Whether or not you agree with Dan Jenkins’ recent take on Tiger Woods, it’s one of those situations where you just have to get down on your knees and give the “We’re not worthy” bow to the words themselves. Jenkins, IMO, is every much a technician at the word processor as Woods is on the golf course; I often imagine him living his retirement off on a ranch somewhere, grooming nouns and adjectives like champion racehorses, pausing for an hour each day to supervise the polishing of his vocabulary. It was inevitable that the former writer for Sports Illustrated and author of Semi-Tough and Dead Solid Perfect would shift his focus to Affair le Tigre, and the result — his Feb. 18 column in Golf Digest — is revealing, pointed and, ultimately, devastating.
What set Jenkins off, evidently, is when Woods’ agent, Mark Steinberg, referred to his client as a “kid.” As in, the media should “give the kid a break.” Key excerpt:
Kid?
Kids flew B-17s in daylight bombing raids over Germany in World War II. Kids fought in Korea and Vietnam. Kids are serving today in Iraq and Afghanistan so Tiger Woods can live in a world where he can win 14 majors and match that number, the last time I counted, with 14 casting couches, most of them reserved for blondes.
Hoo boy. Here we go.
Kid?
Tiger Woods was a month away from 34 years of age when his debutantes began turning up in the news. He was a grown man with a wife and two children. Well, we supposed he had a wife, but that was before we learned she was only an ornament.
… Now excuse me a moment while I try to envision Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus playing video games and eating Fruit Loops while they try to deal with a career problem.
Of course, Hogan, Palmer and Nicklaus never set themselves up to become future statues in Central Park.
They never pretended to be the All-American Daddy-Pop Father of the Year Who Also Wins Golf Tournaments.
They never sold themselves as the greatest Family Values brand ever, and conquered the marketplace with it, shamelessly scooping up hundreds of millions of dollars while saying, “My family will always come first.”
They were never what Tiger allowed himself to become from the start: spoiled, pampered, hidden, guarded, orchestrated and entitled.
I’ll tell you what Hogan, Palmer and Nicklaus were at their peak.
They were every bit as popular as Tiger, they endured similar demands on their time, but they handled it courteously, often with ease and enjoyment.
They were accessible, likable, knowable, conversant, as gracious in loss as they were in victory, and, above all, amazingly helpful to those of us in the print lodge who covered them.
That was their brand. All the things Tiger never was.
And now, the capper:
Never in my knowledge of history has any famous personality — in sports, show biz, or politics — ever fallen so far so fast. Tiger Woods is graveyard dead, as the Southern expression goes.
Life as Tiger has known it is over. His reputation is ruined, possibly forever. His name that once meant mastery over competitive golf now invokes cringes, giggles and all the Internet jokes you want to pass along.
That’s what it’s like being deconstructed by a master; something that makes one take pause and think that, yeah, Tiger’s image is going to need major reconstructive surgery after all. It’s not a problem that a month at Gentle Path and a take-no-questions press gathering is going to fix. Tiger’s burden now is not only to fix himself, but to “win the crowd.” That’s not going to be easy with a majority of the public who now knows him only for his celebrity, and not his talent. Winning back golf fans will be easy. But most people aren’t golf fans, believe it or not. This “kid” has an enormous mountain to climb.
***
Nice (Not) Knowing You [Golf Digest]
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- Bill Gregg - Feb 23, 2010 at 12:37 PM
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I agree with Jenkin’s take on Kid Woods … and the press briefing only confirmed that his sense of entitlement has not diminished one bit.
Yes, he is grave yard dead … but I wonder why the golfing media did not drop the dime on him, long ago … since Charles Pierce nailed Kid Woods back in 97 and Pierce was castigated for it …
The media, in almost all forms, serves basicaly to serve itself … and it usually at the public’s expense …
America, at every level, needs to begin to listen and THINK for itself … and when it does, individuals and politicians like Kid Woods and Gov. Sanford … will be seen as they are … and as a result will be unable to disappoint us.
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- Terence Cox - Feb 23, 2010 at 1:07 PM
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People haven’t you learned anything by now. If you put your hopes in man you will always be disappointed. It’s simple he cheated on his wife and children he has to fix his family.
Golf will take care of itself. He’ll still be the best player in the filed. Is it Tigers fault that no one know they where playing the day of his press conference. I think that’s what Ernie Els should have been worried about.
And as far as the rest of America goes they’ll be waiting for the next guy or gal they build up to fall so everyone can pile on them too.
One last note next time a guy cheats on his wife don’t parade all of his other women on TV like they are the victims. Who didn’t know that Tiger Woods is married. Aren’t they at least 50% responsible? Where is the shame for helping destroy a family.
