OT: Rick Reilly article on Tiger Woods
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?id=4347419
Rick Reilly criticizes Tiger's on-course behavior, generates hits on espn's website.
"Woods has been this way for years: swearing like a Hooters' bouncer, trying to bury the bottom of his driver into the tee box, flipping his club end over end the second he realizes his shot is way offline."
wha? Tiger, disrespectful? can't ignore! need to click on that to read more! must provide job security for rick reilly!
I tend to agree with Reilly a little bit here. Tiger's behavior on the course has moved from competitive to immature. I understand that in football/baseball/basketball, swearing is rampant, etc. etc, but most people would not try and compare those sports with golf so I think the argument falls along the lines of "apples and oranges".
Golf, more than any other game/sport, is a game of etiquette. You don't walk across other people's lines on the green, you don't talk in their back swing, you wait for them (no matter how long it takes) to hit their ball when they are away, you concede "honors" at the tee box, etc. In this way, golf is completely unlike any other major professional sport. It is about playing with your opponent as well as against them. It is part of football to crush another player, bring them to the ground, or run them over. In that case, swearing is a minor issue compared to the general nature of the game. But given golf's code of etiquette and patience, swearing and throwing your club and stuff has much less of place. Do you see any other golfer's doing it with any sort of frequency? No.
Tiger is not playing on a team - He is not defending his teammates - he is not (except for the one-legged U.S. Open of last year) swearing out of pain - he is not swearing in a noisy, boisterous arena where fans are 100's of feet away and cannot hear the noises on the court. He is competitive. Great. He is mad at himself. Fine. But do it in a way that is in line with the sport that you play and has made you as successful as you are and do it in a way that is in line with your place as the singular role model in the sport of golf.
Rant Over.
all true things, you have said. however, swearing and tossing a club does not interfere with the concentration of another golfer's shot, as do the other etiquette examples you gave (You don't walk across other people's lines on the green, you don't talk in their back swing, you wait for them (no matter how long it takes) to hit their ball when they are away, you concede "honors" at the tee box, etc.)
i think it's silly to praise him for his fist pumps, but admonish him for muttering some cuss words. unleash happy emotions but suppress unhappy ones?
I agree. I just think he exhibits the unhappy emotions with such great frequency that it becomes a problem. He is not the only golfer who celebrates his good shots with emotion, but realistically, he is the only one who behaves the way he does when he slices a drive into an onlooker's lap. It is such an individual sport, and he is the most widely recognized athlete in that sport, so I just feel like he should learn to show some more patience and self-control.
i think he does show a lot of patience and self-control. if he didn't, he'd melt down in every tourney and shank his next shot after a swear-inducing one.
i just think that sports media has created a double standard for athletes. it causes us to forget that they are human beings that come as a package deal. we can't pick and choose attributes for them to have. brett favre is getting loads and loads of criticism for not being able to stay retired. people are beginning to even question the morality of it (is he holding the minnesota vikings hostage with the possibility that he might play for them?). but the point is that he was as good of a QB as he was because he had that drive. he refused to quit. we praised him and loved him for that, but that same drive now causes him to not be able to retire and he's suddenly a jerk?
tiger is firey and intense and focused and hates performing badly (could you imagine his reaction to getting owned in monopoly?). this is why he's the world's #1 golfer. it's also why he swears when he hooks a drive here and there.
It could be that Tiger's every shot is televised/scrutinized, so that we see all of his "outbursts." Whereas, if Joe Durant -- just to pull a name out of a hat -- has a similar episode, it probably isn't shown. That being said, Tiger is certainly very demonstrative, but it's not like he's going Happy Gilmore out there. Should Tiger hold himself to a higher standard? Perhaps, but I just can't find it in me to generate any outrage. Sorry.
If we're going to start comparing golf to major team sports, I guess we'd better get rid of those "quiet" signs they hold up during the swing.
that is my point. People earlier in this thread were making the point that people in other sports swear all the time so it is ok for Tiger to swear, and I am saying that the nature of the two sports are completely different.
