their roster of sponsorships, and others like Procter & Gamble Co.’s Gillette and Swiss watch maker Tag Heuer de-emphasized him in their marketing.

“We’ve been supportive of Tiger since the story broke and we continue to be supportive,” Denson said. “He’s got issues he needs to deal with and he’s dealing with them. We are looking forward to him getting back on the golf course.”

Woods said last week that he spent 45 days in treatment and he planned to seek additional therapy. He did not say when he’ll return to the course.

“We’ve been in touch with his camp,” Denson said. “We’re very comfortable with where he’s at, how he’s dealing with it and we’re looking forward to his return.”

Tiger Woods makes case as millions pause to watch

2010-02-19T16:28:00.000-08:00

By Associated Press
Posted: February 19, 2010

NEW YORK – Across the media landscape, time stopped for 13 1/2 minutes Friday as Tiger Woods took a swing at getting out of the rough with an extraordinary video apology for his sexual escapades, telecast around the world.

Dozens of broadcast networks, cable news outlets and online streams carried his scripted statement live, allowing a global audience to see and hear from Woods for the first time since his public image went into free fall nearly three months ago.

Viewers by the millions paused to watch and listen as the golf great spoke from the clubhouse at the TPC Sawgrass, home of the PGA Tour, in Ponte Vedra, Fla. Meanwhile, news anchors, TV pundits and morning show hosts sat ready to pounce with their reviews.

ABC's George Stephanopoulos called the speech "one of the most remarkable public apologies ever by a public figure."

"He (Tiger) left nothing on the table," Stephanopoulos said. "This is a man who has thought a lot about what he did."

Rick Cerrone, former New York Yankees public relations director, disagreed. "What I saw was arrogance. … It was basically an infomercial," he said on CNN.

"I think he was very genuine in his responses and his statement," Debert Cook, publisher of African American Golfer's Digest, said on BBC News 24 television in London. "I think we are entering a whole new era spiritually and emotionally for Tiger Woods. There's always going to be the doubters out there but I think we have to take him at his word and watch his actions."

CBS' David Feherty, who has covered Woods on the circuit, said, "I have never seen him appear so vulnerable. … I was very impressed with what he said."

"The vast number of people just want their Tiger Woods back," Feherty said.

Covering Woods' appearance were networks as far-flung as the Golf Channel and business network CNBC (which had a digital countdown clock on the screen beforehand and dubbed Woods' remarks his "Media Culpa").

It was unusual for such a broad swath of TV outlets to hand several minutes of precious airtime to any public figure with a message to peddle, no questions asked.

On the other hand, Woods' message was short, dramatic and – no matter if you bought his remorse or not – gripping when he declared, "I was unfaithful, I had affairs, I cheated. What I did is not acceptable, and I am the only person to blame."

For many of the networks – especially cable news and sports-oriented ESPN – his news-making confessional was a welcome rallying point, rich grist for the mill for such talk-dominated TV. It promised to fuel hours of fresh debate on All Things Tiger, a favorite sport since Woods ran his SUV over a fire hydrant and into a tree outside his Florida home on Nov. 27. The resulting scandal has imperiled Woods' towering status as an athlete and commercial brand.

Moreover, in the Western United States, Woods' appearance was perfectly timed for the major broadcast networks, whose morning news shows were airing at that hour. (NBC was covering the Winter Olympics.)

The stock market slowed at 11 a.m. as traders watched Woods' remarks. Volume on the New York Stock Exchange leveled off, then picked up momentum after he fell silent.

But the fact that Woods' remarks were scheduled on a workday meant many viewers in the U.S. were following from their offices in front of computer screens.

Live streaming online has become more commonplace for big, daytime events since President Barack Obama's inauguration.

Though of considerably less historical importance, nearly as many Web sites offered up live streaming of Woods' apology. Among those who streamed it live were CBS News in partnership with UStream, Hulu.com (which is co-owned by NBC Universal, Fox Entertainment and ABC Inc.), YouTube's Citizen Tube, CNN.com and many others. The Associated Press streamed it by way of Livestream.com.

Other TV outlets where Woods didn't make the cut, such as BET, streamed his remarks on their Web site.

As might be expected, ESPN had the most robust multimedia coverage. The Walt Disney Co.-owned cable network had the broadcast not only on ESPN, ESPNEWS and ESPN2, but also on ESPN.com, ESPN radio and ESPN Mobile.

The network's previous most notable foray into video news was when it quickly streamed its interview with Alex Rodriguez – another megastar making a mea culpa – on ESPN.com just as it was airing on its flagship network.

Though Woods' apology was carefully orchestrated, online chatter – which has not been kind to the golfer since the scandal broke – was dramatically messier. A popular thread on Twitter was what "tigershouldve" said. The suggestions were overwhelmingly sarcastic and full of vulgar puns.

In the middle of Woods' apology, the Onion promptly posted a story headlined: "Tiger Woods Announces Return to Sex." Bill Simmons, a popular sports columnist for ESPN.com, tweeted: "I can't believe Nike killed Tiger and replaced him with a robot."

Woods was the most popular topic charted by Google Trends. The majority of the most popular topics on Twitter were Woods-related, including "Buddhist" as users reacted to Woods' saying Buddhism was helping him through his troubles.

Many sites, such as the blog Deadspin, encouraged viewer feedback. The Huffington Post gave viewers the chance to vote on how Woods handled himself: hole in one, par for the course or a double bogey.

To watch the full video, visit http://65under.com/blog/

Tiger Woods Will Talke Friday

2010-02-17T13:57:00.001-08:00

By Associated Press
Posted: February 17, 2010

MARANA, Ariz. – Tiger Woods will end nearly three months of silence Friday when he speaks publicly for the first time since his middle-of-the-night car accident sparked stunning revelations of infidelity.

However, his agent said Woods will not take any questions from a small group of media.

"This is not a press conference," Mark Steinberg said Wednesday.

It will be Woods' first public appearance since Nov. 27, when he crashed his SUV into a tree outside his Florida home. Woods' only comments since then have been made through his Web site.

Steinberg said Woods is to speak at 11 a.m. Friday from the clubhouse at the TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., home of the PGA Tour.

In the days before Woods' accident, a National Enquirer story alleged the world's No. 1 golfer had been seeing a New York nightclub hostess. Following the crash, a stream of women came forward to claim they had romantic relationships with Woods.

Woods admitted to "infidelity" in a statement on his Web site in mid-December and has been on an indefinite break from golf ever since.

"I am deeply aware of the disappointment and hurt that my infidelity has caused to so many people, most of all my wife and children," Woods said at the time. "I want to say again to everyone that I am profoundly sorry and that I ask forgiveness. It may not be possible to repair the damage I've done, but I want to do my best to try."

Tiger Woods Thought Rehab Was a Joke

2010-02-12T19:28:00.000-08:00

What a load of crap...

From http://outofbounds.nbcsports.com/2010/02/post-229.html.php

The National Enquirer, which began this whole Tiger Woods infidelity barn dance back in November (remember when you scoffed at them for daring to report that Woods was having an affair? Ah, we were so innocent then), has today come up with an amusing nugget. Woods did not learn anything during his time at the Gentle Path sex rehabilitation clinic in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and in fact thought the entire program was "a joke." That's according to an Enquirer source, who claimed that Woods "has been in complete denial the whole time." Woods reportedly left the clinic last week with wife Elin Nordegren, the two hoping to repair their marriage.

Fat chance, says the Enquirer.

In its current edition, the Enquirer prints a report from a source who supposedly has inside information on Woods' stay in Hattiesburg.

The disgraced golfer treated group therapy with such contempt that he caused one female patient to break down in tears, the source says.

"Tiger's so-called rehabilitation is a joke. He went into rehab as a sex addict, and he's coming out as one. He has been in complete denial the whole time," claims the source. "Tiger isn't about to change his stripes. As soon as his wife Elin takes her eyes off him, he will be hopping into bed with the first bimbo that catches his eye."

I'm not sure who talks like that, especially if they know they're being quoted. Yet it's not hard to believe that the King of Golf would just be going through the motions with the rehab program, so that he could possibly salvage his marriage and get on with his life (i.e.: golf). If he was even there at all, that is.

Mark O'Meara on Tiger Woods

2010-02-11T14:16:00.000-08:00

By REX HOGGARD
Senior Writer, GolfChannel.com
Posted: February 10, 2010

It seems the media and fans aren't the only ones trying to make sense of the tragedy that has become Tiger Woods' life. Mark O'Meara, one of Woods' closest friends when he joined the Tour in 1996, weighed in on Woods' plight and how the world No. 1 has handled the intense media scrutiny that has descended on him since he ran his SUV into a central Florida fire hydrant.

"I would have handled it differently, myself, personally, but that's who I am. Whether he's handled it right or wrong, only time can decide that," said O'Meara, who added that he hasn't spoken with Woods since last year's British Open in July. "Tiger is being Tiger. You guys have spent a lot of time with him and seen how he is."

O'Meara, who was on a teleconference for the Toshiba Classic media day, also offered his Isleworth neighbor some advice and an invitation.

"I know he wants it to be private, but it's difficult to be private when he's a public figure. That's part of what's happened in our lives. Media is such a big influence. That helps make Tiger a lot of what he is," O'Meara said. "I've tried to contact him a few times, let him know I've been thinking about him and his family. My phone is always on."

And "O," as Woods calls O'Meara, wasn't the only major champion addressing the Woods' predicament on Wednesday. The LPGA's Lorena Ochoa talked to a group of reporters on a national teleconference Wednesday but was limited in her Woods comments.

"I don't have much to say," said Ochoa, who will make her 2010 debut next week in the LPGA season opener in Thailand. "I think for all of us it was a big surprise and a disappointment in many ways, but hopefully he is taking care of his problems and will be back soon. I don't have anything else to say."

Johnny MIller on Tiger Woods

2010-02-07T15:05:00.000-08:00

RANDALL MELL, Senior Writer, GolfChannel.com
Posted 02/06/2010, 5:07 PM EST

NBC-TV analyst Johnny Miller weighed in on Tiger Woods during the Northern Trust Open telecast Saturday afternoon.

If you missed it, Miller said he normally reserves his comments on players to what’s happening when they arrive for a tournament, but he offered this on Woods:

“His integrity’s been shattered,” Miller said. “More importantly, he’s injured his marriage and his family and it’s going to be tough for him. President Obama did say something. He said `I’m a strong believer that anybody can look within himself, find their flaws and fix them.’ I hope Tiger, I’m sure he’s heard that, knows he has a heck of a road to hoe to get that respect and integrity back and build the game back up again.”

On the challenge Woods faces in a return, Miller said he is going to have to address some personal issues publicly. Miller referenced media reports that Woods has visited a sexual rehabilitation clinic in Mississippi.

“As Phil Mickelson said, he has got things more important than the game of golf," Miller said. "But I really believe he’s the kind of guy, he’s a fast starter when he takes a lot of time off. He’s been injured before, he’s had his father’s death he’s had to deal with. He’ll come back strong. He has so much talent and so much game, but he’s going to have to go through a lot of media blitz. He’s become almost bigger than the game of golf. He’s come past that, it’s almost Entertainment Tonight and People Magazine. Everybody’s going to want to know what he does, what he’s thinking, what he’s been through. He’s been at Gentle Path there in Mississippi. They are going to want to know all these things, but he’s going to have to face the music. He’s going to have to show people he’s done everything he can to repair his marriage and [show] some genuine sorrow in his voice and feeling from his heart that he wants to change and make his life better.”

EXCLUSIVE: Tiger Woods Leaving Rehab By End Of Week; Wife Picking Him Up | RadarOnline.com

2010-02-03T21:56:00.000-08:00

EXCLUSIVE: Tiger Woods Leaving Rehab By End Of Week; Wife Picking Him Up | RadarOnline.com

John Daly Quits

2010-01-29T16:48:00.001-08:00

Golf Channel caught up with an emotional John Daly following a missed cut Friday at the Farmers Insurance Open and golf's lightning rod said that he's finished with golf.

"I'm done," Daly told Golf Channel following rounds of 79-71. "I can't compete. I can't play like I use too. I can't keep taking spots from guys out here playing this bad. It's not worth it.

"I'm tired of embarassing myself in front of (my fans). I can't do it anymore."

The announcement comes after his second missed cut of the season. He missed making it to the weekend at the Sony Open in Hawaii two weeks ago.

After serving a suspension for the first half of the season in 2009, Daly played in six PGA Tour events, missing the cut twice and withdrawing from another. His best finish last season was a T-27 at the Open Championship at Turnberry.

Daly's latest television series, "Being John Daly" premieres March 2 on Golf Channel.

Tom Watson Turns on Tiger Woods

2010-01-29T16:45:00.000-08:00

RANDALL MELL, Senior Writer, GolfChannel.com
Posted 01/28/2010, 9:18 PM EST

Tom Watson has not been shy about praising the skills of Tiger Woods over the years, but he expressed concern in a television interview aired Thursday about how Woods’ bad behavior is affecting the game.

"It’s bad for our game," Watson said of the Woods' sex scandal in an interview with KSHB-TV, a Kansas City NBC affiliate. "It's something he needs to get control of and a handle on and make some amends and show some humility to the public when he comes back."

Watson said some of Woods' questionable behavior on the course can't be ignored, either.

"His swearing and his club throwing, that should end," Watson said. "That's not part of what we want to project as far as the professional golf tour is concerned."

Bookie cuts odds on Tiger Woods playing at Masters

2010-01-28T03:07:00.000-08:00

By Associated Press
Posted: January 27, 2010
LONDON – British bookmaker William Hill has cut the odds on Tiger Woods playing at the Masters.

The world’s No. 1 golfer is taking an indefinite break from the game since a November car crash outside his home in Florida and reports of marital infidelity. Shortly after the crash, William Hill was giving 4-6 odds that Woods would be back in time for the Masters in April. On Wednesday, the company cut the odds to 1-4.

"We’ve only taken money on the one side that he will be playing there, so that’s why we shortened it right up," William Hill spokesman Rupert Adams said. "Everybody who’s had a bet seems absolutely certain that he’ll make it to Augusta."

Adams said they have taken 224 bets and 217 of them are that Woods will be playing at Augusta National. At 1-4 odds, a $4 bet returns $5; at 4-6 odds, a $6 bet returns $10.

Adams said the bets have come from all over the world, with at least one coming from Dubai via the Internet.

Although Woods has not spoken publicly since the Nov. 27 crash, a celebrity Web site reported last week that he was at a sex addiction clinic in Mississippi. Other reports say Woods and his Swedish wife Elin Nordegren, who have two children, were trying to work things out.

"Within the British press there’s a suggestion that Elin has been to see him for a week. Apparently they are getting along quite well, or rather better," Adams said. "Therefore, obviously if on the private side things start perking up, then what better rehabilitation to him than getting on the golf course."

Woods has won the Masters four times. Adams said it’s the “perfect” tournament for Woods to make his return.

"In terms of security and everything else like that, the Masters is perhaps the perfect place. Not just any old chap can get there. The crowds are pretty quiet," Adams said. "They aren’t the sort who are going to start giving him a bit of the old leg-pulling halfway through.

"I really can see why everyone’s backing it."

William Hill is also offering 5-2 odds that Woods will win this year’s Masters, making him the favorite. But bettors will get their stake back if the American doesn’t play. Phil Mickelson is the second favorite at 11-2.

“He’s the favorite for every tournament he plays in,” Adams said. “It’s as simple as that.”

Woods has won 14 major titles, and he needs four more to equal Jack Nicklaus' record of 18.

William Hill is offering 33-1 odds that Woods will win all four majors in 2010, 16-1 odds that he will win three, 4-1 for two and 11-8 for one. Bettors can also get 5-4 odds that Woods will not win any of the majors, but he has to play in all four for the bets to be valid.

Phil Speaks About Tiger Woods

2010-01-27T18:27:00.001-08:00

AFP

Mickelson raring to go, hopes Woods absence is short (AFP) – 5 hours ago SAN DIEGO, California — Phil Mickelson says golf needs Tiger Woods to come back, but while the embattled world number one takes a break Mickelson is primed for "one of the best years of my career." Mickelson opens his 2010 season at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines. The event will be without Woods, who is taking an "indefinite break" in the wake of revelations of marital infidelity. Mickelson, who hadn't previously addressed the tabloid frenzy over Woods' personal life publicly, was reluctant to say much, but he did say the game needed its superstar. "The game of golf needs him to come back.

