Sports Coverage -- It's all About Celebrity Gossip Now

We posted a blog about Tiger Woods' downfall this weekend. It was commentary about Tiger Woods and his downfall not intended to be coverage of the Bridgestone Invitational. Still, are we guilty of getting into the cult of personalities?  Probably so.

What was more alarming was this evening's coverage on ESPN SportsCenter. While giving the PGA event top level coverage, the coverage was devoted almost exclusively to Tiger Woods' agony including a very broken looking Woods asked to account for his failings at the end of his play. That one of his shots hit a spectator and Woods responded by autographing one of his gloves and giving the fan the ball in play along with some splish-splashes, oops, how'd that get there shots, and lots of camera on a wincing, grimacing golfer continued to drive the story. The next big story line was devoted to Phil Mickelson, #2 in waiting, who likewise had a miserable day.

So didn't someone win the tournament? Did he or did he not face some competition in the back nine. It would be hard to know watching the Nation's premier sportscast. For the record, Hunter Mahan finished #1, 12 shots under par, a $1.4 million pay day. Ryan Palmer finished second, -10, taking home $840,000. How strange it is the fellow who finished tied for next to last in 78th place got all the attention. For his efforts, Tiger Woods took home $35,500, twenty strokes over par.

Following this precedent, should not ESPN spend most of Baseball Tonight's coverage following the Pittsburgh Pirates?

Next week, the tour moves on to the 4th major, the PGA. Could this please be about the competition for the lead and not the on-going soap opera about the former champ in disgrace?  Are we that sadistic we like seeing someone so miserable? 

Note to ESPN, we understand Tiger's mighty roar has been reduced to scared kitten's "mew," but there are dozens of other golfers whose story deserves to be told. Note to TNT and CBS, cover the golf not the soap opera. Let the cameras take us to Whistling Straits in Haven, Wisconsin for GOLF!!!

At Golf Event Named for Tires -- The Wheels Have Fallen Off Tiger Woods

“Life has changed. I haven’t practiced as much as I used to, nor should I. My kids are more important.”


Buried deep in the field on a course he once seemed to own, Tiger Woods goes into Saturday’s action at the Bridgestone Invitational at Ohio’s renowned Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio near the bottom tied for 72nd place six strokes over par. How far has the once emir of the sport fallen who won his past four entries in the tournament missing the 2008 event for surgery. 2009 was Tiger’s comeback after a season ended when surgery was required ACL surgery on his left knee with a double stress fracture in his left tibia.

A year ago, Woods won six major events finishing #1 on the money list. In 2010, Woods has no major victories and is lost in 74th place in earnings.

We needn’t repeat the soap opera scenario that started with his strange SUV accident last Thanksgiving then all the subsequent revelations, rehab, and media hoopla leading to this April’s Masters where Woods was clearly off the mark only flashing his brilliance occasionally. Since the Masters, 2010 has been an outright disaster. Though Tiger finished 4th at the Masters and US Open, both events showed Tiger was clearly off his game, but in other events, the results have been much worse, not one single top ten finish even failing to make the cut at the Quail Hollow Championship in Charlotte in April. He did not compete in the Players Championship the following week. Aside from the two 4th place finishes noted, his best effort was 19t in early June at the Memorial Tournament. His other results have been ties for 46th, 24th, and 23rd in the British Open.

Tiger Woods has lost his mojo. He doesn’t even look like Tiger Woods. The confident swagger and energy are gone. He looks like a man with the weight of the world on his shoulders. Prior to this week’s competition, Tiger addressed the media noting, ““Life has changed. I haven’t practiced as much as I used to, nor should I. My kids are more important.” As his divorce from Elin Nordegren heads toward settlement in what will be a historical payout, Tiger Woods is a broken man lost in a haze dealing with the consequences his sexual affairs and revelations have thrust upon him.

