Archive for December, 2009
December 4, 2009
Tiger Woods was different, or so he seemed, with his unmatchable talent and carefully burnished image. Unlike some pro athletes, he had welcomed being a role model. He was, it turns out, too good to be true, and his fall from grace calls into question the very idea of sports hero worship.
No one has approached this level of perfection on and off the playing surface, maybe ever, without a single blot or tarnish, said Dave Czesniuk, director of operations for Northeastern Universitys Center for the Study of Sport in Society.
The real story here is the meeting of expectations with reality, Czesniuk said. The guys a human being and we forget that.
Woods apology Wednesday for unspecified transgressions - coinciding with reports of repeated marital infidelity - was, on one level, only the latest in a long sequence of superstar downfalls.
Michael Phelps was photographed with a marijuana pipe. Marion Jones had her Olympic medals stripped for doping that she long denied. Roger Clemens and Alex Rodriguez faced dual allegations of steroid use and adultery. And so on.
Woods, however, was unique - a globally recognized brand name that evoked impeccability and historical greatness. His sponsors and handlers, his admiring chroniclers in the media, and especially Woods himself contributed to the image-making.
The public had become jaded and indifferent - they expected Barry Bonds and Marion Jones and Sammy Sosa to fall, said psychologist Stanley Teitelbaum, author of Sports Heroes, Fallen Idols.
But no one really expected that of Tiger Woods, he said. Now that it happens to him, people are not as indifferent - theres more disappointment and more disillusionment.
Steve Elling, senior writer for CBSSports.com, wrote this week that fans and sportswriters, himself included, were gullible in placing Woods on so high a pedestal.
We have learned by now to invest admiration in public figures with a grain of salt. With Woods, we just ate the whole salt lick, Elling wrote. Say it with me: Never, ever again.
Woods, for all his preoccupation with mastery on the course, had managed throughout his career to be viewed as more than just a golfer - loving son to his parents, civic-minded creator of a foundation serving disadvantaged children, devoted father who said hed play less golf so he could spend more time with his two young children.
He didnt embrace social causes, and sometimes there were brief flashes of temper or crudeness. But as far back as 1997, he was on record as welcoming the responsibilities of role model.
I think its an honor to be a role model, he was quoted as saying in a Business Week article. If you are given a chance to be a role model, I think you should always take it because you can influence a persons life in a positive light, and thats what I want to do. Thats what its all about.
If that was Woods goal, Teitelbaum said it had been achieved.
In terms of a role model, hes A-one, the psychologist said. The fans, and especially kids, are desperate to have role models to look up to. … People have made him the designated sports hero.
When youre among the high-flying and adored, your public will give you unconditional love as long as you continue to perform, Teitelbaum added. But theres a responsibility to be that much more careful and that much more transparent and, when something does happen, to deal with it openly.
The depths of sudden disillusionment with Woods have been almost tangible. According to Zeta Buzz, which tracks millions of blogs and social media posts, online references to Woods had been 91 percent positive before his recent troubles and by Thursday had dropped to 57 percent positive.
The owner of a youth-oriented Internet site called Role Models on the Web said Thursday hed been inundated with hateful e-mails and phone calls for leaving a flattering entry about Woods on the site.
Should he be considered a moral role model? No, said Lamar Brantley of Sarasota, Fla. But through his foundation, hes done a lot of good.
Above the Woods entry on the Web site, Brantley added this update:
I will leave Tiger up as a role model as I believe it is probably a good topic for discussion in your family. If you do or do not believe him to be a role model of any kind, discuss it with your children.
Countless parents have been forced into similar conversations in recent years as drug and sex scandals entangled star athletes in numerous sports.
Theres an important parental role to play with kids, said Joe Kelly, founder of a national fatherhood group called Dads and Daughters. You need to make clear that role models are just models - theyre not without flaws, and we will be disappointed by them sometimes, the same way were disappointed by our parents sometimes.
Kelly said he retained a degree of admiration for Woods because of the golfers past comments about how much it meant to become a father.
We have higher responsibilities as fathers, rather than responding to every impulse and desire we might have, Kelly said. When it comes to being a father, we have to be the grown-up. When we act like children, the fallout is terrible.