I mean, it's important for him to come back and be a part of the sport," Mickelson said. "But right now he's got a lot more important things going on in his life. Amy and I are good friends with both Tiger and Elin, and we care deeply about how this turns out. But I'm going to choose not to talk about it publicly anymore, and I appreciate your understanding on that." In the meantime, Mickelson himself is eager to pick up where he left off last year, which he finished playing some of the best golf of his career. Mickelson ended 2009 playing some of the best golf of his career. He held off Ernie Els and outplayed Woods to win the WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai in November. Earlier in the autumn he had won the USPGA's Tour Championship and helped America claim the Presidents Cup.

"I'm anxious and excited to start the year for the reasons that first of all, I feel ready, but second, at the end of last year I felt like things were starting to really come together," Mickelson said. "Taking some weaknesses and turning them into that strength gives me the confidence or the belief that this could be an exceptional year." Mickelson, who lives nearby and grew up playing at Torrey Pines, is a three-time winner of this event, but his last victory came in 2001. He said that after playing Torrey Pines often as a youth, it took him some years to get to grips with course changes, and he was looking forward to a solid start to the season here. "I'm expecting to have a good week because it's a golf course that I love but also because my game is feeling much sharper starting the season than it has been," he said. And Mickelson believes this week is just the beginning of what could be a special season. "Well, my whole career I've been trying to get to number one," Mickelson said, "I just haven't had much success. "But this year, whether or not Tiger is in the field, I still believe that this is an opportunity for me to compete in majors, to challenge him. I've had some great head-to-head success in the last year or two, and I expect this year, with or without him, to be one of the best years of my career."

Copyright © 2010 AFP. All rights reserve

Tiger Woods Taunting Begins

2010-01-27T04:35:00.000-08:00

From NYdailynews.com

For Tiger Woods, it's a sign of the times.

Once-adoring golf fans gave Woods some grief at the Australian Open on Thursday by holding up signs that read, "I've been with Tiger."

Others poked fun at Tiger's catting around with a harem of hotties by displaying a poster of Woods in a pimp hat and holding a scepter instead of a driver.

Woods wasn't there to see it - he's being treated for sex-addiction at a posh clinic in Mississippi.

The world's greatest golfer is on hiatus from the sport that made him famous while he tries to repair his relationship with wife, Elin Nordegren.

Woods' secret sex life was revealed - and his nice guy image was totalled - after he smashed his SUV into a tree outside his Florida home on Nov. 27.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2010/01/21/2010-01-21_fans_turn_on_tiger_woods_taunt_sexaddiction_rehabbing_golf_great_at_australian_o.html#ixzz0dodEJuys

The Real Tiger Woods Betrayals

2010-01-27T04:22:00.000-08:00

Out of it all came the hoards of supposed fans, whining and complaining how they felt disappointed, betrayed and cheated. These are people that had an inability to be role models for their own kids, similar to sheep following a leader for a reason they don't know, and the type of individual likely to bail on a best mate in trouble just as quick as they turned on Tiger. These pathetic and sorry excuses for human beings are the biggest disappointments and each time I read one of their comments or long-winded Mills and Boon style columns about how angry they are, I confess to feeling very satisfied at their suffering.

These do-gooding traitors that used to call themselves fans piss me off. That's right, piss me off. The only thing that calms me down when I read a do-gooder comment on their disappointment and feelings of betrayal is knowing that they probably have a very small penis, and couldn't please any of the alleged 14 (give or take a dozen) mistresses as Tiger did. What a sad life they must lead placing so much on a guy they've most probably never met or knew nothing about except what he did on the golf course. The irony is it's this type of person that you need to be careful of, one minute they're frantically banging away at their keyboard telling us how wrong it all is, the next minute they've got a ball gag in their mouth getting humiliated by the Gimp.

Leading the pack "good fans gone bad" is the owner of Tigerwoodsisgod.com, who was quick to express his change of heart, and also quick to give himself some credit for being mentioned on several famous websites for closing down his site. And just like many of Tigers headline seeking lady friends, he is looking to make money in the sale of the site, which is doubtful at this time and by February 10th we'll see if he sticks to his word and gives up the domain name. What a total fake.

Phew, that was great, I feel like I've just had a handjob from Rachel Uchitel.

Moving on, I confess I'm a bit shocked. Shocked at what kind of individual would buy Ralph Magazine to see Jaimee Grubbs show off her Titleists. The only thing more shocking is who named Ralph in the first place. The only sentence where those two names should be used is "Tiger wanted to Ralph on Jaimee when he found out what a money grubbing fame seeking tart she was".

In her defense, good on her, if I was shagging Tiger and found out major championships weren't the only thing he was accumulating with alarming regularity, I'd probably be in for a bit of good old fashioned revenge too. The only thing stopping me would probably be the fact I'd have to come out and tell everybody I liked dick, and I don't mean that hunk Richard Gere.

Personally I'm glad this all happened because now we know who the real fans are, and if you were a real fan, you would have fallen in love with the way Tiger played golf, and not what he was, or represented as a person, which I think was a guy who probably got a little sick of assuming the role of a person he knew he wasn't, and at the worst, perhaps also a guy who's superhuman athletic talents may have tricked him into thinking maybe he was untouchable and could get away with things that most of us wouldn't dare try.

It's laughable to read so many stories about Tiger and even though Radaronline might have bagged a pic of Tiger holding a coffee (big fucking deal), the only truth we really know know is we actually know nothing. Elin could have been shagging the Windemere milkman, the alleged mistresses might have been paid off as part of an elaborate plot to bring about the downfall and give other golfers a chance. Yet all these Tiger haters are so quick to judge without knowing the whole story, and no matter how many mistresses decide to sell their story to pay for some extra body piercings and Sasha Grey DVD's, you don't have to be Tim Finchem to know it's likely that we're not going to ever hear about the whole story from a guy who named his yacht privacy.

I don't dispute the fact that having an alleged 14 mistresses might not be in the spirit of golf or marriage, but any man with a billion dollars or any fame who travels much of the year and manages to keep his dick in his pants would truly be worth the cover of National Enquirer or at the least a guest on a special reunion episode of "That's Incredible".

More totally random thoughts to come...

Tiger Woods Exposed by Owner of New York Confidential

2010-01-27T03:50:00.000-08:00

Jason Itzler, the owner of New York Confidential, the most successful escort agency ever, has written a book about his life. He made and lost a fortune owning a phone sex business, went to jail for smuggling Ecstasy, then started New York Confidential. He was closed down by Eliot Spitzer, but then his information helped bring Spitzer down. Joe Francis, Jr. Itzler is the delightful chap who introduced Ashley Dupre to prostitution. She soon became a regular escort for Eliot Spitzer, who was later forced to resign as New York Governor after his illegal dalliances with Dupre were revealed in the media. Itzler's illegal activities have been widely reported in the press over the years, and he's done hard time for his indiscretions. Now he's trying to capitalize on an alleged connection to Woods via his since-shuttered escort business.

Here's Golenbock's account of what Itzler recently said about Woods for their book: I first met Tiger Woods in 1994 when he was about nineteen years old. This was in South Beach, Miami when I was the phone sex king. I was very good friends with Chris Paciello, who was the biggest host of the stars at the time and maybe ever. He owned Liquid, the in club. Chris was dating Madonna, and that was pretty awesome. Chris came up to me in Liquid one day and he said, "Do you want to meet Tiger Woods?" "Are you kidding? Yeah, I want to meet him." I had a drink with him. Tiger was a much bigger deal than Madonna because he was so mysterious and rare. Here was this kid who was being treated like a God. He was young and so wide-open, and I could see how much he loved pu—. He was addicted right away. Liquid had the hottest girls in America, and this was a gold digger, star-f—– place. South Beach was always fun and free. The girls circled around Tiger like he was gold. He had money, power, and fame, and he didn't try to handle it at all. If he hadn't gotten married, no one would have cared what he did, but after he was married for just three years, fifteen girls came forward saying Tiger had affairs with them, and it turned out he was a crazy sex addict.

It was a miracle he didn't get exposed years ago with his reckless behavior. He was a time bomb. The cocktail waitresses and the super hot girls were floating around him, and he didn't need me hanging around him, and after five minutes I excused myself. Years later I would own New York Confidential, the finest escort agency in the world. While I was there one of my girls boasted about how much fun she had with Tiger, and years later another of my girls would surface as one of his many mistresses. While Joe Dinkie and Ron Sperling were filming Inside New York Confidential for a reality show on VH1, a model-type came in with her husband. He pulled me aside and said his wife wanted to work with me. That had never happened before. Very chic. I said to him, "She's a classy girl, a pretty girl. I can make her thirty, forty thousand dollars a month if she works hard." The girl, whose name was Cori Rist, had a model body and a model attitude, light brown hair. She looked like she had done a little too much coke in her youth, so she didn't turn me on, but she looked like money. She looked like she worked for Ford or Elite or another modeling agency. As her husband stood beside me on camera I said, "This is Cori, who wants to be an escort with the permission of her husband." Cori worked for me, and then in 2009 she reappeared when the names of Tiger Wood's mistresses started to surface. Cori wasn't the only one of my girls who had been fixed up with Tiger.

Sometime in 2004 I got a call from one of my best customers, a Goldman Sachs guy who had an apartment in Trump United Nations on a high floor. He was a class act, and once a month or every three weeks or so, he'd call me and say, "Jace, I have three young men I want to reward. I want your finest. Three hours. Overcharge me. Whatever you want." On this occasion he said, "Send your best," and I sent him Kaitlin, one of the few hot shit working models making a lot of money, a nineteen year old Brooke Shields look alike. I sent her over thinking it was a Wall Street guy she was taking care of, but when she came back, she was dancing the hula, all excited, bragging about Tiger Woods. She said it was wonderful, that Tiger was amazing, an athlete, and that she was in love. We didn't pay much attention to her then, but in light of what's come to light about Tiger, it's obvious he's always had great taste in women. That last line? Not so sure about that.

The key thing here is if Itzler is willing to reveal the identity of the prostitute who Woods patronized. Notice that Itzler is very specific in the first half of his account. Names, dates, context. But when he gets down to accusing Woods of patronizing a prostitute, we get vagaries. Itzler's story is so structured to allow Woods to be able to claim that though he had sex with a woman who was a hooker, he didn't paid for the sex himself or even have a role in booking the escort. How convenient. The only legitimacy that Itzler brings is his relationship to Rist, which is undisputed. There's a lot of smoke when it comes to whether or not Woods illegally partook of prostitutes. Especially considering his 'relationship' with Rist. But Itzler's account, though somewhat interesting and new, does nothing to advance nailing Woods for doing anything illegal.

TIGER HAD ME IN THE ROUGH

2010-01-27T03:41:00.000-08:00

From News of the World

Waitress reveals romps in golfer's garage and hall - and tells of 'desperate' sex in church car park

By James Desborough, 06/12/2009 SEX-MAD Tiger Woods had an affair with a busty waitress while his model wife was PREGNANT, the News of the World can reveal. Mindy Lawton, who you can see on video below, told how the golf superstar loved frantic sex. "Sometimes I looked like a rag doll after we'd made love," she said. "He really did like it quite rough. "He wanted to spank me and loved pulling my hair as we had sex. He also liked me to talk dirty to him, but hair-pulling was what really turned him on."

Mindy said she fell in love with Woods but soon found out he only wanted one thing from her. She said: "I realise now all he wanted me for was sex. The only time he would call was when he wanted it. "Tiger just used me as his sex toy. I thought I meant something to him, but all he cared about was lust. He is a selfish, heartless man."

Mindy, 33, becomes the NINTH girl linked with the world's richest sportsman as he displayed all the hallmarks of a sex addiction. In an exclusive interview the brunette revealed Woods:

DEMANDED instant, urgent sex when they met up.

ROMPED in five different rooms at his mansion and even in a church car park.

SENT explicit text messages ahead of their sex sessions.

URGED her to wear saucy undies in his favourite colour, red.

TOOK his wife to Mindy's restaurant.

Woods, 33, is already battling to save his marriage to Swedish beauty Elin Nordegren, 29, after allegations of affairs with eight other women emerged following his mysterious car crash last week.

Betrayal
But Mindy's confession to sex in the marital home while pregnant Elin was away is the star's most shocking betrayal yet. Mindy told us: "All Tiger cared about was getting me into bed. "He had an urge and I satisfied it. There was very little emotion from his side although I fell for him. "He has a very strong sex drive and knows his way around the bedroom. On a scale of ten I would give him 12.

"If it was early in the morning and Tiger was going away for a tournament he would call me up for quick, urgent sex and I was happy to oblige. "It was a thrill to be the secret lover of such a famous star. In front of TV cameras he acts shy and professional, but away from that he is very macho, cocky and has a huge eye for the ladies." Click below to see Mindy interviewed on video

Mindy, a curvy 36C, was single and working as a £25,000 a year manager at the Perkins restaurant near Woods' mansion in Isleworth, near Orlando, Florida when she first met him. He would call in up to three times a week with golfing buddies after early morning practice sessions for his favourite breakfast of white egg omelette with broccoli and orange juice.

She recalled: "The first time I saw him he had a baseball cap pulled down over his eyes. I was a little star-struck and helped the servers at his table. We didn't speak, but made eye contact." Within a month, in May 2006, Tiger had called the restaurant asking to speak to Mindy.

He invited her to one of his favourite bars, The Blue Martini, where he would drink in a roped-off VIP room. Mindy said: "I was so excited I was going to have a drink with Tiger Woods. I knew he was married, but whenever he had come into the restaurant with his wife he looked so miserable. They didn't talk and never held hands.

"There was no affection there. But I didn't feel bad about seeing a married man, as to me it was just a drink." But Woods had other ideas and at the end of the evening he told her she "looked hot". Mindy said: "He was drinking vodka, cranberry and mandarin and I must admit I had a few to steady my nerves."

Woods told her to meet him in a shop car park in the Orlando suburb of Windermere near his £2.4million home in a gated community. She recalled: "I followed him in through the gatehouse and was blown away when we pulled into the driveway. Tiger opened the garage doors and we went inside through the kitchen. The house was just fantastic.

"It was about 3am and very dark. I could not see any photos of Tiger and his wife around, but there was a wall lined with trophies." Woods cuddled up to Mindy on the sofa and began kissing her. She said: "He started to strip off my clothes and I took off his. We were sitting on a brown sofa and within seconds we were both naked.

"As a sportsman he is in great shape, but he is also very well endowed. He kept on complimenting me on my figure and kissed me all over. "That first time he was very dominant and knew what he wanted and what he was doing. By the time we finished I looked like a rag doll, but we both had big smiles on our faces."

Mindy left around 5am, due to begin her shift at the restaurant two hours later. Later that morning Tiger walked in with his pals. Mindy said: "He really was very happy and we both gave each other knowing looks." It was the start of a year-long affair, with Woods calling every fortnight or so to meet in a car park before leading her to his home.

Recalling the second time they had sex, Mindy said: "We went to the house but did not even make it into the living room.

Shower
"He lifted me up and I wrapped my legs around him and we had sex against the wall of the hallway. "It was so passionate. Tiger had such strong arms he held me there as me made love." Over the course of the affair she and Woods had sex in five different parts of his house.

As well as the hall there was the TV room, shower, living room and even the garage. Recalling one occassion, Mindy said: "The electric doors had just closed when Tiger grabbed me and began tearing my clothes off. There was a golf cart and a set of clubs but very little else.

"I remember thinking how clean it was for a garage." One place they NEVER had sex was the marital bedroom.

Mindy said: "I saw his bedroom. It had all white linen on the bed, but he did not take me in there. "That was off limits. He wanted sex all over the house, but not where he slept with Elin." Occasionally they cuddled up to watch TV with Woods drinking chilled Bailey's liquer.

Mindy recalled: "Tiger has a huge TV in his living room. The only sport we watched was baseball. We hardly talked about golf, but I did tell him about some shot I had watched him play and he had a laugh. "He was not one to express his feelings to me. I was there for sex."

Despite being the first billionaire sporstman, Woods was not generous to Mindy. She said: "He did not buy me anything, not even a meal." Mindy said Tiger never once mentioned wife Elin, who he had married two years earlier. She explained: "I did not ask him about her, but I got the impression that he was not happy and the marriage was sexless.

"Why else would he be having sex with me? He did not ever want to talk about her but we never really did that much talking. All he was interested in was sex." Mindy said Tiger liked to spice up their sessions by getting her to wear saucy underwear. "His favourite were my red panties with black lace. He had a thing about red and said he always wore it on Friday as that was his mother's favourite colour."

In between sex sessions Woods sent racy text messages, detailing what he wanted to do to Mindy and asking her crudely if she was in a state of arousal.