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- hawk - Feb 23, 2010 at 1:24 PM
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The rich white man cheated on their wifes all the time with whores, slaves, kids and even men. Let’s be real the golf association knew about this long ago, but they did not care. Once this black man became a billionaire everyone wants to tear him down. It’s that something the golf world stroked him and now the golf world wants to choke him.
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- Chris - Feb 23, 2010 at 1:31 PM
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I also want to know why nobody blames the women who are looking for attention? Like Terence says, who in the world did NOT know that Tiger was married? I have seen on several sites these women asking where their apology was!!!! seriously?!?! Why in the world do they deserve an apology??? Everyone interviewing and writing these articles should be in their faces just as much asking them why they are homewreckers? was it money/fame they thought they would get. I tell you Tiger makes me sick, BUT these women make me just as sick and have just as much fault. I only feel bad for his wife who, by the way, is hotter than most of the women I have seen.. I would lick the floor she walked on before cheating….
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- barrgg - Feb 23, 2010 at 1:31 PM
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@hawk, shut up. Don’t pull the race card. Where were you when the entire world was worshipping Tiger Woods since the day he began playing professional golf? His fall has everything to do with HIM, not with his race or anyone else Do you even pay attention to anything around you? How many WHITE politicians are torn down and asked to resign from their jobs when they are discovered to be cheating on their wives? Practically all of them.
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- m steckler - Feb 23, 2010 at 1:31 PM
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If Tiger plays GOLF again, I will watch him – I just love to watch him on that golf course.
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- jonni riviera - Feb 23, 2010 at 1:33 PM
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TIGER, What the f— were you thinking? This was the question everyone wanted answered . There is another question. Where were all the crack investigative journalists in LA, San Diego, Vegas, NY, and anywhere else he did all these women and nobody saw him at a club,hotel,resort, etc and said to themselves, there’s Tiger and that sure doesn’t look like Elan and the kids.
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- Bob Jackson Haney - Feb 23, 2010 at 1:34 PM
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There is a belief in this world that we are all perfect and deception is fruitful if you dont get caught.
There is no doubt in my mind that Tiger messed up!! I mean like a quadruple bogey mess up. He will be back. There are records he is posessed on obtaining. But I kind of feel that what goes around comes around and that he will get it together and Elen will leave him. She has to, there is no other choice.
In his statement last week it was the same old Tiger–defiant to the camera. He is right, it is noone’s business but theirs. Fact is he is a famous celeb.It sells. What if he didn’y hit the hydrant? What would we know today? Do we really give a poop?
Seems like we do. I wish the best for them both. WE all know he doesn’t need money. He needs help, they both do and the kids also. Good luck Kids!
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- edithanne - Feb 23, 2010 at 1:34 PM
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I believe that Tiger Woods will have to move out of the United States. Perhaps he could live in another country and not be hounded by the media.
There are not many places here in the U.S. where the press will not get to him.
He might as well resign to the fact that his life as he knew it is over.
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- bpl - Feb 23, 2010 at 1:34 PM
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So, Hawk, this is a racial thing now?
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- Ron - Feb 23, 2010 at 1:34 PM
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Mr. Jenkins, you are indeed the dean of Amercian sports writers and fully deserve to be called a living legend. You Golf Digest article on Tiger Woods is, sadly, dead on the the mark.
Thank you.
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- Becky - Feb 23, 2010 at 1:34 PM
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My 5 year old daughter figured out that cheating is wrong and to this day 10 years later will STILL not watch a movie with cheating in it….So if my “kid” can figure out that cheating is wrong than why couldnt a 34 year old boy?
Also I want to rail against him for dragging Buddhism into this mess…A REAL BUDDHIST WOULD HAVE BEEN MINDFUL ENOUGH TO NOT GIVE THOSE WHO MISUNDERSTAND OUR PHILOSOPHY MORE FODDER TO SLANDER BUDDHISM.
TIGER YOU ARE A FRAUD IN EVERY SENSE OF THE WORD. APPARENTLY YOU NEEDED THAT MONEY TO BUY EVERYONE BECAUSE YOU HAVE NO SOUL AND GOOD PEOPLE KNOW THAT AND CAN SEE IT.
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- Charles Simmons - Feb 23, 2010 at 1:34 PM
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I think the whole escapade is ridiculous and it is largely the fault of us…yes..us the American public. We put our celebrities up on a near God like pedestal, forgetting that they are human, and when they commit a human offense we get mad at them for somehow tainting our perspective of them. Shame on us. Seriously. Celebrities, like Tiger, are just as flawed as the rest of us, with the same weaknesses. We forget they make the same mistakes the rest of us mortals do. And, let’s not think for one minute they are role models for our kids. They are not, they are sports figures groomed to do one thing…win. Proper role models for kids should start with their parents. If I were Tiger, I wouldn’t be apologetic to anybody expect my wife and family. He should have forgotten about the media circus he created just to win back his sponsors. If anything, he should have apologized for marrying Elin because he is obviously not ready for the responsibilities of marriage.