Some of Woods admirers believe he will redeem himself, not only through further golfing excellence but also through a show of character.
He is distinctive in myriad ways - not only his talent, but his extraordinary level of discipline, said Dan Doyle, director of the Institute for International Sport at the University of Rhode Island. What I think will happen is Tiger will never make this kind of mistake again.
The fact that he made what is clearly a big error does not dismiss him as someone who can have a tremendous effect on society and youth in the future, Doyle added. People will give him a second chance, and he will make good on that second chance.
December 4, 2009
Stuart Appleby shot a second consecutive 6-under-par 66 to take a six-stroke lead at the wind-suspended Australian Open on Friday.
Appleby had played just two holes before a near six-hour suspension due to gusting winds on the oceanside links-style New South Wales Golf Course.
When darkness stopped play, Adam Scott was in second place on six-under, having picked up two shots after six holes.
Scott Hend, who shared the lead with Appleby after the first round, had dropped a shot to be 5-under after eight holes, level with Peter Wilson, who was among those who still hadnt started their second rounds when play was stopped.
John Daly was even through six holes after an opening 72. The second round was expected to be completed Saturday morning.
Appleby, who had a two-round total of 12-under 132, had five birdies, a bogey and an eagle on the par-5 18th, which was his ninth hole Friday.
Play was stopped Friday morning after balls were blown off greens by the wind, before most groups had teed off.
Its nothing to do with the golf course, tournament director Trevor Herden said. No matter where you were today you wouldnt be able to play with those wind gusts.
It was the third time in eight years that the countrys most prestigious tournament had been interrupted because putting became impossible.
The powers that be didnt get it right, Appleby said. It unfortunately seems to be an Australian Open tradition.
Australian Brett Rumford made a quintuple-bogey eight at the par-3 second after his tee shot settled near the flag.
As Rumford prepared to putt, a gust of wind blew his ball off the green. After consulting two rules officials Rumford decided to chip it back on, from where he three-putted. He was subsequently penalized one shot for addressing a moving ball and two more for not replacing it, and shot 78.
Tour veteran Peter OMalley, in contention after an opening round of 69, watched while his ball roll from tap-in range to 10 feet away on the 13th immediately before play was suspended.
As far as putting goes it was a lottery, said OMalley. You cant really stand up on the greens and putt. You dont know if you can ground the putter … because you dont know whether its going to roll again.
Greg Chalmers, runner-up to Tiger Woods at the Australian Masters in Melbourne last month, agreed.
When youve got balls moving on greens … thats hard to take when it costs you money, said Chalmers, who shot 72 Friday and is 10 strokes behind Appleby. There are a lot of guys whose tournament has been kicked out the door.
December 2, 2009
Scott Drummond is beginning to prove that his PGA Championship win was not the fluke perceived by so many.
Since those heady days in 2004 when he defied Angel Cabrera and Nick Faldo with a final-round 64, the Devon-based Scot has sank without a trace.
But the 35-year-old is emerging from the depths, even if he is having to do it at the Tour School.
In yesterdays third round at PGA Catalunya, Drummond shot his third 69 in a row.
At five under par, he is nine behind joint leaders Simon Khan and Charlie Ford, but well within sight of being among the 70 players - and ties - who will go forward to the last two rounds tonight.
Drummonds confidence - shot after four seasons in the wilderness - is back.
He said: There are still one or two errors which I have to eliminate but the hard work Ive been doing in the last 12 months has begun to come together.
Ive made a number of changes in my swing, worked on my fitness, and also on the mental side of the game. Steven OHara, meanwhile, is nearly going mental over his putting.
The Motherwell man played immaculately from tee to green, and at six under par after a 68 he leads the 11 Scots in the 156-strong field.
The putting is driving me nuts, said OHara, tied fourth in the greens in regulation statistics and dead last in putting. I tried something different but it didnt work. Ive no confidence over the ball.
Although reasonably placed on a four-underpar, Stephen Gallacher missed four putts from inside four feet.