Dream
Mindy said that after a while she fell deeply in love with Woods, but he made it clear he only wanted a physical relationship. "I really did fall for the guy," she said. "I began to dream that I would some day be the next Mrs Woods. I really did think that he would want to be with me. He is such an attractive guy and what woman wouldn't be attracted to him. Of course it probably helped that he is worth millions."

But by 2007 Woods became more distant and he began ignoring her calls to his mobile. Mindy became used to hearing his answerphone message: "You've reached the right person at the wrong time."

One morning she was surprised by a call from Woods telling her to meet him at 6.30am outside an office he uses for business. When she got there she found him angry that his swipe card was not working and he could not get into the building. Mindy said: "He was very frustrated we could not get in the office as I knew he wanted to have sex.

"He told me to follow him and we drove to a church car park. It was still very early and no one was around. Tiger wanted to have sex on the back seat but it wasn't comfortable. "But he was desperate and insisted that we do it up against the side of the car. Like most of the other times it was very frantic."

The car was a Cadillac Escalade, the same model he famously crashed. Woods hugged Mindy briefly before promising to call her when he returned from a tournament. But weeks later Mindy read that Elin had given birth to their first child, a daughter called Sam, now two. The couple also have a 10-month son, Charlie.

Mindy said: "The calls and text messages stopped after that and I understand why but I was hurt that I was just dumped." She now feels sorry for Elin. "It must be awful for her to know her husband was going behind her back for sex with so many girls," Mindy said. "She must feel very dirty knowing that when he was trying for a baby with her he was having sex with me.

"I guess she will be pretty devastated but in the time I knew Tiger I never got the impression that the marriage was happy." Mindy added: "It's no surprise to me there are other women. "He had such a big sex drive and wanted it fulfilled.

"I guess I was giving him what his wife wasn't. Tiger is so used to getting his way. What Tiger wants, Tiger gets. "I want his wife to know what a cheat he has been.

"He does not care for her otherwise he would not be having sex with me and these other women. I am so glad that I am no longer involved with him. He is just another cheating husband who has been caught out."

Mindy said her closest friend Judy Moreau, sister Bobbi and her parents knew about the affair but were all sworn to secrecy. Judy said: "I used to joke that Mindy would become the next Mrs Woods.

"She showed me some of the text messages and they made me blush. They were just so explicit and not something I'd expected from a family man."

Dumped
Mindy was Woods' first known affair. In the Spring of 2007, just before he dumped her in May, he allegedly began two-timing her with LA cocktail waitress Jaimee Grubbs.

He was said to be seeing Jaimee, 24, right up to when he crashed. He was also having a fling with Las Vegas club worker Kalika Moquin, 27, although that relationship is no longer current, and New York socialite Rachel Uchitel, 34. Rachel recently travelled to Australia with him on a golf tournament.

There has been speculation in America that Elin was chasing Woods with a golf club in a row over Rachel shortly before the late night crash which shattered his carefully cultivated "Mr Perfect" image.

Since then Woods has been accused of a further five flings, including one with a famous British TV presenter. In the crash Woods was knocked out for six minutes but refused to help police with their investigation. Sport's first dollar billionaire was fined £100 for careless driving by the Florida Highway Patrol this week. No other charges were brought.

Divorce from Elin would set him back considerably more. As a billionaire, his payout to her could reach hundreds of millions of dollars. This week Woods issued a snivelling confession in which he said: "I regret those transgressions with all of my heart. "I have not been true to my values and the behaviour my family deserves.

"I will strive to be a better person and the husband and father that my family deserves. "For all of those who have supported me over the years, I offer my profound apology."

Tiger Woods Vanity Fair

2010-01-24T19:24:00.000-08:00

When Tiger Woods finally fell from his pedestal—the car crash, the angry wife, the tales of kinky extramarital sex, the link to a controversial sports doctor—it was one of the greatest recorded drops in popularity of any nonpolitical figure. Given Woods’s impenetrable mask of perfection, and the hints of trouble from one strange glimpse behind it, the revelations were inevitable and very, very costly. Annie Leibovitz catches the icon, pre-scandal, in prophetic isolation, while the author finds the clues in the wreckage.
By Buzz Bissinger

February 2010

It wasn’t until after the early-morning hours of November 27—when Tiger Woods got into his Cadillac Escalade closely trailed by a golf club carried by his likely very furious wife, drove his car far less distance than he putts a golf ball, and hit a fire hydrant—that the tens of millions of us who admired him suddenly came to a realization: this was the first time we had ever seen him do something human, except perhaps for when, at the Buick Open last year, he was caught on video shaking his leg, apparently farting, and then grinning like a frat boy.

We know all too well the unraveling that has gone on since the crash. Tiger’s little car ride was as pregnant with imminent implosion as the one taken by another sports celebrity on the San Diego Freeway, followed by a convoy of Los Angeles police cars, in 1994. Tiger’s story has been driven by sex, tons of it, in allegedly all different varieties: threesomes in which he greatly enjoyed girl-on-girl, and mild S&M (featuring hair-pulling and spanking); $60,000 pay-for-sex escort dates; a quickie against the side of a car in a church parking lot; a preference for porn stars and nightclub waitresses, virtually all of them with lips almost as thick as their very full breasts; drug-bolstered encounters designed to make him even more of a conquistador (Ambien, of all things); immature sex-text messages (“Send me something naughty ... Go to the bathroom and take [a picture],” “I will wear you out ... When was the last time you got [laid]?”); soulful confessions that he got married only for image and was bored with his wife; regular payments of between $5,000 and $10,000 each month to keep his harem quiet. It’s all there and more in what is the greatest single fall in popularity of a nonpolitician in the history of public-opinion surveys: a drop in approval from 87 percent in 2005 to 33 percent, with an unfavorable rating of 57 percent, according to a recent USA Today/Gallup poll.

But why? When soccer player David Beckham was rumored to have been in sexual trouble, it may have been disappointing to his fans, but it was hardly surprising. Beckham just had the look of someone who was born to screw around. The same with Alex Rodriguez. The same with Kobe Bryant. (Is there a player in pro basketball who doesn’t screw around?) The same also with Bill Clinton and John Edwards and David Duchovny and Colorado minister Ted Haggard.

But not Tiger Woods. In an age of constant gotcha and exposure, he had always been the bionic man in terms of personality, controlling to a fault and controlled to a fault, smiling with humility and showing those pearly white teeth in victory or defeat, sui generis in the world of pro golf, where even fellow pros and other insiders didn’t really know him, because he didn’t want anybody to know him. With Woods, everything was crafted to produce a man of nothing, with no interior—non-threatening and non-controversial.

That was Tiger Woods, all of which made him the perfect man and pitchman for our imperfect times, a charming nonperson.

In the movie Up in the Air, George Clooney’s character, Ryan Bingham, travels nearly 330 days a year to fire people with a sympathetic look on his face. He lives his life in airports, and his very emptiness, masked by calculated caring and aphorisms, makes him effective. So it was with Woods, making millions of dollars for endorsing a consulting company called Accenture with smooth and sophisticated ads emphasizing the noble but totally nebulous concept of “high performance.”

But even Ryan Bingham is ultimately no match for Woods. “To know me is to fly with me,” Bingham says at one point, and there is truth in that. But there was no way of ever knowing Tiger Woods—not in golf, beyond witnessing the machine-like relentlessness that made him the most remarkable athlete of our time, and not outside of golf, because he never showed any real part of himself off the course, never stepping outside of the cocoon that he and his handlers, primarily International Management Group, had created. Nothing was left to chance, not even his wardrobe during major tournaments, a careful mix of dark pants and golf shirt and hat picked out in consultation with Nike. He had the trappings of a life: a beautiful blonde wife, Elin Nordegren, who was a former Swedish model; a little boy and a little girl; an obligatory mansion in Florida, outside Orlando. But so much of it now seems like requisite window dressing, props for the further crafting of image and garnering of those hundreds of millions of dollars in endorsements—Nike, Gillette, Gatorade, Tag Heuer, AT&T. It now seems that when he returned home after a tournament and vanished back inside his gated community, the persona he left behind, the one he so obsessively presented to the public, was as empty as Bingham’s Omaha apartment, pieces of furniture without any meaning, a life without meaning.

At the end of Up in the Air, Clooney realizes the error of his ways, that a life shielding human emotion is not worth living, that not everything can be controlled or should be controlled. But Woods, to the bitter end and with a kind of hubris that revealed his fundamental arrogance, still felt he could beat the tidal wave back. When he was taken to the hospital for injuries, a fake name was used. When the highway patrol came knocking, he refused to speak to them for three straight days. It was only when his paramours started pouring out of every cupboard like tenement cockroaches that Tiger expressed some sort of awareness that he was in deep shit, though he did not do so in person but on his Web site. He must have thought the merest acknowledgment of impropriety would be some type of antidote: he was Tiger. For the second time in his life he badly estimated, just as he had a few days earlier when he apparently thought that most fans would accept the story that his wife had a golf club in hand to free him from his Escalade instead of trying to beat the hell out of him for his infidelity. Once again it was sheer arrogance from a 33-year-old man—not “a kid,” as his I.M.G. agent, Mark Steinberg, still idiotically calls him—who continued to think he could fool the world.

There was once, in fact, a sustained glimpse of the real Tiger Woods. In 1997, Charles Pierce, writing for GQ, got inside. Tiger was 21 at the time, on the eve of winning his first of four Masters. For somebody who at the age of two had appeared on The Mike Douglas Show (where, with a perfect swing, he miraculously hit a stunning shot into the center of a net), he seemed remarkably naïve and remarkably stupid about the ways of the media. The interview was largely a series of profane quips by Tiger, such as “What I can’t figure out is why so many good-looking women hang around baseball and basketball. Is it because, you know, people always say that, like, black guys have big dicks?” At another moment, during a photo shoot where four women attended to his every need and flirted with him as he flirted back, he told a joke: He rubbed the tips of his shoes together and then asked the women, “What’s this?” They were stumped. “It’s a black guy taking off his condom.”

There came another joke about why two lesbians always get to where they are going faster than two gay guys: because the lesbians are always going 69. Pierce’s interview, which he taped, was the only honest and open one Woods has ever given. After that the steel wall of insulation came down, spearheaded by I.M.G.

Joe Logan, who covered golf and the P.G.A. tour for 14 years for The Philadelphia Inquirer and saw Woods play close to a hundred times, invariably observed the same thing whenever Tiger appeared at a press conference during a tournament: he came into the room with an entourage that included several security officials from the P.G.A., Mark Steinberg, and often Nordegren, after they got married in 2004. An almost imperceptible nod would come from Steinberg to begin, and a half-hour of questions and answers would start. Some pro golfers, such as Phil Mickelson, wear their hearts on their sleeves during these sessions. Mickelson could talk candidly about his game and the impact of his wife’s having breast cancer. He could also be snarky and pissy. Never Tiger.

“Tiger learned very well to talk forever and say nothing,” said Logan, a co-founder of a Web site called MyPhillyGolf.com, which covers the game both nationally and in the Philadelphia region. For Woods, Logan remembered, an emotional response to a flawless round was “I had a pretty good day.” He never got rude or rattled. He never got irritated with a stupid question, in large part because he knew the camera was always on him. The press conference would go on until Steinberg would give another nearly imperceptible nod that it was over. Afterward, Logan, like other golf writers, would walk out and realize that virtually nothing Woods had said, whatever the cordiality, was usable.

During a tournament, it was not unusual for Logan and fellow writers to go out to dinner and see other golfers, who would at least acknowledge them. But not Tiger. Once a round was over, he did not linger. He often stayed in private houses during tournaments, and the rumor during one British Open was that he took out the existing furniture and moved in his own.

If he was unknowable to writers who covered him, he was equally unknowable to virtually all the other golfers on the tour. They admired him and were thankful for him. They knew of his remarkable 71 P.G.A. victories during his 13-year pro career. They knew he had won 14 major tournaments, leaving him only 4 behind the record set by Jack Nicklaus. Most important, they knew that purses for P.G.A. tournaments had gone from $71 million in 1996 to $279 million in 2008, virtually all of the increase attributable to Woods. But there was always an arm’s-length relationship, this sense that Woods as a golfer was superhuman and they were not, though he was always affable, never antagonistic. Early on, he had learned that one of the rules of pro golf is to conform, a commandment only heightened in his case by his being black in a white man’s game. “He tried to present himself as a normal person,” said Michael Bamberger, a senior writer for Sports Illustrated, who has covered Woods’s career. “What seems clear now is that he lived a very abnormal life all his life in a sport in which guys are very conventional, and if you are not conventional you get ostracized right away.” Whatever demons lurked, he kept them well hidden. Too well hidden.

In the wake of the steamy revelations, Logan, like the general public, feels that Tiger willfully, and fraudulently, created an image designed to make him as much money as possible: “He held himself out to a higher standard he created and built and cashed in on. Everyone feels duped and betrayed. It’s not like some guy who got drunk and jumped in the sack with some waitress.”

With the number of alleged paramours reaching 14 as of mid-December (a figure bound to multiply), it is safe to say that behind the non-accessible accessibility and seemingly perfect marriage to a beautiful woman was a sex addict who could not get enough. There is nothing wrong with that, given that the opportunities for Tiger were endless. But it is hard not to conclude that the only reason he got married was to burnish that precious image even more, family man on the outside and what Logan calls “this whole alternate life” on the inside. Even Hugh Hefner publicly disapproved of Woods’s behavior, decrying not that he had sex with other women but that he tried to lie and cheat his way through his liaisons without manning up to the fact that the marriage wasn’t working.

Things are only continuing to cascade downward for Woods. Sexcapades aside, the most damning blow to his reputation may well be his link to Anthony Galea, a doctor who has been charged in Canada with trying to smuggle an unapproved drug into the country. In the United States, Galea is reportedly suspected by federal officials of dispensing illegal human-growth-hormone drugs to athletes, an allegation he denies. According to news accounts, Woods saw the doctor on several occasions to aid his recovery from knee surgery. There is no proof that Woods took performance enhancers, and sources say Woods is not part of the federal investigation, though as far back as 2007, sportswriters covering him could not help but notice that from the back he was beginning to look like Barry Bonds. But since he was Tiger Woods, they gave him a free pass. Now, whether Tiger is innocent or not, suspicion will linger. There have also been reports that his wife plans to leave him despite Woods’s frantic attempt to keep the marriage intact with what the New York Post called a $5 million “re-signing” bonus. Going forward, it is impossible to trust the motives of Woods on anything, whether he wants to be married for real or to reclaim an image so bloodied that his endorsement career is almost certainly over.

The swirling question is if, and when, he will return to golf. Most observers think he will, but with companies such as Accenture, Gillette, and Tag Heuer basically fleeing for the hills, he would simply be a golfer trying to win a tournament. His focus is such that he can likely still win, whatever the insanity surrounding him, but life will be different. Donald Trump thinks he will come back “bigger than ever,” a sure sign the opposite will happen.

In the end it was the age-old clash of image versus reality, the compartmentalization of two different lives that inevitably merge at some certain point, whoever you are. He exhibited the same superhuman confidence off the golf course that he exhibited on it, apparently convinced he would never be caught despite the stupid sloppiness at the end—text messages, voice-mail messages. He deluded himself into thinking he could be something that he wasn’t: untouchable. The greatest feat of his career is that he managed to get away with it for so long in public, the bionic man instead of the human one who hit a fire hydrant.

The Alleged Inside Story on the Tiger Woods Scandal

2009-12-25T06:58:00.000-08:00

This is from a post on golfwrx.com - make up your own mind if you believe it or not...

As you all know Tiger's agent is Mark Steinberg. I have a Member who lives 10 houses down from Tiger in Isleworth. My Member plays golf with and is a good friend of an IMG insider who got the following information directly from Steinberg and related it to me. I was told that the following is up to date as of yesterday.

On Thanksgiving Day, after he and Elin and the family had Turkey Dinner, Tiger spent the rest of the afternoon on the couch watching football and texting Rachel. After he received and sent text message back and forth to Rachel, he would clear his message box to destroy the evidence. At some point during the afternoon texting session, one of Tiger's Orlando buds called him to see if he wanted to get together at the Clubhouse to play poker with the guys. Tiger agreed and left the house around 7:30 to go play poker. He left behind his cell phone....and one message he had forgot to delete from Rachel.

When Tiger returned home around 11:30 -12 that night, Elin confronted him about the text message she had found on his phone. A heated discussion ensued. According to what I was told, there was more "incriminating evidence" than just the text message (i.e. photos). Tiger told Elin that she was reading too much in to it, and that she did not know the whole story. Tiger went upstairs to change into his gym shorts and t-shirt, came back downstairs were Elin confronted him, again. Tiger gave her the same story as before and sat down in a chair in the living room.

