The long national nightmare is now over for sportswriters. No longer will sports journalists need to toil through muck to come up with interesting golf stories. Tiger Woods is golfing again. And all is right with the world.
Tiger’s return is exciting for several reasons. For one, there is his epic pursuit of Jack Nicklaus’ 19 total major victories. Then there’s his blossoming personal life, as his beautiful family is now a foursome with the birth of Charlie Axel. But more than anything, there is one huge reason as to why Woods’ return to the PGA Tour is so significant - it means sportswriters around the globe can finally stop acting like they care about other golfers.
For nearly a year, sportswriters in general and golf writers in particular have been forced to put on a complicated charade, acting like we care about golfers like Anthony Kim, Rory McIlroy, Paula Creamer or numerous others that I no longer feel like mentioning by name (and no longer have to).
Today is the day of our independence, my friends. Tiger Woods is playing golf again. And nothing else matters. Just like the old days.
–WKW
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Yes, and it doesn't matter and won't matter if Tiger is playing well, playing poorly, or not playing at all, the important thing for his sycophants is to keep the hype going at all costs.
At the recent Northern Open, the CBS announcers ran on and on about Woods even though he wasn't in the tournament and in fact hasn't played at Riviera for several years.
At the Accenture, it was all Tiger all the time, even for the final three days when Tiger had been eliminated and wasn't even at the tournament site.
It will be interesting to see if the Golf Channel announcers continue their schmoozing of Tiger at the Honda, another venue where Woods isn't entered and hasn't been entered for several years.
Alex USMC 1969-73
The GC coverage was such that I was reduced to following on-line to find out how anyone else was doing. At least I didn't have to put up with the Faldo/Miller commentary as UK had Butch Harmon/Ewen Murray who are respectful of TW's skills but NOT sycophantic.
There has not been one (enduring) blog on Accenture (Dot's report doesn't count on this score). Why not? The quality of golf Friday/Sunday was fantastic and Geoff Ogilvy was a most worthy winner.
Now, Tiger needs a real challenger who will put him to the test. Any takers? Phil Mickelson perhaps?
If so, then expect the world to hype the kid to death, hammer every mistake he makes and so forth to the exclusion of all others barring TW.
But that didn't slow down the Woods worship in the least.
The announcers, especially Johnny Miller, seem to have been given instructions to mention Tiger's name at every opportunity.
At the beginning of the NBC telecast, a shot by Rory McElroy had just been shown when Miller went into his Tiger schmoozing. The shot was Tigeresque, he reminds Johnny of a young Tiger, Tiger hit it as long or longer than Rory when he was 19, and on and on, saying Tiger's name at least ten times to open the program.
Later, Miller was describing Will MacKenzie's target spot on his teeshots as being 30 feet downrange from the tee, a lot further than the three feet preferred by Jack Nicklaus. That seemed innocuous enough, but then he just had to add the obligatory "just like Tiger."
And during the Honda telecast, Tiger's picture was all over the screen in advertisements and promotional shots.
Everybody with any sense at all knows that Woods is a superstar, a legend, and an alltime great. But the incessant fawning is getting to be a bit much.
Alex USMC 1969-73