Andrew Oldcorn and Andrew Coltart carded one-under-par 71s. George Murray rose to two under par with a 69, while Jamie McLeary, Greig Hutcheon and Callum Macaulay all broke the par of 72 to at least give themselves a chance of moving on.
The No 1 card looks like being a contest involving Englishmen Khan, Ford and Jamie Elson, although it was Spains Alejandro Canizares, with a 61, who shot the round of the day.
December 2, 2009
The old world meets the new this week when Bob Torrance visits the Titleist Performance Institute in San Diego.
The revered 77-year-old Golf coach from Largs is in California with his star pupil, Padraig Harrington, for Tiger Woods Chevron World Challenge at Sherwood Golf Club, Thousand Oaks.
It is Harringtons last event of the season before he embarks on an eight-week break and he has taken the opportunity to invite Torrance to the Institute to talk to the boffins there as the three-times Major champion prepares his game for the Masters in April.
Just how Torrance, a man of few gimmicks, will get on with Titleists bright, young technocrats is open to imagination.
However, Harrington is convinced there is a place for both in his relentless quest for as close to golfing perfection as he can achieve.
The single-minded Dubliner insists he has faith in what he was advised to do with his swing earlier in the year when he was hooked up to the TPIs new world testing system.
However, there is absolutely no truth in the rumour that he might be leaving the man who helped to construct a game to beat the best.
Bob is still as much a part of the team, even more so than ever, said Harrington. He is coming out to the TPI with me for the first time. It coincides with Tigers tournament.
Torrance is a genius. He knows the sequence of what can and cant be done, and why some players will swing the club one way and another player will swing it another way.
It was the venerable Ayrshireman who put Harringtons game back together during a five-hour session on the practice range before The Open at Turnberry.
And the contrast in Harringtons record before and after the Turnberry get-together is striking.
From February to June, as he wrestled with changes he was trying to make to his swing, he missed six cuts, including the Irish Open, US Open and the French Open.
From August to November he had eight top-10 finishes, including seconds in the WGCBridgestone and the Barclays in America, and in Europe a third in the Portugal Masters and fourth in the Dubai World Championship. The data from the TPI showed what was wrong, the Irishman explained.
But I couldnt figure out how to correct it.
Interestingly enough, a lot of the work I had been doing seemed to be at loggerheads with what I do with Bob. But when I worked with him at Turnberry he pointed out why I was struggling.
Thats why he is a genius.
Now the idea is to have Torrance talk things over with the bio-mechanical team at the TPI, which will ensure that everyone is signing from the same hymn sheet next season.
IT IS difficult to feel sorry for the richest sportsman in the world. Surely, however, there has to be a touch of sympathy for Tiger Woods over his baffling 2.30am crash into a fire hydrant outside his gated home at Isleworth in Florida.
His reluctance to explain to the police might look like the behaviour of a man who believes he is above the law.
At the same time, here is an individual who, partly through no fault of his own, has never been allowed to live in the real world.
He is constantly surrounded by black-suited men who look - and sometimes act as sinisterly as - members of the mafia.
He is hidden behind a management team that operate as if he was a world statesman on a hush-hush mission, instead of a sports person.
It is virtually impossible for a member of the media to talk one-to-one with Woods.
How different it was with legends of another era, Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson.
Almost in any circumstances you could walk up to Nicklaus and Watson and have a word.
If you try that with Woods you are almost frog-marched away.
December 2, 2009
The most ennobling of Tiger Woods 14 major victories were his first, which demonstrated that one need not be a middle-aged white guy to win at golf, and the last, which proved one need not have an ACL.
Of the two, Woods has called the latter the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines my greatest ever championship, the best of the 14. Its easy to understand why, as it introduced an element sorely lacking in the genteel game: physical heroism.
Woods literally limped his way to triumph. All told, he played 91 holes, including an 18-hole playoff, with a torn anterior cruciate ligament, ruptured cartilage and a double stress fracture in his left tibia. You see athletes routinely overcome severe injuries in boxing and hockey and football, in basketball and even baseball. But never in golf. This, then, was another first. Tiger Woods had established his virtue as a good old fashioned tough guy.