I think you're agreeing with me but I just wasn't sure :)
Yeah, I should have indicated I was agreeing with you. Sorry about that!
he's muttering these things under his breath. It's just that the sound guys are all up in his nuts hoping to catch the faintest f-bomb. I've never seen him break a club or damage the green, or do anything rude to anyone else or the golf course (I can't say the same for myself). He's extremely polite to other people.
has always been an idiot. It is so funny to see the golf media, composed entirely of near 60 year old men, become enraged when a near 60 year old man chokes hardcore and loses a tournament. Golf.com 's most recent PGA confidential contain some other guys ripping on Tiger while they cried their eyes out over Tom Watson. In fact, now I'm all pissed off so begin rant:
I must admit that Watson's performance was impressive, but something about the post Open hype is really bothering me, viz. quotations like this:
"Had Watson won, you could say without apology that it was the greatest golf victory of all time and in the team photo of the greatest sports moments of all time." -Gene
WOJKEICHIEJNLASNFLKSHFOAISKI
I have seen this sentiment echoed elsewhere. This is just retarded. Forget all the objections about the greatest sports moments ever, because that is so obviously wrong
that it merits no rebuttal. If he had won it wouldn't even be the greatest golf victoryof all time. How about Jack's 18th Major at age 46? Watson is older but that set the 18
majors record that seemed untouchable pre-Tiger. Or Tiger going into an 18 HOLE PLAYOFF ON ONE FUCKING LEG LAST YEAR? The Greg Norman Master's collapse, and so on (some others
that I am way too young to appreciate can be found here:
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/golf/great-sporting-moments-golf-174…)
Yet, the one thing about this Watson almost won bullshit is that Tiger's smashing victory at the 1997 Masters is so much better than the counterfactual story of a Watson victory. In the era of Obama and in a sport ruled and covered by 59 year old white men like Watson, it seems that the sporting and SOCIAL magnitude of that victory has been forgotten. I was 12 years old in 1997 and I didn't know much about golf at all. I constantly confused Jack and Arnie. But I remember watching the Masters that year and everybody was like holy shit this guy is amazing. And he is a BLACK (!!) golfer. He
dominated just seven years after Augusta admitted its FIRST BLACK MEMBER. My frickin grandma became a big Tiger Wood's fan after that tournament because in her words, "I just
thought it was so neat to see a black fella come in there and show those guys that was good." My grandama is a white lady who lives in the middle of nowhere in lower Michigan, and even she could see the social importance.
Added to all of the above is the importance of the moment as the start of Woods era, the start of golf becoming cool and more youth-friendly and sponsorship $$$. But all of that
is secondary.
So I'm glad Cink won, because otherwise I would have to hear how Tom Watson changed the fucking world. "OMG!! An old guy won a golf tournament!! I can't believe it!!."
I was personally rooting for Watson, and it would have been a good story, but Cink winning is fine. The thing the 60 year sportswriters are ignoring is that the mere fact Watson was in a fuckin' playoff for the British Open at 60 is story enough - he didn't need to win to prove anything at that point. He hung with and beat (all but one) of the greatest golfers in the world. That's a fantastic story. Winning wouldn't have added THAT much more to it. But since figuring that out requires just a bit of nuance and subtlety, sportswriters will completely miss it.
Forgot to add: Watson's performance was undeniably incredible - but I agree that in terms of sheer dominance, social impact, etc. that Woods in 1997 towers above just about everything else in modern golf. That changed the sport.
I actually like Tom Watson, it was the sportswriters/announcers who were pissing me off.
*also, in further response to the Reily piece, how in the blue fuck could he forget that Ben Hogan (THE HAWK) was notoriously mean. Not just temperamental but at times down right mean off the course. (see, e.g. http://golf.about.com/od/golfersmen/p/ben_hogan.htm)
tiger is 25% black. how about an asian guy winning a major?
though i was cheering for watson ... also cink deserved the hell out of that win ... it was one of the better clutch comebeacks ive seen in a major in my lifetime ... noramally players are choking but instead he shot a 68 on a sunday and in his last 5 holes (playoffs included) he had 3 birdies ... quite impressive
My favorite part of the article is when he talks about Tiger almost slamming a tiny fan in the head with a club on accident when the fan is crossing some sort of boundary to touch Tiger after he takes a shot.
