Forget the Tiger Woods 'accident'; there are other golf stories in Orlando

I’ve resisted the urge. Even though I’ve been in Orlando since the weekend, I just haven’t been able to make it to nearby Windermere. It just isn’t my idea of fun.

No, I’m in Orlando to do a few course/resort reviews, and that’s just what I intend to keep doing. I’ve been at Grand Cypress the past couple of days, and that was more than enough excitement for me. I played the New Course and the North-South, both excellent old Jack Nicklaus designs that I highly recommend if you make it to Central Florida. I toured the Grand Cypress Golf Academy, too, and can tell you that if you really want to improve your game, you might want to invest in some lessons there.

But in case you’ve been under a rock since Turkey Day, the big news here is the Tiger Woods fiasco. And I do mean fiasco. Woods’ refusal to come clean on this matter has fueled this media feeding frenzy just outside of Isleworth, and it’s transcended golf.

Turn on the TV, and coverage and speculation about the early Friday morning accident that is keeping Woods out of his own tournament (the Chevron World Challenge) this week is on every channel.

Woods offers no explanation as to why he was taking off from his home in the middle of the night, and then ran into a fire hydrant and a tree. The airbags on his Cadillac Escalade didn’t deploy, but somehow his injuries were so extensive that police say he was in and out of consciousness, his wife had to break the rear window with a golf club to get him out, and he was admitted to a local hospital.

Everybody’s got an opinion, from MTV airheads to panels full of “experts.” (Where do they find these panelists? In the restroom?) It’s all over the radio dials here, and you can only imagine what fun those guys are having with this. The Golf Channel even had a special program on it tonight. Tomorrow, it’s Nightline: Tiger’s Torment Day 5.

This isn’t going away anytime soon, especially if Woods continues to “play the privacy card,” as author John Feinstein said on the Golf Channel tonight. He pointed out that Woods’ right to privacy ends at his front door. I don’t know about that, but I do know it hasn’t been handled properly.

Experts have said that Woods is under no obligation to talk to investigators. Maybe that’s true, but I just couldn’t imagine that you or I would be allowed to smash up the neighborhood in the middle of the night and not have to talk to the cops about it.

All I know is that is Tiger is saying next to nothing, and the account we’re getting so far just doesn’t add up.

I’m just glad it’s not my job to camp out in Windermere.