Which brings me to Tuesdays non-event at the Sherwood Country Club. Traditionally, Im informed, the Tuesday practice round has been among the few days when Woods becomes relatively open and garrulous. After all, the Chevron World Challenge is his tournament benefiting his foundation.
But Woods was nowhere to be found, of course. He has issued a statement on his Web site saying that he was unable to play as a result of injuries sustained in a one-car accident last week.
In fact, said injuries would keep him from even attending, though he somehow managed to fulfill his duties as a host last year while recuperating from major knee surgery.
I am extremely disappointed that I will not be at my tournament, he said.
Really?
Disappointment? Sounds more like relief.
You can pretend that this is all about a vehicular infraction that warranted a $164 fine. But its really about Tiger Woods. Who is he?
If youre like most people, all you really want is the truth. And all youre getting is spin.
Woods was treated and released from a local hospital the morning of the accident. His injuries have been described as facial lacerations. In other words, the guy who hobbled his way to a major championship just 18 months ago cant play at his own tournament for his own foundation.
I think its going to take away something from the tournament for the first couple of days, said Padraig Harrington. … Tiger Woods is the biggest player in the game, hes going to be missed.
By the same token, Harrington defended Woods right to be absent: He was in a car crash and he was injured. Thats a fact … He was unconscious for six minutes, I hardly think he was fit to play golf. I think its reasonable for him not to be competing.
True enough. Still, hes not exactly Ben Roethlisberger. Theres no report of a concussion or any neurological damage. So you have to ask: is this about injury?
Or embarrassment?
He can play hurt. But he cant risk the chagrin. Thats how it is with icons.
Even if Woods could limit the questions which he probably could, after a sufficiently passionate opening statement hed still be seen. And thats his problem.
Hes not a fighter going to a press conference with a pair of sunglasses. Hes Tiger friggin Woods. The heroic hobbling is one thing. The scratches on his face another entirely. Did he sustain them in the crash? Or did his wife put them there?
Theres lots of questions that will never get answered, said Harrington, who allowed that its pretty legitimate for people to be curious while offering that he finds most big news stories about 25 percent true.
If a quarter of this story is true, it wont hurt Tiger even a little bit as a golfer. But it could do irreparable harm to the icon.
The scratched face would be an indelible image. And image is everything in the icon business. You can limp your way into legend. But you cant be human.
December 1, 2009
Facing public scrutiny over a car crash that sent him to the hospital and raised questions, speculation and innuendo about how it happened, Tiger Woods withdrew from the Chevron World Challenge on Monday, citing injuries.
The Tiger Woods Foundation board met as it does every year at Sherwood Country Club. Merchandise was on sale just outside the clubhouse, with large photos of Woods hanging from brick walls.
Everything was in place at his year-end tournament - except for him.
His news conference for Tuesday afternoon was canceled in an announcement posted on his Web site as questions kept growing about Woods driving his SUV over a fire hydrant and into a tree at 2:25 a.m. local time Friday, questions that would have hounded him had he showed up at Sherwood.
Even as players in the 18-man field began to arrive - Graeme McDowell, a Ryder Cup player from Northern Ireland replaced Woods - it was clear Sherwood would be more quiet than ever, just like its host.
Asked to sum up the mood for the week, Padraig Harrington said, I dont think anyone knows.
Harrington was on the golf course Monday morning when Woods announced he would not play. Having flown over from Ireland, he has not been keeping up with each development and wasnt sure how much it would affect the tournament except for the obvious.
The more we play and compete with Tiger, the better, Harrington said, who did just that at two majors this year, and the final round of the Bridgestone Invitational when Woods rallied to beat him.
But its not going to take away from the winner enjoying his win, he said. I think come Sunday afternoon on the back nine, the focus will be on the tournament. Up until that point, Tiger will be talked about, and he will be missed.
John Daly encouraged Woods to end the speculation.
The thing that Tiger needs to look at is, whatever happened, just tell the truth, Daly said from the Australian Open.
Woods said on his Web site that injuries - he did not give details - prevented him from playing.