Elin sat across from him. She urged Tiger to just come clean. Tiger stuck to his story and denied everything. At one point Tiger turned away to look at the TV, and as he turned back, Elin, enraged, hit him on the right side of the face with the head of a 9 - iron. When she struck Tiger, she put a huge gash in the right side of his face next to his nose (causing his nose to bruise some), virtually knocked out two of his upper teeth, and broke the bone on the upper right side.

Tiger, scared as hell, ran down the hallway, out of the house to the garage (explaining why he had on no shoes) followed by Elin swinging the golf club. Tiger hopped into the Escalade and tried to leave. As we know Elin knocked out the windows in the Escalade in the process as well as doing considerable damage in the hallway.

When Tiger crashed, Elin panicked and was not sure what to tell the police (which is why there are two conflicting stories from her). When this happened, Elin immediately called Mark Steinberg to tell him what happened, and Mark told Elin to tell him what hospital they were going to, and he would meet them there.

If you remember FHP kept showing up at Isleworth to talk to Tiger, and was told by another FL attorney, hired by Tiger for PR reasons, that Tiger was not ready to talk. This is why.

As amazing as it may seem, Tiger was in Phoenix. Tiger was originally transported to the hospital in Orlando with Elin in the ambulance where they were met by Mr. Steinberg. Tiger was taken in for X-Rays, etc. to assess the damage. The doctors told Steinberg there was not much they coukd do to repair the teeth and the gash, but did know a cosmetic dentist and plastic surgeon in Phoenix who could make Tiger look as if nothing happened. Tiger told Steinberg to get the jet ready and he and Steinberg flew to Phoenix to see the surgeon. The resulting procedures were more intense than what everyone had expected which meant Tiger was in PHX longer than expected. Tiger and Steinberg did not arrive back in Orlando until either late last Wednesday night or early Thursday morning.

Since arriving back in Orlando, Tiger and Elin have been in intense marriage conseling sessions (up to 6 to 7 hours a day) every day! Both Tiger and Elin have told the counselors they love each other, and want to make the marriage work. The reports you are reading on TMZ and RadarOnline are about 30% accurate at best according to Mark.

Tiger has not returned to his house at Isleworth since the day of the accident except for the therapy sessions. IMG has enlisted the assistance of one of its most recognized sports figures, and Tiger has taken up residence in his neighborhood - Bay Hill. Because of the high regard in which Tiger holds him and based on his public persona when he was at the height of his game, the person IMG contacted was Arnold Palmer. He has agreed to intervene with Tiger. IMG is convinced that if anyone can get through to Tiger, Mr. Palmer may be the only person who can.

As to other rumors, my source claims that the moving trucks being shown on TMZ and RadarOnline are moving out pictures and furniture which was damaged during their Thanksgiving Day argument - not because of Elin moving out. Yes, Elin has retained a divorce attorney, but has not filed any papers. As of yesterday, she had no intention on doing so.

Tiger has not made any public appearances or statements due to the surgery and plastic surgery he had in PHX. It will be about another month if not more before he gets in front of a camera. Yes, Tiger is hitting golf balls late at night at Bay Hill out of their teaching center (which is equipped with lights). In regards to Tiger's boat being in Palm Beach this week, along with Rachel; that part is true. However, Tiger is not on the boat, is not in Palm Beach, and Rachel is not on the boat. Her parents live 6 blocks from where the boat is, but that is it.

That is as up to date as I have........

Golf Shafts Asia

2009-12-25T05:34:00.000-08:00

Visit Golf Shafts Asia - the largest supplier of premium golf shafts to the Asian golf industry. Authorised distributors of Aldila, Fujikura, Graphite Design, True Temper, Project X and Miyazaki Golf Shafts.

www.golfshaftsasia.com

Fellow Golfers Knew of Tigers Affairs

2009-12-23T15:01:00.001-08:00

Tiger Woods' fellow golfers knew he was catting around - but kept their mouths shut.

Golf pro Helen Alfredsson became the first of Woods' peers to breach the green wall of silence Wednesday when she revealed it was common knowledge on the circuit that he was cheating on wife Elin Nordegren.

"I heard it last summer during the British open," Alfredsson told Sweden's TV4 station.

That Woods managed to keep his womanizing under wraps for so long clearly galled Alfredsson, who is Swedish, like Nordegren.

"In the quietest water swims the ugliest fish," she said.

Alfredsson, 44, called Woods "cold" and said there is "something odd about him."

"If he just paid for the escorts, I \[would\] understand it a bit more," she said. "Then no one needed to know. But now he did everything and a girlfriend and everything."

Alfredsson, who is married to former National Hockey League player Kent Nilsson, said she wondered why Woods bothered to get hitched.

"When he says to the girl that he cannot see her because he has family matters, when Elin will give birth, is he not a bit cold?" she asked.

Woods' secret sex life started to emerge Thanksgiving night after he totalled his SUV outside his Florida mansion under mysterious circumstances.

Us Weekly magazine, citing a source who spoke with other pro golfers, reported that Nordegren was told by a friend her husband was having an affair.

She then roused Woods from an Ambien-enhanced sleep by whacking him with a golf club.

"At that point, he ran out of the home barefoot and tried to drive away," the source told Us.
Woods, 33, later apologized for his "transgressions" and took an indefinite leave from the links as his nice-guy public image was destroyed by reports he strayed on his spouse with more than a dozen women.

Alfredsson said she doubts Woods will changed his stripes and suddenly become a devoted family man to his wife and two kids. She also said he could learn something from Yankee slugger Alex Rodriguez, whose marriage fell apart amid reports of dalliances with strippers.

"[Rodriguez] said he somehow felt relieved when it came out because he knew he was a bad boy and he was placed on a pedestal to be so good and perfect," she told the station.

"I do not know if Tiger would go so far to say that he can be himself and do what he wants. If dares to do it and keeps it quiet, he can probably run and play."

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2009/12/23/2009-12-23_tiger_woods_fellow_golfers_.html#ixzz0aYViHHP2

Tiger Woods Babe on the Beach

2009-12-22T13:25:00.000-08:00

Rachel Uchitel, the Chelsea club girl who was the first woman to be linked to the golfer, was out and about yesterday, taking a leisurely stroll along the Palm Beach shore.

The revelation that Woods allegedly carried on a years-long relationship with Uchitel reportedly sparked the Thanksgiving-night smashup at his mansion near Orlando.

She became the first in a parade of alleged paramours to surface after the incident, in which Woods, reportedly fleeing his golf-club-swinging wife, crashed his SUV into a tree.

There was no word on whether Uchitel, who has family in Palm Beach, planned to see Woods, who lives about three hours north in Windermere.

Woods' yacht Privacy is docked nearby in North Palm Beach.

Uchitel's lawyer, Gloria Allred, said her client's trip was nothing more than a holiday visit with family.

Woods has made shockingly little effort to conceal his philandering ways -- and that recklessness has wife Elin Nordegren fuming.

Some of Woods' Orlando-based hotties were not shy about telling friends they played a round with Tiger, making the his infidelity the worst-kept secret in town.

"Elin feels that Tiger made a fool of her and that's not something she can forgive," a source close to the wife told RadarOnline.com.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/tiger_babe_LdVNR5CAB30wbuZJYW9aQL#ixzz0aSHanpOT

Boris Becker Sympathises With Woods

2009-12-21T13:34:00.000-08:00

Tennis great Becker sympathizes with Woods
By Associated Press
Posted: December 21, 2009

BERLIN – Tennis great Boris Becker says he sympathizes with Tiger Woods, who is taking an indefinite break from golf after admitting to infidelity.

According to the Bild newspaper, the German said during a taping of the “Beckmann” TV show that will be aired later Monday that he was surprised by the “dimensions and frequency” of Woods’ alleged affairs.

As far as the controversy goes, the 42-year-old Becker says he “experienced the same thing, and can sympathize with him.”

Becker has two sons with his former wife, Barbara, and a daughter from a brief relationship with a London-based model. He married Lilly Kerssenberg this year, and they are now expecting a child.

Tigers Mum Disappointed

2009-12-20T15:58:00.001-08:00

The Thai mother of golf star Tiger Woods is reportedly and understandably disappointed in her son for adultery, but will support him in his personal crisis, reports on Sunday said.

Kultida Woods, a native of Kanchanaburi who met Tiger's late father Earl when both worked at Jusmag military headquarters in Bangkok, "is hurt, angry and disappointed in Tiger," a friend told People magazine.

"She wants to know how he could do this to his family."

Kultida with Elin: `Hurt, angry and disappointed'

The magazine quoted the source as adding: "It was devastating to her. She likes Elin, and adores her grandchildren. She's worried about them. She doesn't want to see them hurt."

"She loves him and will support him through anything, but she needs some time to work through this."

While Tiger's wife Elin is spending the holidays in Sweden, Woods will be spending the time on his yacht named Privacy. A witness in Florida told a local newspaper he saw Woods hitting golf balls, alone, at a driving range late at night.

The friend of Mrs Kultida said of Tiger, that ,"He's devastated about everything he has lost. He'll go through some dark times. It's going to be a lonely Christmas for him."Kultilda would often come and spend her time with Tiger and Elin and in the process grew close to his daughter-in-law.

"She likes Elin, and adores her grandchildren. She's worried about them. She doesn't want to see them hurt," says the family friend. Kultilda would often visit Tiger and Elin, and in the process grew close to her daughter-in-law.

The now uncontrollable media frenzy has resulted in reports that Tiger's own father cheated on Mrs Kutilda "a lot"" when they were married, so this must be such a big blow to her.

Woods was high roller at Vegas blackjack table

2009-12-17T13:07:00.000-08:00

By JEANE MacINTOSH
Last Updated: 10:16 AM, December 17, 2009
Posted: 3:28 AM, December 17, 2009
When he wasn't forking over cash to silence his harem of beautiful bimbos, Tiger Woods tossed tens of thousands of dollars on the blackjack table at a Sin City casino, according to one of his mistresses.

Woods and his high-profile athlete pals, including former NBA star Charles Barkley, spent hours gambling at Mansion at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, purported paramour Jamie Jungers said yesterday.

"I gambled with him and Charles Barkley one night for hours," said Jungers, who has claimed to have had an 18-month affair with Woods. "[Tiger] played $25,000 a hand or more, and Charles played roulette behind us," Jungers told Radar Online.

Jungers said Woods tried to keep his affair discreet around his buddies. "He would occasionally put his hand on my leg, but it was underneath the table," she said. "There was nobody around except the blackjack dealer, the roulette dealer and a cocktail waitress."

Meanwhile, the Manhattan woman who introduced Woods to mistress Theresa Rogers was identified yesterday by Deadspin.com as 39-year-old single mom Tina Trahan. Trahan's role was to pack Tiger's private plane with beautiful women who'd accompany his pals to events and outings.

Original Post

Additional reporting by Emily Smith

Tiger Woods voted top athlete of the decade

2009-12-16T14:14:00.001-08:00

By DOUG FERGUSON
Associated Press
Posted: December 16, 2009

Tiger Woods was selected Wednesday as Athlete of the Decade by U.S. sports editors, a result that reflects 10 years of greatness on the golf course rather than three weeks of headlines about a shocking sex scandal.

Woods received 56 of the 142 votes cast by Associated Press member newspaper editors since last month. More than half of the ballots were returned after the Nov. 27 car accident outside his Florida home that set off sensational tales of infidelity.

Just like so many of his victories, it wasn’t much of a contest.

Lance Armstrong, a cancer survivor who won the Tour de France six times this decade, finished second with 33 votes. He was followed by Swiss tennis great Roger Federer, who won more Grand Slam singles titles than any other man, with 25 votes.

Record-setting Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps came in fourth with 13 votes, followed by New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (6) and Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt (4). Five other athletes received one vote apiece.

Woods won 64 times around the world this decade, including 12 majors, and hoisted a trophy on every continent golf is played. He lost only one time with the lead going into the final round. His 56 PGA Tour victories were more than anyone except four of golf’s greatest players won in their careers.

Woods, who has not been seen since the accident and has issued only three statements on his Web site, was not made available to comment about the award.

Few other athletes have changed their sport quite like Woods. His influence has been so powerful that TV ratings soared whenever he played, even more when he has been in contention. Prize money has quadrupled since he joined the PGA Tour because of his broad appeal.

A new image emerged quickly in the days following his middle-of-the-night accident, when he ran his car over a fire hydrant and into a tree. He became the butt of late-night TV jokes, eventually confessed that he “let my family down” with “transgressions” and lost a major sponsorship from Accenture.

Even so, U.S. editors found his work on the golf course over the last 10 years without much of a blemish. Woods took an early lead in balloting, and continued to receive roughly the same percentage of votes throughout the process.

“Despite the tsunami of negative publicity that will likely tarnish his image, there’s no denying that Woods’ on-the-course accomplishments set a new standard of dominance within his sport while making golf more accessible to the masses,” wrote Stu Whitney, sports editor of the Sioux Falls (South Dakota) Argus Leader.

“The only proof needed are the television ratings when Tiger plays in a golf tournament, compared to those events when others have to carry the load.”

Woods tumbled from the pinnacle of his sport in just about three weeks. The 10 years that preceded that fall, however, represented perhaps the greatest decade in golf history.

He won the career Grand Slam three times over, including one U.S. Open by a record 15 shots at Pebble Beach and another U.S. Open on a bad leg in a playoff at Torrey Pines. He twice won the British Open at St. Andrews, the home of golf, by a combined 13 shots.

Woods won 56 times on the PGA Tour this decade, a rate of 30 percent that is unprecedented in golf. Nine of those victories were by at least eight shots. He was No. 1 in the world ranking for all but 32 weeks in the decade, that when he was revamping his swing.

He did his best work in the biggest events.

Along with his 12 majors this decade – he has 14 overall, four short of the record held by Jack Nicklaus – Woods was runner-up in six other majors. He won 14 times out of 27 appearances in the World Golf Championships.

Woods finished the decade with $81,547,410 in earnings from his PGA Tour events, an average of $482,529 per tournament.

Upper Deck Sticks With Tiger

2009-12-15T14:27:00.001-08:00

CARLSBAD, Calif. -- Sports card and memorabilia maker Upper Deck Co. says it will continue its relationship with Tiger Woods.

The company, and its Upper Deck Authenticated collectibles division, said the two "look forward to his eventual return to the PGA Tour."

Upper Deck CEO Richard McWilliam says the athlete and his family have the company's full support.

Woods is on an indefinite leave from public life and golf while he works to fix his marriage after multiple allegations of infidelity.

Woods has been the company's exclusive golf spokesman and autograph signer since 2001.

The company sells everything from thousand-dollar autographed pictures of Woods to original artwork and autographed shoes.

Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press

In Sweden, anger over Tiger, pride over Elin

2009-12-15T14:11:00.000-08:00

By Associated Press
Posted: December 15, 2009

STOCKHOLM – During the good times, Tiger Woods could find a perfect getaway in Sweden – a quiet and secluded place to avoid the media spotlight.

There have been Christmas celebrations in a remote area of northern Sweden in a house owned by relatives of his Swedish wife, Elin Nordegren. There have been summer days spent undisturbed in the couple’s luxury apartment in central Stockholm. And his wife recently purchased a secluded house on an island in the archipelago, a short boat ride outside the capital.

But if Woods is looking for somewhere to ride out the media storm surrounding his infidelity, Sweden may no longer be the place to go.

“I think his reception would be rather chilly,” said Billy McCormac, an American who has lived in Sweden for 14 years and heads the prominent think tank Timbro. “I think things are just too raw right now.”

The Woods sex scandal has indeed struck a particularly raw nerve in Sweden, where Nordegren’s transition from being a nanny for golfer Jesper Parnevik to the wife of one of the world’s most famous athletes was long seen as a fairy-tale romance.

Over the last five years, sightings of the couple on the streets of Stockholm or in nearby Vaxholm in the archipelago – where Nordegren grew up – helped create a sense of connection to a man renowned for his reclusive persona.

But like the drop in temperatures that brought a blizzard of snow over the Scandinavian country on Tuesday, Woods’ admitted betrayal of his wife has turned public opinion considerably cooler.

“We have taken him to heart and almost viewed him like one of us,” said Niklas Olovzon, a sponsorship and brand expert who heads the communications agency S&B. “Of course that has made this a much bigger deal. … I don’t think we’ll forgive him as quickly.”