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- raallen - Feb 23, 2010 at 1:36 PM
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Of course someone would have throw in the race card. For pity sake, the guy is a very talented penisaureshead, plain and simple. he might be able to swing a golf club like few other people, but when it comes down to it, he’s got the morals of an ally cat. He needs to take care of his family, get straight with his God. He shouldn’t even care if he ever picks up another golf club and neither should we.
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- Chiltepin - Feb 23, 2010 at 1:37 PM
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Old man ranting….
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- DugoutNut - Feb 23, 2010 at 1:37 PM
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This is not about the women, Terence. This is about Tiger. He lied to the women, he used his status and money. They are culpable on some level, but again, the story is about Tiger and his hypocrisy and his degenerate, womanizing ways.
Trying to turn the story into “what about the women” is, purely and simply, deflection. A term I am sure Tiger is learning a lot about in therapy.
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- Charlie - Feb 23, 2010 at 1:41 PM
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This black man? You mean this Thai man, right? Race cards don’t work, Hawk, but if that’s all you’ve got……
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- Ben - Feb 23, 2010 at 1:41 PM
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Weak Article.
None of the prior greats were reduced to living in constant isolation by paparazzi. Weird things happen to people who are hounded daily by the press. There is no evolutionary experience with this kind of life experience, and I for one, am not surprised by the consistently poor reaction of the human species to unprecedented stimuli.
For me, Tiger is a DNA in a test tube. I’m content that he hasn’t broken any laws, but his wife is quiet, strong, and looking out for the kids best interest – She’s the gem in this picture.
Tiger said too much. His actions are honest – his words remind me of the constant effort of ethnic minorities to “conform” to white pseudo-ethics. (I failed, cheated, unfaithful etc…) These are majority words descriptive of a tired (white-male centric) ethical framework to which neither he nor Elin (or anyone else) much subscribe.
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- Richard - Feb 23, 2010 at 1:42 PM
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Hogan, Palmer, and Nicklaus probably all cheated on their wives multiple times . . . we have no possible way of knowing. The real difference is that they didn’t have near the media scrutiny that anybody faces today. If Tiger had done this same thing 40 or 50 years ago, nobody would have ever found out, or even thought that it was their business to care. And as for those “kids” fighting in any one of our many wars, I really doubt that they were all faithful to their wives while they were thousands of miles away.
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- Commonsense - Feb 23, 2010 at 1:42 PM
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Yeah, everybody’s against him because he’s 1/2 black!
The same guys who made him rich are now tearing down their own highly paid corporate symbol, and in doing so, damaging their livelyhoods too.
Grow up.
There’s a black man (okay half-black) in the White House.
People have got to take some (any little bit would do) responsibility and quit blaming their personal failings on “the man”.
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- TorpedoYou - Feb 23, 2010 at 1:42 PM
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Hawk…What does skin color have to with anything? Didn’t MLK say something about the “content of man’s character.” Clearly Mr. Woods has none. With 2 “kids” serving in the Navy and 1 on his way to Afganistan, your comments are off the mark. What a poltroon you are.
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- Jumpmaster82 - Feb 23, 2010 at 1:43 PM
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Very well said, learn to think for yourself, be your own leader, father husband ect…. Then you can only be let down by yourself.
But really I don’t remember Tiger flauting any of the I’m the best Dad, Husband or world leader, so people need to stop making other people idols and be their own idol.
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- Tip Toes - Feb 23, 2010 at 1:43 PM
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He tore himself down.
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- Practical Fool - Feb 23, 2010 at 1:43 PM
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The Practical Fool would suggest that you remember that this is a story about someone’s private life that has no relevance to your own. Try to concentrate on making your own life better. Take a walk. Eat a piece of fruit. Step back from computer and try something new. Maybe if you stopped thinking about Tiger Woods, you could concentrate on improving things in your own life.
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- Josh - Feb 23, 2010 at 1:43 PM
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I am sick of the people who comment about this being a black and white thing. You people that think that are rediculous. Its getting blown up so much more than others because of ” THE MEDIA “. He cheated on his wife WHO CARES. I don’t care if he is black, white or whatever. First off its non of my business nor is it anyone elses business what he does in his personal life. He plays golf for the fans, he doesnt get married and have kids for the fans. I think everyone should take a look at the Skanks that just used him because he was Tiger WOods. How about instead of putting all these women on the cover of magazines and making them out like saints. How about start rubbing there face in the dirt for sleeping with A MARRIED MAN. Yeah he is a man and he cheated but how about look at the whore women in the situation.