Even with his tantrums, If Tiger had made the cut and fought his way to a victory - bad shots and all, Reilly never would have written the article. Everything is fine, as long as you win. If you don't, look out. Just ask RR.
This article sucked almost as much as the Tebow as Jesus cover story I just got in the mail from SI today.
I have spent a lot of time around golf courses and country clubs, and Reilly's viewpoint represents that of the "old money" crowd. And I hate to bring race into it, but Tommy Bolt was notorious for throwing and breaking clubs, and is still the subject of one of the oldest and most-repeated golf jokes still in circulation. Somehow, everyone still laughs at that joke, and nobody says a word about how Bolt was any kind of negative influence. Of course, Bolt was white.
Back to the "old guard" thing, many of the older, whiter golfers are still PO'd that Tiger has brought so many African-Americans into the game, not only as fans, but also as players. I have truly lost count of how many older, extremely rich people I have heard use the n-word in reference to Tiger and those he has attracted to the sport, including the women's club champion of a pretty nice club down here.
I'm not saying that Reilly has any racial bias at all, but there is definitely a crowd that does not want Tiger around and cheer against him, and their voices can be quite persuasive if you don't understand their underlying agenda. Thankfully, they are grossly outnumbered.
I guess it's sorta like the "down in front" people: the old guard despises change. Sorta like dinosaurs did.
Reilly should know better.
I remember Tiger's dad, Earl, telling a story. One day, when Tiger was just a kid, he was throwing his clubs around in a fuming fit when his dad said something like "Tiger, golf is supposed to be fun." And Tiger said, "Daddy, I want to win. That's how I have fun."
I love that attitude cause it was what i had in high school and even younger and why i always thought "if you had fun, you won" was bs because to lose was the most painful expirence possible
tiger makes golf fun to watch cause he actually cares enough to swear
After the British he basically blasted Tiger for his behavior. I don't like Reilly, but he does make a decent point. Throwing the clubs and swearing shows a level of immaturity, and in Tiger's case he should really tone it down, becaus he comes off like a pouty little bitch when he does it. More than anything though, I think Tiger's frustration and demand for excellence is the cause for these outbursts, but they SIMPLY DON'T BELONG IN GOLF.
Now to the person who doesn't think golf is a sport, well that is silly. Golf requires a good deal of stamina and mental strength strategy, and skill than most sports. Now Nascar is not a sport. Hell, baseball to me a such a lame sport. It takes forever, 60 percent of the Players are slow and overweight, gay ass "unwritten Rules", 162 games. I haven't made it through an inning of a game this year, my summer has been great
tiger woods is a legend in golf but his days are over
You're joking, right? Dude's won 3 tournies this year and finished in the top ten of 2 of the 3 majors. All this after being off for 8 months due to major knee surgery. Tiger is just getting into the "prime" years for a pro golfer.
he is barely of a horrible leg injury ... still not old ... and he has won 3 out of 10 tournys this yr (a great winning percentage)
I'm not a golf fan but I'd be more inclined to watch now than anytime before...I mean, it always seemed a bit boring that Tiger was like 75% likely to win every damn event. Now will he win, or won't he? There's a lot more suspense.
EPIC fail
Have you ever watched golf?
this is great
I didn't think anyone was dumb enough to say something like that....guess i was wrong!!!
I don't play the game (anymore). I don't watch the game. I don't follow the game, much less any player. I don't claim to understand the game. I have no clue what's going on in the PGA or any particular tournament. And yet, I know with absolute certainty that you are wrong.
August 14th, 2009 at 10:15 AM ^
Remember when you said this, romo??
Get over it Reilly!!! He must have never played the game of golf in his life if he is complaining about this. For me and my friends personally swearing just comes with golfing and that's when it doesnt matter. People want to see a real reaction from an athlete not a fake one and Tiger gives it to ya. I don't think it's a big deal at all!!!