Instead, there is an outpouring of sympathy and support for Nordegren, who has claims to fame in Sweden beyond her marriage to Woods. Nordegren’s mother, Barbro Holmberg, is a well-known Social Democratic politician and former migration minister while her father Thomas Nordegren is a prominent radio journalist.

“She comes from two sort of Swedish houses of nobility, so there is a sense that this is personal,” McCormac said. “I’m not sure how much the Swedish public embraced Elin before this. But now, that sense of ownership and that sense of communion with her has gotten stronger.”

That’s been evident in the country’s newspapers during the last few weeks, where the numerous front-page headlines and articles have focused as much on Nordegren as on Woods.

There has been constant speculation about whether she’ll stay with her husband, advice about how to repair her marriage, and jokes about why she used a golf club to smash the back passenger windows of Woods’ SUV the night of his infamous car crash outside their home in Florida. Local police said his wife told them she did it to help get her husband out.

In a country that prides itself on gender equality and independent women, the image of a golf club-wielding Nordegren is a source of widespread satisfaction.

“For us, it was almost a positive thing that she smashed the car window,” Olovzon said. “We like strong women in a lot of ways.”

Britta Svensson, a columnist in the newspaper Expressen, summed it up like this:

“A week ago, Tiger and Elin were the cutest couple on the globe,” Svensson wrote shortly after the reports of numerous mistresses started seeping out. “Now our Swedish hearts are brimming with pride that our own Elin – not a regular nanny but the daughter of a Social Democratic minister and Swedish Radio journalist – didn’t take any … Elin is our heroine.”

The same can no longer be said of Woods, of course, regardless of golf’s immense popularity in the country.

Despite its short summers, Sweden has nearly half a million golfers in a population of little more than 9 million, including a number of top pros like Henrik Stenson.

But to win the fans back, Woods has to get back on the course and win more titles, said Tommy Jeppsson, the editor of the Swedish version of Golf Digest.

“Time has an incredible ability to heal things like this,” said Jeppsson, pointing out that a number of famous men have been able to resuscitate their careers after sex scandals. “When you think about (actor) Hugh Grant today, you only view his scandal as a bump in the road – he didn’t drive off a cliff. I think this will be a bump in the road for Tiger Woods as well.”

Seeing Woods play in a tournament like the Scandinavian Masters has long been a dream for Swedish golf fans. If Woods does decide to end his indefinite break from golf, Jeppsson said that’s not likely to change.

“He would be very welcome,” Jeppsson said. “I don’t think anyone would miss seeing Tiger Woods play golf just because they’re a bit peeved about what he’s alleged to have done.”

But, as McCormac pointed out, Woods may not want to test his welcome too soon.

“I think the media circus needs to die down first,” McCormac said. “Maybe in six months, or, say, around the summer time. (Swedes) are very used to walking down the street, and say, ‘Oh, there’s the prime minister,’ or ‘There’s that rock star.’ Given a bit of time, given a bit of space, I’d say even (Tiger and Elin) will be able to do that eventually.”

www.tigergivesmewood.com

Nike's Knight: Scandal is 'part of the game'

2009-12-14T14:44:00.001-08:00

Nike's Knight: Scandal is 'part of the game'

Posted using ShareThis

Woods welcome in Dubai

2009-12-13T15:40:00.000-08:00

Tiger Woods has been invited to consider Dubai his 'second home' by the organisers of the Desert Classic - a tournament which now looks set to go ahead without the world number one in February.

Tiger Woods has been invited to consider Dubai his 'second home' by the organisers of the Desert Classic - a tournament which now looks set to go ahead without the world number one in February.

Woods has one more appearance left on his contract with the European Tour event and, after staying away this year because of his knee surgery, there was a chance he would be back in two months' time.

But that seems to have disappeared with his decision to take an indefinite break from golf to try to salvage his marriage after his admission of infidelity.

The Desert Classic is run by Golf in Dubai, whose chief executive officer is Mohammad Juma Bu Amim.

He sent this message to the scandal-hit American through the Middle East newspaper Gulf News: "We are with you in this difficult time and respect your request for family privacy.

"As and when you decide to return to the circuit, you can always count on us. We will be more than delighted to welcome you to Dubai.

"Consider Dubai your second home."

He then added: "We would love to see him playing in our event, but at the same time we do realise his number one priority at this time is his family.

"Having the world's greatest golfer in your field is something many tournament organisers dream of, so for us to be able to welcome him to Dubai for the fifth time in eight years was a major boost for golf in the Middle East, especially Dubai."

Meanwhile, Bu Amim has promised the level of competition at the Desert Classic on February 2-7 will be 'as high as ever'.

Woods won in 2006 after a play-off with Ernie Els and again last year when he shot a closing 65 and Els then went in the lake on the final hole.

Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy took his first professional title there this year and aged 19 was one of the Tour's youngest-ever winners.

Accenture ends Tiger Woods sponsorship

2009-12-13T15:11:00.000-08:00

By Associated Press
Posted: December 13, 2009

Global consulting firm Accenture Ltd. has ended its relationship with Tiger Woods, marking the first major sponsor to cut ties altogether with the golfer since his alleged infidelities surfaced and he announced an indefinite leave from the sport to work on his marriage.

In its first statement since the Woods’ scandal erupted, Accenture said Sunday the golfer is “no longer the right representative” after the “circumstances of the last two weeks.” The move ends a six-year relationship during which the firm credited its “Go on, be a Tiger” campaign with boosting its image significantly. Accenture has used Woods to personify its claimed attributes of integrity and high performance.

“After careful consideration and analysis, the company has determined that he is no longer the right representative for its advertising,” Accenture said, adding that “it wishes only the best for Tiger Woods and his family.”

The firm plans to immediately transition to a new advertising campaign, with a major effort scheduled to launch later in 2010. An Accenture spokeswoman declined to comment further.

Accenture’s advertising campaign was almost entirely built around Woods and his success by portraying his greatness on the golf course by making a key putt or chipping out of the rough. If Woods had acknowledged mistakes and said he would be back in a month, Accenture might be able to ride it out, said Rick Burton, a professor of sports management at Syracuse University, in an interview.

But Accenture can’t afford to wait for what could be a long time before Woods returns.

“They had tied everything in their campaign to Tiger Woods it appeared,” he said. “If he’s not golfing, those ads don’t make sense.”

Burton noted that Accenture’s billboards and airport advertising need to be replaced quickly. Without a backup plan, the company might will fall back on something simple and conservative that could highlight its logo.

“It is probably prudent to take a low-key, conservative approach until they determine what their next message is that they want to send,” he said. Going forward, Accenture will have to determine whether it wants to stick with sports or whether its been too burned by what happened and will go another route, Burton added.

“Accenture has made a decision to not continue with their sponsorship. We are disappointed but respect their decision,” said Mark Steinberg, Woods’ agent at IMG. The PGA Tour said it would have no comment.

Accenture has been title sponsor since 2001 of the Match Play Championship, a lucrative World Golf Championship event that draws the top 64 players from the world ranking. Accenture earlier this year renewed its sponsorship of the tournament through 2014. The contract is separate from its business endorsement with Woods.

While not terminating their relationship completely, another major Woods sponsor pulled away this weekend. On Saturday, Gillette, which uses the slogan “The best a man can get,” said it won’t air advertisements featuring Woods or include him in public appearances for an unspecified amount of time. Woods was hired by Gillette in 2007 and has been in ads for Gillette Fusion Power razors with titles like “Phenom” and “Champions” with other stars including tennis great Roger Federer and soccer player Thierry Henry.

However, other sponsors continue to stick with Woods for the time being.

Electronic Arts, whose EA Sports division has been selling Tiger Woods video golf games for a decade, said Sunday, “We respect that this is a very difficult, and private, situation for Tiger and his family. At this time, the strategy for our Tiger Woods PGA TOUR business remains unchanged.” The game’s next edition featuring Woods comes out in six months.

AT&T said Sunday it continues to evaluate its relationship with the golfer. Watch maker Tag Heuer did not return a call Sunday, but its Web site continues to display photos of Woods’ wearing the Link and Golf Watch models.

Nike Inc. said late Friday it supports Woods’ decision to take time off. Gatorade, a unit of PepsiCo Inc., said previously it supports Woods.

Tiger Woods Leaves Golf

2009-12-11T19:32:00.000-08:00

Woods taking indefinite leave from golf
By DOUG FERGUSON
Associated Press
Posted: December 11, 2009

Tiger Woods will take an indefinite leave from golf to try to save his marriage, the biggest fallout yet from two shocking weeks filled with allegations of extramarital relations with several women.

“I need to focus my attention on being a better husband, father, and person,” Woods said on his Web site Friday.

Woods and his wife, Elin, have been married five years and have a 2-year-old daughter and a 10-month-old son.

The announcement came a fortnight after Woods crashed his car into a tree outside his Florida home, setting in motion a stunning sequence of revelations that have now derailed the career of the world’s No. 1 player, who for 13 years rarely made news off the golf course.

“I am deeply aware of the disappointment and hurt that my infidelity has caused to so many people, most of all my wife and children,” Woods said. “I want to say again to everyone that I am profoundly sorry and that I ask forgiveness. It may not be possible to repair the damage I’ve done, but I want to do my best to try.”

Woods has not been seen in public since the accident.

He gave no indication when he might return. Woods is pursuing the record 18 major championship titles won by Jack Nicklaus. Woods, who did not win a major this year, has 14.

The Masters, where Woods has won four times, is April 8-11. The U.S. Open is at Pebble Beach, where Woods won by a record 15 strokes in 2000, and the British Open returns to St. Andrews, where he has won twice by a combined 13 shots.

It will be the second straight year that a PGA Tour season begins without its star. A year ago, Woods was recovering from reconstructive knee surgery that kept him out a total of eight months.

“We knew before he was coming back,” said Steve Stricker, one of Woods’ favorite players on Tour. “Now, we’re not sure when he’s coming back. But this sounds good. I hope everything works out for him.”

The PGA Tour supported the decision.

“His priorities are where they need to be, and we will continue to respect and honor his family’s request for privacy,” PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said in a statement, the tour’s first public comment on the issue. “We look forward to Tiger’s return to the PGA Tour when he determines the time is right for him.”

Woods’ agent Mark Steinberg told The Associated Press that it was the right decision for Woods and his family.

“The entirety of someone’s life is more important than just a professional career,” Steinberg said in an e-mail to the AP. “What matters most is a young family that is trying to cope with difficult life issues in a secluded and caring way. Whenever Tiger may return to the game should be on the family’s terms alone.”

Woods was out of action from July 2008 until the end of February this year, and television ratings dropped 50 percent. The tour is trying to renew a half-dozen title sponsors, and it is to begin negotiations on the next television contract later next year.

Woods’ corporate sponsors have stood by him for now.

“Tiger has been part of Nike for more than a decade,” Nike said in a statement Friday. “He is the best golfer in the world and one of the greatest athletes of his era. We look forward to his return to golf. He and his family have Nike’s full support.”

Steinberg said it would be “premature and inappropriate” to talk about Woods’ specific business relationships.

“Suffice it to say, we have had thoughtful conversations and his sponsors have been open to a solution-oriented dialogue,” Steinberg said. “Of course, each sponsor has unique considerations and ultimately the decisions they make we would fully understand and accept.”

Earlier this year, Woods became the world’s first athlete to surpass $1 billion in career earnings, according to Forbes magazine. His sponsors include Nike, Gillette, AT&T, Gatorade, Accenture and Tag Heuer.

Woods last played a tournament Nov. 15 when he won the Australian Masters for his 82nd victory around the world.

Stricker, who went undefeated as Woods’ partner at the Presidents Cup, said his leave was the right decision.

“It’s great that he’s going to put his family first and work things out,” Stricker said. “Golf will always be there. He wants to make sure his marriage is right and everything is good on the homefront. We’ll sure miss him on tour until he gets things taken care of.”

Woods also indicated he would step away from the work of the Tiger Woods Foundation, which has served some 10 million children.

“There are millions of young people who have truly changed their lives through the foundation’s programs, and millions more still counting on us for help,” Woods said in a separate statement through his foundation. “I am committed to them and to the foundation’s excellent work, and I know my staff will continue these efforts during my absence.”

Tiger Woods Holly Sampson

2009-12-11T15:34:00.000-08:00

See pornstar Holly Sampson talk about Tiger Woods on this special Tiger Woods Mistress Page

UK court issues injunction in Woods case

2009-12-11T15:30:00.000-08:00

LONDON – A British judge barred journalists in the country from publishing some material about Tiger Woods.

An injunction issued on Thursday even blocks media, including The Associated Press, from revealing the details of the order itself. As a result, media who obey the order cannot tell the public what they have been barred from revealing.

News organizations based outside of the UK ignored the order, however. The celebrity Web site TMZ published a copy of the injunction.

The order was imposed on Thursday by High Court Justice David Eady after it was sought by Schillings, the firm representing Woods in Britain.

London-based media lawyer Nigel Tait said such an injunction would have been unlikely in the United States, where reporting on the private lives of public figures is given less protection.

Britain has no formal privacy law but it is a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights, which guarantees the right to respect for privacy and family life. Celebrities have increasingly used this clause to fight media exposes.

They also have sought redress in British laws governing libel, which have traditionally been seen as friendlier to claimants than those in the United States.

Many foreigners have sued the media over articles they would likely have lost in their own countries. Libel laws in the United States, for example, require someone to prove that an article was both false and published maliciously. British law places the burden of proof on the publisher.

Woods has been dogged by questions about his personal life in the fortnight since a car accident outside his home in the middle of the night led to the release of sordid allegations about multiple affairs.

The world’s No. 1 golfer issued a public apology after disclosing his “personal failings” and acknowledged he had “not been true to my values and the behavior my family deserves.”

Though he has appealed for privacy, allegations of illicit liaisons by Woods have been regularly appearing in global media.

This has been especially true in Britain, where the tabloid press seized upon the story, offering a daily account of the number of women who have claimed affairs with Woods, often along with the purported details.

“The lawyers are trying to put a lid on these allegations, to contain them before they get to a level that’s perhaps just salacious,” media lawyer Ambi Sitham said. “Levels of privacy still exist.”

Tabloids put Tiger Woods' mistress count at 6, or 7 -- or 8

2009-12-08T15:38:00.001-08:00

New York and British tabloids are keeping up the count of women linked to Tiger Woods, including two more swimsuit models and an Orlando waitress.

Some have settled on six, and others put the count as high as eight.

The Daily News says model Cori Rist, 31, was spotted with Woods as recently as four weeks ago and began calling friends this weekend to say her relationship with Woods had begun to surface.

The News quotes her as saying Woods flew her to secret meetings around the country when he was competing.

The News and TMZ.com say Woods frequented VIP rooms at the Blue Martini and Club 23, where he had been known to drop $1,500 a night. TMZ.com reports that Woods visited Club 23 so often that managers called a private section of the lounge "The Tiger Room."

The Daily News says Oprah Winfrey has reportedly been in touch with Woods to offer advice -- and an outlet to tell his side of the story.

The Chicago Sun-Times quotes unidentified sources at the MGM Grand and Mandalay Bay in Vegas as saying Woods' usual procedure was to have his bodyguards approach good-looking women. "Once the girls went to his table, he'd just take it from there," an MGM staffer is quoted as saying.

As for an eighth sighting, The New York Post quotes the lawyer for yet another unidentified former Florida cocktail waitress linked to Woods as saying his client has a corporate job and doesn't want to be identified -- yet.

The Sun in London offers its own unique coverage on the Woods saga

Tiger Woods Jaimee Grubbs Photos

2009-12-03T13:11:00.000-08:00

No Payday For Tigers Alleged Mistress

2009-12-03T13:08:00.000-08:00

From: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/03/tiger-woods-bribe-1-milli_n_378683.html

UPDATE, 12:37 PM: TMZ reports that Uchitel and Tiger Woods spoke on the phone last night "for approximately a half hour" and that no payout was offered. But the report adds that "we have no knowledge one way or the other" if an offer has been made since then.

EARLIER:
Rachel Uchitel was scheduled to hold a press conference today, reportedly to admit to her alleged affair with Tiger Woods. Uchitel's attorney, Gloria Allred, canceled the news conference this morning due to "unforeseen circumstances." Now, RadarOnline.com is reporting that Woods' camp has offered Uchitel $1 million to keep quiet. According to the post, Allred would not comment on the rumor.

This report follows rumors that Woods is paying his wife a "hefty seven-figure amount" to stay with him.

Click here for photos of Uchitel. Pictures of another alleged mistress, Jaimee Grubbs, are here and here, and a video of a third woman rumored to be involved with Woods, Kalika Moquin, can be seen here.