I am extremely disappointed that I will not be at my tournament this week, Woods said. I am certain it will be an outstanding event and Im very sorry that I cant be there.
He didnt play last year while recovering from knee surgery, although he was at the course the entire week and handed the trophy to Vijay Singh, also missing this year after his own knee surgery.
Tournament officials said fans who bought advance tickets with the hope of seeing Woods could get refunds beginning next week. Those who keep their tickets will get a 20 percent discount when they buy them next year.
Woods sustained cuts and bruises from the crash outside his home in an exclusive, gated community near Orlando, Fla. He was treated at a hospital and released. He has not been seen in public since then.
When healthy, he has made his season debut at Torrey Pines every year since 2006. The San Diego Invitational this year is scheduled the week of Jan. 25. That could mean Woods avoids the media for 10 weeks.
Woods released a statement Sunday saying the accident was his fault and asked that it remain a private matter. But with the Florida Highway Patrol still investigating and the media in full pursuit, he might not get his way.
The reference to false, unfounded and malicious rumors in Sundays statement may have involved a story published last week in the National Enquirer alleging that Woods had been seeing a New York nightclub hostess, and that they recently were together in Melbourne, where Woods competed in the Australian Masters.
The woman, Rachel Uchitel, denied having an affair with Woods when contacted by The Associated Press.
Woods even faced questions from fans who left comments on his Web site. Most voiced support for him, but some said he should address the questions about his own actions and those of his wife, Elin Nordegren, before and after the accident.
Woods hasnt answered questions from Florida troopers, either, turning them down three days in a row when they came to his house, the last time Sunday afternoon, after Woods attorney told the patrol he would not be speaking.
Four cars were parked in Woods driveway Monday, but no lights appeared to be on inside. A new fire hydrant had already replaced the one that Woods plowed into. A dirt hole and an orange barricade remained in the old hydrants place.
Linda Adams, Woods neighbor, confirmed to the Orlando Sentinel that someone in her home other than her husband, Jerome, called authorities.
The neighbor, who called 911 after Woods ran over the hydrant and hit a tree, said he was unconscious and laying outside his SUV. Woods wife told Windermere police she used a golf club to smash the back windows to help him out.
December 1, 2009
China plans a major crack down on illegal golf course construction. First, though, it needs to figure out how many of the illicit links are in the country.
Construction of new courses has been so rapid, widespread and unregulated that Beijing officials can only estimate how many have been built. One guess, appearing in the China Daily newspaper Tuesday, put the number at 2,700 by 2015 - up from none before 1984 and more than 500 today.
We still dont know the exact figure, but were working on it and will have the information by 2010, the head of land planning at the Ministry of Land and Natural Resources, Dong Zuoji, was quoted as saying. The culprits will face harsh punishment.
Alarmed at the loss of arable land in this crowded nation of 1.3 billion people, China began restricting golf course construction in the earlier part of the decade, with Premier Wen Jiabao vowing in 2007 to enforce a total ban.
Construction has plowed ahead, however, with developers apparently counting on presenting a fait accompli to regulators as has been the case with housing developments built on farmland surrounding Beijing, Shanghai and other major cities.
An estimated 3 million Chinese play golf and industry revenues from courses and equipment rose as high as 60 billion yuan ($8.8 billion) last year, China Daily reported. The sports backers forecast as many as 20 million potential Chinese golfers taking up the sport.
Golf is very much an elite sport in China, where a round can cost $150 - about the average monthly wage for many factory workers.
Memberships at elite clubs such as Shanghais Sheshan, home to the HSBC Masters, have risen to about 1.5 million yuan ($220,000). A growing number of international and domestic events have attracted droves of fans and players, while golfs reintroduction into the Olympic program for 2016 is bound to raise its profile still further among sports officials obsessed with topping the gold medal tally.
How officials will reconcile that popularity with the need to rein in course construction isnt clear.
According to Dong, a joint investigation into illegal courses involving his ministry and a half-dozen other government departments was launched in September.
China Daily said experts plan to use satellite technology to monitor course construction, but the report did not say whether courses would be plowed up and returned to farmland or whether developers would simply face fines and other punishment.