Tiger Woods Still a Legend

2009-12-02T16:29:00.002-08:00

Parnevik Says Don't Just Do It

2009-12-02T15:53:00.001-08:00

Jesper Parnevik, the Swedish golfer who along with his wife, Mia, introduced Elin Nordegren to Tiger Woods, is none too pleased with the world's No. 1 golfer.

Parnevik, 44, who is playing at the PGA Tour's Qualifying Tournament in West Palm Beach, Fla., told the Golf Channel on Wednesday that "I really feel sorry for Elin," in light of reports that Woods has been unfaithful.

Woods issued an apology on his website Wednesday for "transgressions," in the wake of a report that he had a 31-month affair with a Los Angeles woman.

Nordegren, 29, began working for the Parneviks as a nanny in 2000. She was first introduced to Woods at the 2001 British Open and they were married in 2004.

"I would be especially sad about it since I'm kind of -- I really feel sorry for Elin -- since me and my wife were at fault for hooking her up with him," Parnevik said. "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."

In a statement issued Wednesday, Woods strongly denied any physical altercation between him and his wife. "The stories in particular that physical violence played any role in the car accident were utterly false and malicious."

According to Windermere (Fla.) police chief Daniel Saylor, Woods' wife of five years used a golf club to break the back window of Woods' SUV to get him out of the car after she heard the accident in the early hours of Saturday.

Parnevik, a five-time PGA Tour winner, said he has had no contact with Woods since the accident on Friday.

"It's a private thing of course," he said. "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."

Tiger: I am far short of perfect. - Golf Video | Golf Channel

2009-12-02T15:51:00.000-08:00

Tiger: I am far short of perfect. - Golf Video | Golf Channel

Woods Admits Transgression

2009-12-02T13:25:00.001-08:00

ESPN.com news services

Tiger Woods, charged with careless driving and fined $164 by Florida authorities on Tuesday and squarely in the crosshairs of the celebrity and tabloid media, issued a statement Wednesday apologizing for actions he did not specify.

"I have let my family down and I regret those transgressions with all of my heart," Woods said on his Web site. "I have not been true to my values and the behavior my family deserves. I am not without faults and I am far short of perfect. I am dealing with my behavior and personal failings behind closed doors with my family. Those feelings should be shared by us alone.

Woods I have let my family down and I regret those transgressions with all of my heart. I have not been true to my values and the behavior my family deserves. I am not without faults and I am far short of perfect. I am dealing with my behavior and personal failings behind closed doors with my family. Those feelings should be shared by us alone.
” -- Statement by Tiger Woods

"Although I am a well-known person and have made my career as a professional athlete, I have been dismayed to realize the full extent of what tabloid scrutiny really means. For the last week, my family and I have been hounded to expose intimate details of our personal lives. The stories in particular that physical violence played any role in the car accident were utterly false and malicious. Elin has always done more to support our family and shown more grace than anyone could possibly expect.

"But no matter how intense curiosity about public figures can be, there is an important and deep principle at stake which is the right to some simple, human measure of privacy. I realize there are some who don't share my view on that. But for me, the virtue of privacy is one that must be protected in matters that are intimate and within one's own family. Personal sins should not require press releases and problems within a family shouldn't have to mean public confessions.

"Whatever regrets I have about letting my family down have been shared with and felt by us alone. I have given this a lot of reflection and thought and I believe that there is a point at which I must stick to that principle even though it's difficult.

"I will strive to be a better person and the husband and father that my family deserves. For all of those who have supported me over the years, I offer my profound apology."

The Web site posting came hours after US Weekly magazine put Woods on its cover, released Wednesday, alleging he had a two-plus-year affair with a Los Angeles cocktail waitress. It also comes a week after the National Enquirer reported that Woods had an affair with a New York VIP host -- a charge the woman strongly denies -- and less than a week after he was involved in a car accident.

The US Weekly report claims that Jaimee Grubbs has more than 300 text messages from Woods, and the US Weekly Web site posted a voice mail Grubbs says is Woods calling her last week and asking to change the ID on her phone so that his wife wouldn't recognize it.

Grubbs says she met Woods at a Las Vegas nightclub the week after the 2007 Masters -- two months before Woods' wife, Elin Nordegren, gave birth to their first child.

Wednesday morning, the magazine published what it said was a voice mail provided by Grubbs that she said was left by Woods on Nov. 24, three days before his early morning car crash. In the voice mail, a man, who calls himself "Tiger," asks Grubbs to take her name off her phone.

"My wife went through my phone," the man's voice said. "And, uh, may be calling you."

The call ends with the man saying: "You gotta do this for me. Huge. Quickly."

ESPN could not confirm Woods was the caller.

Woods' agent, Mark Steinberg, did not immediately return an e-mail requesting comment.

When asked whether US Weekly paid Grubbs for her story, spokeswoman Cheryl Crowley said, "As a policy, we do not comment on obtaining stories or photo transactions." MSNBC reported that "rumors" are Grubbs could have been paid $100,000 for her story.

Grubbs was recently part of the VH1 cable channel reality series "Tool Academy."

Several of Woods' sponsors said Wednesday that they still are in business with Woods. Nike, Gatorade, EA Sports, TLC Vision, NetJets and Gillette all said that their relationship with Woods remains as it was before the announcement. AT&T Inc declined to comment and officials with Accenture, Tag Heuer and Upper Deck could not be reached by Reuters.

Woods was involved in a one-car traffic accident on Friday. He hit a fire hydrant and a tree in his Cadillac SUV. The Florida Highway Patrol investigated the case, but closed the investigation on Tuesday, saying Woods would be cited and fined.

But that hasn't stopped tabloid rumors. Woods hasn't met with the media since the incident, and has only issued statements on his Web site.

Sunday, Woods released a statement saying, in part: "Although I understand there is curiosity, the many false, unfounded and malicious rumors that are currently circulating about my family and me are irresponsible. The only person responsible for the accident is me. My wife, Elin, acted courageously when she saw I was hurt and in trouble. She was the first person to help me. Any other assertion is absolutely false."

Woods has remained at home in the exclusive gated community of Isleworth, while some of the world's top golfers were in Southern California preparing for the start of a tournament he hosts. Woods, citing injuries from the crash, issued a statement Monday saying he would not attend or play in the Chevron World Challenge.

Tuesday, the Florida Highway Patrol said it "is not pursuing criminal charges in this matter nor is there any testimony or other evidence to support any additional charges of any kind other than the charge of careless driving," according to department spokeswoman Sgt. Kim Montes. "Despite the celebrity status of Mr. Woods, the Florida Highway Patrol has completed its investigation in the same professional manner it strives to complete each traffic investigation."

After consulting with the local prosecutor's office, investigators also decided there was insufficient evidence to issue a subpoena that would have given them access to records from his hospital visit after the crash, Montes said.

Reached in Sweden by The Associated Press on Wednesday, Woods' father-in-law, Thomas Nordegren, said: "I don't want to comment on this whatsoever."

Woods is also on the cover of the January issue of Golf Digest, a magazine he's had a long-standing relationship with. In a photo illustration, he's pictured with President Barack Obama. The issue offers "10 things Obama could learn from Tiger -- and vice versa" according to a Golf Digest news release.

A magazine spokeswoman said Tuesday that the issue was printed before the car crash involving Woods.

Information from The Associated Press and Reuters is included in this report.

Woods Admits Trasngression

2009-12-02T13:25:00.000-08:00

Tiger all the talk at Chevron World Challenge

2009-12-02T13:01:00.000-08:00

By DOUG FERGUSON
Associated Press
Posted: December 1, 2009

Chevron World ChallengeTHOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – His interview over, Padraig Harrington was leaving the media center at the Chevron World Challenge when he passed Lee Westwood and offered some tips.

“Would you like to know what questions are being asked?” Harrington said.

Westwood smiled and said, “I imagine there’s only one.”

Tiger Woods’ presence is larger than ever, even if he isn’t coming to his own tournament. As most players were getting ready to practice Tuesday, TV sets were tuned to a press conference in Florida, where state troopers declared the investigation into his Nov. 27 early morning crash was over and that Woods would be cited for careless driving and fined $164.

Then came an Us Weekly story with a woman claiming to have text messages and voice mails from an affair with Woods that began more than two years ago. That magazine cover story comes less than a week after the National Enquirer published a story alleging that Woods had been seeing New York nightclub hostess Rachel Uchitel, who has denied it.

“There’s lot of questions that we’re never going to get the answers to, and the fact that he is the No. 1 sports star in the world means that there is going to be a higher profile to those things,” Harrington said. “It is what it is because of how good he is, and he’ll have to deal with it. I don’t know exactly what the truth of it all is, and the thing is, I don’t think anybody is ever going to know exactly what’s gone on. And that’s probably a good thing.

“But it won’t stop people from guessing and questioning things like that,” he said. “That’s human nature. We’re intrigued by other people’s lives.”

Most players, even those who are close to Woods, have not heard from him and don’t know what to think, much less say.

“I haven’t talked to him,” said Mark O’Meara, who took him under his wing when Woods turned pro at age 20 in 1996.

Steve Stricker went undefeated with Woods as his partner at the Presidents Cup, and their wives walked together in some of those matches. He usually gets a quick answer when he sends a text message from Woods. This time, not a peep.

“Since I haven’t heard back, I imagine he’s in – I don’t know the right word – a lot of pain,” Stricker said. “And I don’t even know what that means. I don’t know what it’s all about. I just feel bad for the guy. He’s getting hammered in the media.”

The tournament now has taken a supporting role to the drama being played out inside the gates of Isleworth, where Woods crashed his SUV into a fire hydrant and tree, and in celebrity magazines.

NBC Sports will be televising the tournament this week, and executive producer Tommy Roy said he could not say how the network will cover Woods’ absence.

“We’ll have to see what further happens in the story,” Roy said. “Between now and when we come on the air Saturday, that’s a lot of time. We have a golf tournament to cover. It’s too early to determine what we’ll do.”

Greg McLaughlin, president of the Tiger Woods Foundation and tournament director, said sponsor Chevron would have liked Woods to be part of the tournament, “but they respect his decision, they support his decision.”

Asked if he had spoken to Woods, McLaughlin paused and said, “It’s not appropriate for me to talk about Tiger.”

The players don’t want to talk, either, although they anticipated such questions when they came to California.

“It’s difficult for me to comment, because I only know what you know – probably less than what you know,” Westwood said. “I was shocked when I heard it was a serious accident, then relieved to here he had been released from the hospital. Other than that, the rest is speculation and people putting their own assumption to things. I have no time for all that, and I don’t want to be part of it.”

Even in such an individual sport, there is a camaraderie that exists – Americans and Europeans, the No. 1 player and No. 120 player – because ultimately, the competition is between the player and the course.

British Open champion Stewart Cink pointed out that it still can be a lonely game, far different from football and baseball teams.

“It’s hard when you don’t have that built-in framework of the team, when you can sort of absorb yourself into a jersey,” Cink said. “Out here, you’re an island. When you play great, you’re an island. When you play poorly, you’re an island. And when you have some attention off the course that you’d rather not have, then you’re an island.”

Woods is not likely to play again until the San Diego Invitational at Torrey Pines, which starts Jan. 28. Some players still have the Shark Shootout next week in Florida, others will open their season the first week of January in Hawaii.

Chances are, Woods will remain a topic of conversation.

“When you’re the biggest sports star in the world, that goes with the territory,” Harrington said. “You create these stories, and in six weeks’ time, it might be somebody else’s story. We’ll have to wait and see what evolves. But the one thing that’s for sure, we’ll all be watching. As I said, that’s human nature.”

Pamping on Tiger Woods

2009-11-02T22:13:00.000-08:00

By Andrew Both, Fox Sports
November 03, 2009

Australian Masters champion Rod Pampling hopes that Tiger Woods's appearance in Melbourne next week leads to a long-term revival of the Australian tournament golf scene.

Pampling thinks that if world No.1 Woods's visit to the Masters at Kingston Heath is as successful as the tickets sellout suggests, it may encourage others to follow suit and make a similar effort to attract the game's best players.

"If Melbourne is successful, maybe Sydney will say let's do the same thing," Pampling said.

"Maybe a tournament will say let's get Phil Mickelson down to bolster our field.

"Obviously we've been on a bit of a downer since (Greg) Norman cut back, but we've also got Vijay Singh coming down for the PGA (at Coolum)."

Of course, none of these international stars are playing without being well compensated - in Woods' case to the tune of $US3 million ($A3.31 million).

“"Obviously we've been on a bit of a downer since (Greg) Norman cut back, but we've also got Vijay Singh coming down for the PGA (at Coolum)."” – Rod Pampling Australian Masters champion

Pampling is resigned to being an anonymous defending champion next week, swept under the media carpet by the Woods juggernaut.

"I told Tiger that it's been 10 years since I've won at home. I was finally going to get recognised and now I've got no chance," joked Pampling.

He cautioned however that Woods would have to adapt his game to have a chance at Kingston Heath.

"It's not like a typical golf course he's used to playing," said Pampling.

"It will have to be a restrained Tiger. If he just cracks driver, he'll be in trouble."

Pampling also joked that Robert Allenby's late withdrawal meant there would be one less controversial guy to distract media attention from Tiger Woods.

Tiger Woods Now The 1 Billion Dollar Man

2009-09-30T03:58:00.000-07:00

From http://blogs.forbes.com/sportsmoneyblog/2009/09/the-first-billion-dollar-athlete/

The First Billion-Dollar Athlete

September 28th, 2009
There is no recession for Tiger Woods. Our calculations show that the $10 million bonus Woods earned for the FedEx Cup title nudged him over the $1 billion mark in career earnings. Forbes has been tracking athlete earnings since before Tiger turned pro in 1996. Woods had earned a cumulative $895 million going into 2009 by our estimates from prize money, appearance fees, endorsements and his golf course design business. If you add in his $10.5 million in 2009 prize money, the FedEx bonus and his take so far this year from his annual $100+ million in off-the-course earnings, Woods' career earnings are now 10-figures.

Only Woods' accountant knows if Tiger is a billion athlete yet, but if it did not happen on Sunday it is likely only a matter of months or his next check from Nike. Woods has been the world's highest-paid athlete since 2002 when he surpassed Formula 1 legend Michael Schumacher. His earnings have surged in recent years as he launched a golf course design business and has three courses underway that pay him more than $10 million per project. The launch of the FedEx Cup has been a bonus for Woods who has taken the top $10 million top prize two of the Cup's three years (a knee injury prevented his participation last year).

It is Nike though that has been Woods' most lucrative partner. The relationship has been hugely beneficial for both parties as Nike launched a golf division from scratch on the back of Woods and sales are now $800 million annually. Nike pays Woods north of $30 million annually for his ringing endorsement. The scary part is that Woods is only 33-years-old and might have 15 years of competitive golf left in him and 30+ years of designing golf courses. This is only the first $1 billion for Woods. --Kurt Badenhausen

Tiger Woods turns his doubts into another great year

2009-09-15T16:28:00.000-07:00

By DOUG FERGUSON
AP Golf Writer
Associated Press Sports
updated 3:01 p.m. ET Sept. 14, 2009
LEMONT, Ill. (AP) -Tiger Woods is turning into quite the trivia buff.

During the third round of the Deutsche Bank Championship two weeks ago, he saw a couple of familiar faces as he walked off the 10th tee and approached as if wanting to impart some important information.

"Which city sits on two continents?" he said. "And what country has the most lakes?"

His favorite golf question: The eight major champions with the letter "z" in their surname.

When it comes to his own trivia, Woods often doesn't have a clue.

He kept track of the score at the BMW Championship, which was all that mattered to him. Woods built such a big lead at Cog Hill with his course-record on Saturday that his only goal for the final round was to break par.

He closed with a 68 and wound up winning by eight shots.

In an era when a three-shot margin is considered comfortable, this was the fourth straight year Woods has won by at least eight, and the 10th time in his PGA Tour career. He was asked if big victories like that gave him additional satisfaction.

"First of all, I did not know that," he said with a smile that suggested he was pleased to find out.

Odds are, he isn't aware that he tied Sam Snead with his sixth year of six victories or more. To put that in perspective, only one other player over the last 25 years has won six times in a season - Vijay Singh in 2004.

So really, has anything changed about Woods?

He makes winning look ridiculously routine. Because he usually plays only the stronger courses, his adjusted scoring average is 68.06, giving him a 1.26 margin over second place. Such a gap is not unlike Secretariat at the Belmont Stakes - or even Woods in the world ranking, in which he has doubled the lead over Steve Stricker.

So why is Woods so proud of his game? Why does he call this one of his best years when he didn't win a major?

Only he can appreciate how badly his ligaments were shredded in his left knee. Only he knows the extent of the surgery, not to mention the eight-month recovery that allowed doubts to invade his mind about how quickly he could get back to where he was.

Woods has been saying all summer that he never could have imagined winning so much after such a major surgery. Yet the more he keeps winning, the harder it is to believe him.

"If you would have asked me at the beginning of the year ... any of you guys probably wouldn't have predicted I would have had a year like I did," Woods said Sunday. "To be as consistent as I've been this year, I'm very proud of that."

Even so, consistency is nothing new.

Over the last three years, Woods has finished out of the top 10 only seven times in 40 tournaments. Go back to Hoylake for the 2006 British Open, and he has won 52 percent of his PGA Tour events.

Sure, there are some noticeable differences.

- For the first time since he was a 20-year-old rookie, he had a lead in the final round on the PGA Tour and lost. Making it that much worse, it happened in a major for the first time ever, and it was Woods' last chance to win a major this year.

- He failed to win a major, which is how he typically measures a successful year.

- He missed the cut in the British Open for the first time, including two starts as an amateur.

So what makes this year so different? His own doubts.

"There was so many uncertainties at the beginning of the season," Woods said. "I didn't know how the leg was going to respond. I've never had a leg that was stable. What kind of shots could I play? How was my recovery going to be from day-to-day? Am I going to hurt again? A lot of these things, I didn't know.

"To come back and be, as I said, this consistent feels pretty good."

For Woods to keep raving about exceeding expectations speaks to how low he might have set the bar after knee surgery.

Look back at his reaction, when he screamed and ran into a hug with caddie Steve Williams after making a 15-foot birdie to win at Bay Hill. Yes, it was the last hole. It was for the win. The extra emotion comes from being his first victory since knee surgery.

So even if winning this year looks routine, it isn't to Woods.

And while the victories continue to pile up - his 71st on the PGA Tour - it is no less amazing.

After his third round at Cog Hill, Stricker headed to the range with his father-in-law and coach, Dennis Tiziani. This has been Stricker's best year, with three PGA Tour victories and a career-high No. 2 world ranking.

His caddie, Jimmy Johnson, was chatting about the turning points in the season when he realized Stricker had won three times in his last nine starts. That's winning at a 33 percent clip, which is strong stuff.

Then he was told Woods has won 30 percent of his tournaments over a 13-year career.

Johnson just laughed. What else can you do?

As for that trivia question? Istanbul lies between Europe and Asia. Canada has the most lakes.

What that has to do with anything remains a mystery.

But if Woods were to win the Tour Championship next week in Atlanta, he would be the first golfer to go over $11 million for a season. He probably doesn't know that.

© 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

URL: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/32845614/ns/sports-golf/

Greg Norman, Tiger Woods would not make good politicans, Bob Hawke tells Australian Golf Digest

2009-09-14T04:01:00.000-07:00

Interview By Steve Keipert
Editor, Australian Golf Digest
September 14, 2009
I didn't start playing golf until my third year as Prime Minister. I was at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in the Bahamas. The weekend retreat was at the "millionaires playground" at a place called Lyford Cay. It was a beautiful course and all the heads of government stayed in villas around it.

I was doing some work there and Kenneth Kaunda, who was the President of Zambia, came hacking past and I thought, "I wouldn't mind having a go at that". I went back to Canberra and Gary Edwin was the pro at Yowani at the time and he gave me some lessons.

My handicap now is 23; it’s pretty close to 22. I had 19 Stableford points on the first nine this morning and I was hoping to score about 38 or 39 but I only finished with 35. I’m hoping to get back down to 22 shortly. The lowest my handicap got was 15 at Royal Canberra while I was in office.

In office, I used to try to get in one game a week. I’d get up at sparrow-fart, literally just as the sun was coming up. From the Lodge to the first tee at Royal Canberra is five minutes and I’d get around with my security blokes and finish 18 in a couple of hours, if I was by myself.

One day, I was playing with Graham Richardson and we were on the 5th hole. I was well back off the green in two and facing a tough, downhill, sloping pitch. I said to him: "What odds will you give me of getting this in?"

He said: "3000-1."

Well, I put a dollar on with him and holed it. It took him a while to pay, too, the bastard!

PM Norman? President Woods?
It’s marvellous the way in which people like Greg Norman and others have attracted young people to the game. I think it’s one of the reasons why we’re not so good at tennis now. I think a lot of kids, girls and boys, who would have been good tennis players have been more attracted to golf.

I don’t say this in any nasty sense, but Greg’s a very self-centred sort of bloke. Because of that, I don’t think he would make a good politician. Neither would Tiger Woods. He’s too reclusive, although understandably so. He doesn’t give out a lot of warmth and that’s necessary in politics. Jack Newton could have made a good politician. He’s very much a man of the people, a warm, outgoing bloke.

But Tiger Woods is the best golfer ever, no question about it. Equipment has made a lot of difference over the years, but, by any objective standard, by the time he’s finished his career he will be so far in front of everybody else.

The More I Practise ...
Like all golfers, I’ve had a few lucky shots. Three holes-in-one is way over the average. So many good golfers go through life and don’t have one. That’s just good fortune. There’s a little bit of skill in it, but basically a hole-in-one is a bit of skill and a lot of fortune.

I played with Peter Senior at New South Wales Golf Club one time. On the 14th, the par-four up to the green on the promontory, I hit a beaut drive and an 8-iron onto the green and holed a long putt for a three, which with two strokes was a net albatross.

In the pro-am before one Australian Open at Royal Sydney, on the first hole I hit a cracker of a drive, a really long one for me. We had a good gallery that day, and I pitched up and the ball landed behind the pin and rolled back next to the hole.

I heard one guy in the gallery turn to his mate and say: "Geez, this Hawkey can play!"

I soon came back to the field.

To read the full version of this story, pick up a copy of the October issue of Australian Golf Digest, on sale from Wednesday, September 16.

Tiger Woods Blows Away Field at BMW Championship

2009-09-13T16:38:00.000-07:00

Associated Press

LEMONT, Ill. -- Tiger Woods left the drama to everyone else at Cog Hill.

One day after his course-record 62 gave him a seven-shot lead, Woods made sure no one else had a chance Sunday in the BMW Championship. He closed with a 3-under 68 for an eight-shot victory over Jim Furyk and Marc Leishman.

It was his sixth victory of the year, and assured Woods the No. 1 ranking going into the final tournament of the FedEx Cup and its $10 million prize. Woods won for the fifth time at Cog Hill, and it was his 10th career victory by at least eight shots.

"It felt like we had a tournament within a tournament," Furyk said. "Tiger was seven ahead. He was kind of running away. It was kind of a tournament for second place."

That other tournament wound up being quite a show.

As Woods cruised around Cog Hill in his familiar red shirt, a dozen players behind him were scrambling for positions into the FedEx Cup finale at East Lake in two weeks.

Furyk's runner-up finish moved him up 15 spots to No. 3, meaning he can win the FedEx Cup with a victory at the Tour Championship. Leishman, who only qualified for Cog Hill by making an eagle on his last hole a week ago outside Boston, earned his first trip to the Tour Championship and will have an outside shot at the $10 million.

Most compelling, however, was the battle for the 30th and final spot.

Inching Closer
With his trouncing of the field Sunday at Cog Hill, Tiger Woods claimed the 71st PGA Tour victory of his career, now just two behind Jack Nicklaus and 11 back of the all-time lead.

The heartbreaker belonged to Brandt Snedeker, playing in the final group with Woods. Walking up the 18th hole, he learned he only needed a bogey to finish in the top 30. He missed his 12-foot par putt, then watched in shock as his 3-footer for bogey caught the left lip of the cup. Snedeker was so stunned that he missed the next two putts and took triple bogey.

"I can't believe I did this," Snedeker said. "I just made a mess of it."

That allowed John Senden to capture the 30th spot by less than a half-point over Ian Poulter, two players who were hardly clutch down the stretch. Senden had a 90-yard wedge to the green at the 15th and chunked it so badly that it traveled only 50 yards. Two holes later, he nearly hit a bunker shot over the green and into the water to make double bogey.

Senden finished with 1,532.41 points. Poulter, who hit his approach into the water on the 18th, wound up with 1,531.95 points.

Far easier to compute was Woods winning.

Tiger Woods has assured himself of the No. 1 ranking going into the final tournament of the FedEx Cup with Sunday's victory.
He finished at 19-under 265 for his 71st career victory, leaving him two short of Jack Nicklaus for second on the PGA Tour's career list. Woods also tied Sam Snead with his sixth season of at least six victories.

Woods won for the first time since his aura was slightly tarnished at the PGA Championship, where he lost a lead in the final round for the first time since he was a 20-year-old rookie. Y.E. Yang rallied from two shots behind to beat him at Hazeltine, ending Woods' streak of never losing a major with at least a share of the lead.

No way he was about to lose this one -- not at Cog Hill, and not the way he was hitting shots and making putts.

The closest anyone got to him was six shots when Tiger Woods missed the fifth fairway and failed to convert a 10-foot par putt. He made it look easy, yet still provided a few thrills.

Woods sent his tee shot well to the right into the trees on the par-5 ninth, leaving him a 20-foot wide chute under the trees. He smacked a 3-iron low, straight and under the branches, just a little too far. Blocked by a tree on his third shot, he played a low hook and ran the ball onto the green to 15 feet. He made the birdie.

Walking off the green, he shrugged his shoulder and smiled. Indeed, everything went his way this week in the Chicago suburbs.

He added an eagle on the par-5 15th when his approach bumped off the collar of the green, caught a ridge and rolled to 6 feet. From there, all that remained was his margin of victory.

Cog Hill became the fourth course where Woods has won at least five times. He has won seven times at Torrey Pines and Firestone, and six times at Bay Hill.

Now comes the hard part.

Woods' sixth victory likely sewed up another PGA Tour player of the year award -- no one else has won more than three times this year. And while he has a 1,504-point lead over Steve Stricker, the points are reset for the Tour Championship.

As the No. 1 seed, Woods will have 2,500 points, with Stricker at 2,250. The rest of the top five are Furyk, Zach Johnson and Heath Slocum. All of them can win the FedEx Cup with a victory at East Lake. Everyone else will need some help.

For Tiger Woods videos visit www.pga.com and www.tigergivesmewood.com

Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press

Golfweek | Marc Leishman, meet Tiger Woods

2009-09-13T08:49:00.001-07:00

Golfweek | Marc Leishman, meet Tiger Woods

Shared via AddThis

Tiger Woods takes commanding lead at BMW Championship

2009-09-12T17:55:00.000-07:00

By DOUG FERGUSON
Associated Press
Posted: September 12, 2009
LEMONT, Ill. – Tiger Woods dropped his 3-wood in disgust after his first tee shot Saturday sailed left into the bunker for another sloppy bogey. Four hours later, he finished off his best round of the year to build a seven-shot lead in the BMW Championship.

Getting better with every shot, Woods broke the course record at Cog Hill with a 9-under 62 and blew away the 68-man field in the third FedEx Cup playoff event.

He also tied the tournament record, set last year by Jim Furyk outside St. Louis at Bellerive.

“After I got past the first hole I was doing all right,” Woods said. “It was one of those days that kind of built upon itself.”

A course renovated by Rees Jones with hopes of landing a U.S. Open was no match for Woods. He hit his most unheralded shot of the round, a 7-iron that stopped 3 feet away from a dangerous pin at the par-3 sixth, and never came close to missing another green.
The signature shot was his 3-wood from just over 300 yards to 10 feet at the par-5 ninth for an eagle, so pure that the gallery crammed into the bleacher rose to its feet when the ball finally stopped rolling.

Woods was at 16-under 197 and had his largest lead on the PGA Tour since he was eight shots in front in the Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines early last year.

He will play in the final pairing Sunday with Brandt Snedeker, who had a 66. Marc Leishman had a 68 and joined Snedeker at 9-under 204, both of them hopeful of finishing high enough to get into the Tour Championship.

More than being his lowest round of the year, Woods was nearly nine shots better than the field, which averaged 70.71.

It will be his first time with the 54-hole lead since the PGA Championship last month at Hazeltine, where Y.E. Yang made up a two-shot deficit and became the first player to beat Woods from behind in a major.

Yang is 25 shots behind at Cog Hill.

Snedeker was worried about keeping his car this summer until his health improved and his game turned around. Now he has a chance to move into the top 30 in the FedEx Cup standings, which would qualify him for all the majors next year.

Winning this week? That’s a taller task.

“Looks like Tiger is making it difficult on us,” Snedeker said after closing with four straight birdies. “I’m playing fantastic. And the best thing is I fought extremely well out there.”

Matt Kuchar improved his Tour Championship hopes with a 66 and was tied for fourth at 205 with Padraig Harrington (69).

It was Harrington who got Woods’ attention early in the third round. The Irishman birdied three straight holes, chipping in on the fourth hole from deep rough, while Leishman birdied four straight in the middle of the front nine to reach 10 under.

Woods stood on the sixth tee three shots behind. Four holes later, he had the lead to himself. And midway through the back nine, when he was firing at flags and holing putts, the tournament seemed to be over.

Leishman made the turn with a two-shot lead, shot 1 over on the back nine and found himself seven shots behind.

Related Content

Event: BMW Championship
“That’s Tiger,” he said. “Anything can happen – well, anything good.”

The par-3 sixth hole was the toughest of the third round at Cog Hill, the pin cut in the left corner guarded by deep bunkers front and back. Woods picked out the “6” on the hole sign behind the green and swept a 7-iron in front right-to-left. Even better was his 6-iron from 188 yards in the rough on the next hole, where he had to shape it around a tree from left-to-right.

He lightly pumped his fist when it landed on the fringe 15 feet away, and even missing the birdie putt was OK.

“Just happy with a par,” he said.

Such is the anatomy of his round –he opened with a bogey, his best shot resulted in a par. It was the shots that followed that kept getting better, and Woods rarely has looked this dialed in.

“It was just a round that, as I said, kind of built upon itself, and I just kind of gradually kept hitting good shots, then making a couple of putts here and there,” he said. “And lo and behold, I end up at 9 under par.”

Woods will be going for his sixth victory of the year and his fifth at Cog Hill on Sunday, which would put him atop the FedEx Cup standings going to the Tour Championship in two weeks.

For everyone else, it’s a matter of getting there.

Seven players among the top 10 are currently outside the top 30 required to get into East Lake. Snedeker would not have figured to be one of those players three months ago, when he was returning from a rib injury.

“I didn’t think I was going to have a job in July,” Snedeker said. “My whole goal was to secure my card. Now I’m back to my original goal of trying to make the Tour Championship. Any time you get to the Tour Championship, it’s been a good year.”

Tiger Woods Notices Groupie

2009-09-09T16:27:00.000-07:00

RANDALL MELL, Senior Writer, GolfChannel.com

NORTON, Mass. – Tiger Woods put in some hard work posting that 8-under-par 63 Monday, but nothing like the guy who followed him around dressed head-to-toe in a tiger costume.

“He lost a few pounds, there’s no doubt,” Woods said. “He took off the head at No. 1 there, and he was dripping wet.”

Tiger Woods rallies, but comes up short

2009-09-07T18:19:00.000-07:00

By Associated Press
Posted: September 7, 2009

NORTON, Mass. – Tiger Woods was 6 under after six holes in the final round of the Deutsche Bank Championship, leaving fans wondering whether they would see an unprecedented comeback.

But Woods never got his hopes up after starting the day nine strokes back.

“The whole idea was to try and shoot something in the low 60s and that would probably get me in the top 10,” he said after an 8-under-par 63 briefly brought him within a stroke of the lead. “Certainly from where I was at, I couldn’t win the tournament, even if I shot 60 or something like that. I was so far back; these guys, (with) no wind, soft greens and pretty benign pins, they’ll go low.”

Woods, who has never come from more than eight strokes behind to win as a pro, shot 70-67-72 over the first three rounds to earn an early tee time Monday – more than three hours before Steve Stricker and Retief Goosen left at 1:40 p.m. Woods, who won at TPC Boston in 2006, birdied the first four holes and eagled No. 6 on Monday morning.

But he bogeyed the 11th and 17th, played the back nine in 2 under and finished 12 under for the tournament.

He was the leader in the clubhouse for hours, but he knew it wouldn’t last.

“Whether you can win a tournament or not, it doesn’t matter,” he said. “You go out there and post a low number, as low as you’ve got for that day. It doesn’t change, whether you’ve just made the cut or you’re dew sweeping on the last day. It doesn’t matter. You post a low round and see what happens. You can feel good about it, you know?”

Tiger Woods Throws Club at The Barclays

2009-09-05T22:49:00.000-07:00

Tiger Woods PGA T0ur 10

2009-09-05T17:24:00.001-07:00

By Matt Rudy September 2009 - Golfdigest.com

Now I know what it's like to be Colin Montgomerie.

I actually thought it would be a little sweatier.

Playing Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 on the swing-it-yourself Wii video game system is so much more convenient than going all the way over to Turnberry, taking slag from Sandy Lyle and scowling through a press conference.

Hyper-realistic sports video games have been a staple for the high-definition Playstation III and X-Box systems for years. But something about the golf experience is lost when you're controlling the length of your backswing with your right thumb.

On the Nintendo Wii, you wave a wireless motion-sensing controller around and its position is picked up on the screen. If that sounds like the perfect recipe for making birdies -- and triple-bogeys -- as your favorite PGA Tour player, you would be correct.

I brought home a copy of the game -- and a 12-pack of Miller High Life -- and invited two friends over for an adult version of a Dungeons and Dragons play date: Beer and a round at Pebble Beach in virtual video game land.

The knock on the Wii system is that its processing chip is a lot less sophisticated than the ones in the PS3 and X-box. Games on the Nintendo system tend to run more toward the cartoonish than the photo-realistic. That hasn't completely changed with Tiger Woods 10 -- Tiger Woods still looks like a Marvel Comics version of himself -- but the graphics are a huge step in the realistic direction.

The conceit for TW10 is the 2009 PGA Tour season, rendered through remarkably realistic real-life tour courses and a selection of PGA Tour and LPGA Tour players to choose as your golf avatar. Taking advantage of the Wii's ability to connect wirelessly to the Internet, the game also allows you to play under the current real-world weather conditions at the golf course you select. If it's 50 and foggy on the Monterey Peninsula that day, it's faithfully recreated on the screen in front of you.

Since it's my house, I get to pick my character first. It comes as no surprise that Tiger is the first face on the selection screen. A list of different attributes -- power, accuracy, recovery, approach -- run down the left side of the screen. They've resisted the urge to make Tiger a 100 in everything, giving him an 80 in putting (and luck, whatever that means), but he's the best package you can pick -- sort of like the New England Patriots in any NFL game. Instead of going with robo-golfer, I pick a guy with a physique a little closer to my own. Monty pops up on the screen, complete with the sour look he wears in real life, and a too-tight pale blue sweater.

My friend Travis goes next, and he goes with Jim Furyk -- who makes a contorted practice swing that looks just like the real thing. Alan is pretty mild-mannered in real life, but he goes for the throat when it comes to video games. He laughs at Travis and my obvious sentimentality and picks Tiger. We're not getting any strokes, either.

The best part about the Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 gameplay is that you can pick up enough right out of the box to go play a round without hitting grounders and making 10s. With the game on its medium setting and playing from the White tees, we're all able to make successful swings off Pebble's first tee. In a particularly non-Monty kind of strategic maneuver -- he always seems to wait until the 72nd hole to hit one fat and lose -- I try to go over the trees on the right side of the dogleg right with my 3-wood and end up in pretend jail, 200 yards out. "Tiger" and "Jim" smooth it out there with long irons and have short yardage in.

The game interface is a nice combination of accurate and forgiving. You can do pretty much whatever you want with your backswing when it comes to swing path, but the length of it determines how much power you put on the shot. Take Monty back halfway with his driver and he bunts it out there 50 percent. How you twist the controller through impact determines the sidespin on the shot. Twist your wrist down and the ball goes left. Turn it up and the ball goes right. The space in between, for a straight shot, is pretty wide and forgiving, giving you a decent chance to split fairways and find greens.

Where things get interesting -- and occasionally annoying -- is when you have a finesse shot requiring 50 or 60 percent power. We spent the first two or three holes smoking shots over greens or leaving them short because we couldn't quite dial in the subtlety. Then again, if EA Sports was trying to replicate real golf, that'd be a pretty accurate representation of our collective real-world games.

And just like in real golf, there's a beer consumption nexus -- at about three, performance improves. After that, you start looking for reasons to drive the cart and sit in the air conditioning. Except that with Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10, you're already in the air conditioning, and the beer is only 10 feet away.

We chopped it around the front nine, with Tiger leading at one under, Furyk at two over and my Monty straggling behind at four over -- just like real life. And just like at real Pebble, we entered the lull when the holes turn away from the sea. But by the time we reached pretend 17 -- and we had only two High Lifes left in the box -- Tiger was still ahead at two under, but Furyk and Monty were tied just one shot behind.

As realistic as the rendering was on my 42-inch plasma screen, there's still enough of a disconnect from real golf that you're not afraid to heckle during your opponent's pretend backswing. Virtual Furyk dumped his approach shot on the picturesque 17th -- cue the harbor seals barking -- short and right, in the bunker. My Monty put a hybrid on the green, but inexplicably -- and accurately -- pursed his lips in apparent displeasure. Tiger proved to be just as clutch in the pixellated world as he is in real life, stuffing it in there five feet.

But the second quirk of the otherwise remarkable gameplay engine pops up again when you're putting. You use a series of buttons on the controller to set your aim, then draw the wand back to provide the appropriate amount of power to the stroke. However, when the controller is pointing down in a pretend putting pose, it seems to briefly lose connection with what's happening on the screen at the top of the backswing. During that pause, if you gun the controller forward, you have a good chance to hitting the putt about four inches.

That's something Tiger has probably never done in his real competitive career, but my living room isn't Augusta National. With Alan at the controls, Tiger tinkled his birdie putt a foot-and-a-half, leaving himself another three-and-a-half feet for par. After the feeble birdie effort, Virtual Tiger even grabbed his putter by the neck and smacked the face with his hand as if to castigate his real-world counterpart. Hooting, my Monty and Furyk both got up and down to save par.

I wish I could say that Virtual Monty broke the spell that has always seemed to come across his golf game when he crosses the real-life Atlantic Ocean to play in the States. Channeling his real-world self, my Monty blocked his tee shot into Charles Schwab's backyard off the tee, consigning us to a double-bogey 7 and a spectator's seat for Faux Furyk's quest to make birdie and try to tie.

Apparently even the video game version of Furyk comes with grit. Travis directed his trusty balding golf avatar 40 yards short of the green in two, where he then jarred a pitch shot for eagle. Tiger needed to make a 17-footer for birdie to tie, which he missed.

It took about 45 minutes for us to play 18 holes -- fast forwarding through most of the banal play-by-play provided by Scott Van Pelt and Kelly Tilghman -- and we all came to the same conclusion. We certainly didn't burn as many calories waving the wand around in my living room, but it there's something to be said for getting a round in with enough to time to go out into the real world and watch a baseball game at sports bar.

Like Travis says, there's a reason they called it "Super No-Friendo" back in high school.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10

Tiger: Els Didn't Work Hard Enough

2009-09-05T17:21:00.001-07:00

Reuters

NORTON, Mass. -- Ernie Els did not work hard enough after undergoing major surgery on his left knee in 2005, according to world No. 1 Tiger Woods.

South African Els was once riding high in the rankings but is now down in 20th place, having gone 41 tournaments without a victory.

Ernie Els' original three-year plan from 2006 hasn't gone so well for myriad reasons. A recent resurgence has the Big Easy heading to the Deutsche Bank Championship this week thinking a return to prominence is well within reach. Jason Sobel

"Ernie is not a big worker physically and that's one of the things you have to do with an ACL injury," said Woods, who had almost identical knee surgery last year.

"I feel pretty good with what I've done and I think Ernie could have worked a little bit harder," the American said on the eve of the Deutsche Bank Championship, the second tournament of the PGA Tour's four-event FedEx Cup playoff series.
It has been nearly three years since Els spoke about a three-year plan to challenge Woods for the No. 1 spot.

The three-time major winner has, instead, gone in the opposite direction in the rankings, although he has shown encouraging form lately.

Els tied for eighth at the British Open in July and then tied for sixth at last month's U.S. PGA Championship before finishing one shot behind winner Heath Slocum at last week's FedEx Cup opener, the Barclays Classic in New York.

Tiger Woods Throws Club - Sobel on ESPN

2009-09-05T17:10:00.000-07:00

Friday, September 4, 2009
Tiger's tantrum a low among group's highlights

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?entryID=4446797&name=sobel_jason

NORTON, Mass. -- On a day when one playing partner grabbed a share of the opening-round lead and another holed out from a bunker for eagle, Tiger Woods initiated the most fireworks in his threesome at the Deutsche Bank Championship. And they weren't the good kind.

I'll get to co-leader Steve Stricker's eye-popping 8-under 63 and Heath Slocum's continued pronouncement that he can hang with the big boys, but anytime the game's No. 1-ranked player commits a never-before-seen act on the course, it would be a journalistic sin to bury the lede.

In a career filled not only with victories, fame and fortune, but also grandiose outbursts and expletive-filled self-indulgences, Tiger suffered an epic meltdown at one point Friday. Teeing off the par-4 fifth hole -- his 14th of the day -- Woods badly blocked a drive well right of the fairway. That's hardly a surprise, but it's what followed that was truly startling. Almost immediately after impact, he spiked the driver toward the ground, releasing the grip and letting it fly into what can only be described as a dry wetlands area about 10 yards in front of the tee box.

Tiger then walked away, roaring "Release the club!" to himself -- an ironic proposition considering the aftermath of his swing. His caddie, Steve Williams, was left to recover the driver from the thigh-high thick stuff -- which proved to be a daunting task, as it took some 30 seconds to locate the club and another 30 to actually pry it loose -- failing to leave the potential eBay goldmine lying in the weeds.

Asked later to describe his frustration on the hole, Woods would only allow, "How about every hole?"

It was a "SportsCenter" moment if there ever was one, an occasion that would be replayed for the masses time and again. But here's the rub: On a tee box that was largely closed to foot traffic, Woods' tantrum may have been witnessed by fewer than a dozen observers -- playing partners included -- as nary a cameraman nor photographer was within shooting distance.

Once the driver was finally reunited with Frank the headcover and safely in the bag, Woods found his ball in an unplayable lie and was forced to take a drop from the hazard. He made bogey on the hole, then played his remaining four in 1 under par, ostensibly letting his frustrations go with that release of the club. It was part of an altogether respectable round of 70, especially considering how he described it afterward.

"I felt terrible over any tee shot," said Woods, who hit eight of 14 fairways. "Didn't matter what club it was, whether it was an iron on a par-3 or a driver on any hole. I didn't feel great over any shot. It was one of those days."

His lack of success off the tee might have been more acceptable if Woods was rolling the rock well at TPC Boston, where he has found success in the past. Instead, there was a continuation of the poor putting stroke that has plagued him at times during the second half of this season, missing four putts of 10 feet or less and making only two of more than 10 feet, including a 36-footer on No. 8 for one of his three birdies on the day.

"Some were bad putts," he admitted after taking 30 whacks in Round 1. "Most of the putts I hit today, if anything, they were lacking pace. They were kind of rolling by about 6 inches past the hole, maybe a foot. I just wasn't carrying enough pace to the hole."

While Woods couldn't find the pace, Stricker was busy setting it, posting a bogey-free 63 that left him a pair of strokes off the course record.

A six-time PGA Tour champion, including twice this year, the Wisconsin native has never won a tournament in which Woods was in the field. But at No. 4 in the Official World Golf Ranking, Stricker has learned to deal with life in the Tiger era.

"I guess I'm to the point where I'm comfortable with what I'm doing, and I'm not really worrying about him," said Stricker, who finished T-13 here a year ago. "He's going to hit those great shots and he's going to make those great putts. I can't do anything about that."

Instead, it was quite the opposite, as Stricker really heated up on the group's back nine, carding four consecutive birdies starting at No. 1, including three he finished from 4 feet or less.

"It was unbelievable," Woods said of his friend and Ryder/Presidents Cup teammate. "The putts were center cut, iron shots were right at it, and he was driving the ball great. He made one mistake there at 7 -- his layup was left [leading to par]. But other than that, you'd be hard-pressed to find a shot that he hit off line."

And then there was Slocum, who was playing with Stricker for the second time in six days. On the previous occasion, the 124th-ranked player in the FedEx Cup vanquished a bevy of big-timers, moving all the way up to third -- and a spot in this marquee group, as competitors are paired based on the points standings.

Once again proving he can play with the game's best, Slocum pitched in for eagle from the greenside bunker on the short par-4 fourth hole en route to a 2-under 69 -- one of a variety of deft shots from around the green by the Barclays champion.

That score meant Woods would have left the final green a little lighter in the wallet if this was a friendly money game, the high man in the threesome and the only one without a sub-70 total.

Of course, it's only 18 holes. With 54 more still to play, Tiger knows he still has a chance to be very much in the hunt here on Labor Day weekend.

"It's a four-day tournament," he said. "If you have a bad day, the whole idea is just to mitigate the mistakes and keep yourself in the ballgame. Today is a day I certainly could have shot over par, but I kept it under par, so that's a good sign."

Three birdies, two bogeys, one driver hurled in frustration. Outwardly, Tiger Woods wasn't pleased with his game on Friday, but that "good sign" on the scorecard makes it all the more palatable.

Tiger Wins Notah Begahs Tournie

2009-08-27T17:32:00.001-07:00

NB3 press release

VERONA, N.Y. -- Top-ranked Tiger Woods was the big winner Monday in the second-annual Notah Begay III Foundation Challenge at Turning Stone Resort and Casino's Atunyote Golf Club on Oneida Indian Nation lands. Competing against Camilo Villegas, Mike Weir and host Begay in an 18-hole skins format, Woods collected nine skins and $230,000.

"Today the whole thing was about bringing awareness to what Notah is trying to do," Woods said. "It's great to see what he is doing. He's put his heart, soul and passion into it."

Cheered on by a crowd of 3,000, Woods birdied the 15th, 16th and 17th holes to take command. Villegas finished second with six skins and $180,000, followed by Begay with one skin and $70,000. Weir was shut out for the second straight year.

The event, which raised $750,000, is a collaboration between the Oneida Indian Nation of New York and San Manuel Band of Serrano Mission Indians of California to aid the health of Native American youth and their communities.

"It's time we do more to stop the obesity and diabetes epidemic among Native American youth," said Begay, a former teammate of Woods at Stanford University. "Through the Challenge, we have a unique opportunity to shine a national spotlight on this issue. Our goal is to create a national youth health-awareness and wellness movement among the tribal nations, and I am excited about the momentum for change I have seen today."

Tiger Woods commits to The Barclays

2009-08-21T17:06:00.001-07:00

By Associated Press

JERSEY CITY, N.J. – Tiger Woods entered The Barlcays on Friday, an indication that the world’s No. 1 player plans to compete in all four FedEx Cup playoff events for the first time.

In a tough economic year in which PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem has asked the players to do more for the sponsors, Woods came through in a big way by agreeing to compete in The Barclays. He has not played the tournament since 2003, when it was held in June, and he has not played since Barclays took over as title sponsor in 2005.

Barclays’ contract with the PGA Tour is up for renewal next year.

Woods is assured of being the No. 1 seed when the PGA Tour Playoffs for the FedEx Cup begins Thursday with The Barclays. A new points system means players are more likely to lose ground if they take a week off.

Even so, that likely didn’t have a bearing on Woods’ decision. He skipped the opening playoff event in 2007 during the first year of the FedEx Cup, then tied for second and won the last two events to easily claim the $10 million bonus.

He did not play last year because of knee surgery.

“The Barclays has been an exciting kickoff to the PGA Tour Playoffs for the FedEx Cup each of the first two years. Having Tiger in the field this year will, no doubt, bring even more excitement to the tournament,” tournament director Pete Mele said.

A change in the schedule also helps.

The Barclays will be followed by the Deutsche Bank Championship outside Boston, then the BMW Championship in the Chicago suburb. The tour will take a week off before the final event – with the points reset – at the Tour Championship in Atlanta.

Woods has not played a regular PGA Tour event in the New York area since the Buick Classic at Westchester in 2003. He played Westchester three times without winning.

The Barclays will be played this year at Liberty National. The 125-man field will not be set until the conclusion of the Wyndham Championship this week in Greenboro, N.C.

Should he play all four playoff events, as expected, Woods will have played seven times in a nine-week stretch dating to the Buick Open.

www.tigergivesmewod.com

PGA Championship: Yang Captures First Major PGA: Golfdigest.com

2009-08-16T17:40:00.001-07:00

PGA Championship: Yang Captures First Major PGA: Golfdigest.com

Shared via AddThis