The fall is so severe and the Tiger Woods of today is so out-of-character for the fellow we thought we knew a year ago, he hardly seems to matter any longer. Each detail of what happens as the details of his personal life works its way off will make the gossip pages. What it seems we won’t see much of is Tiger on the leader boards.

The brooding, fragile creature Woods has become has made him more of a distraction to the PGA than a vital member of the sport’s most honored fraternity.

Who is to say if Woods will regain his form and when? The field is wide open for new leaders to emerge from the likable Phil Mickelson to some exciting new prospects, the game moves on and Jack Nicklaus’s records are starting to look much less vulnerable than they were just a year ago.

At 34 years old, Tiger Woods could still have a brilliant career ahead of him, but how much of his golf was supported by a sense of invincibility and cool? How he will handle rebuilding his life and committing to the intense rigors of returning to the top of the game will evolve as the remainder of the 2010 season continues and in the years ahead.

A year ago, as Tiger dominated the Bridgestone, could anyone ever think he could be the pitiful person he is today?

Phil Mickelson Wins Masters: "Lefty" Was the Right Guy for the Big Win

Congratulations to Phil Mickelson for winning the 2010 Masters Golf Tournament, his third, putting him in some rather elite company in the history of professional golf. His play was steady and consistent through four days of competition punctuated by a scattering of incredible shots which gave him the advantage over a strong field.

Somehow, given all the buildup to this year’s tournament, the fellow who many see as Tiger Woods’ most legitimate rival winning this most elite contest almost seems just. Everything about Mickelson seems to be the anti-Tiger from his low key demeanor, his fatherly family man lifestyle, and being such a decent ordinary kind of fellow in style and substance. Outside the world of golf and the most dedicated sports fans, no one would think of Phil Mickelson as a celebrity, but he’s a man of great honor for his efforts outside his sport giving time and money to charitable causes. His 2009 season was interrupted by the revelation on May 20th, his beloved wife Amy was stricken with breast cancer forcing Mickelson to sit out the next few events on the schedule resuming play for the St. Jude Classic and U.S. Open where he finished second. Hardly getting his feet back on the ground in competition, came another grave revelation when on July 6, it was announced his mother, Mary, also required surgery for breast cancer. His schedule was again interrupted including playing in the PGA Open. He’d not return to competition until the Bridgestone Invitational as prelude to the PGA Championship. He parlayed his status as a well-known golfer to help raise awareness and funding to treat the horrible illness.

Naturally, much of the four days of competition focused on Tiger Woods’ return. Much was made of a display of temper in the third round where microphones and cameras caught a blowup were he muttered, “Tiger Woods, you suck” followed by a loud “God damnit.” Woods played his best first round ever at Augusta on Thursday, but his efforts slipped the following days still good enough to finish tied for fourth, five strokes off the lead.

Englishman, Lee Westwood, finished the tournament second, three strokes behind Mickelson, going into day 4 with a one point lead. Anthony Kim vaulted himself into competition shooting a superb 65 for the final round leaving Tiger Woods and K.J. Choi in 4th place.

One of the real popular highlights was the fine play by 50 year old golfer, Fred Couples, who hung on to finish 6th, seven strokes off the lead as a popular geezer pleaser. Last year’s winner, Angel Cabrera was not a factor in this year’s competition tied for 18th in the final standings.

For all the media buildup barking about Tiger Woods’ return to competition, by Sunday’s action, it was all about the competition and who was positioned to win the green jacket. Fortunately, there was very little to make noise about concerning Tiger Woods other than Tiger was back, he played effectively but not his best, and there were no episodes to feed off the controversy. While his temper attack is not commendable, we only know about it because there were so many cameras trained on the dishonored star. Surely, other competitors engaged in less than gentlemanly speech at times too.

Here’s hoping that the attention will be on the golf course and not the bedroom as the PGA tour is now up and running in full swing with one major tournament completed and three to go with many other fine events scattered through out the schedule.

There just seems to be a certain sense of justice “Lefty” would win the big one. Tiger Woods was perhaps the most recognized athlete in the world with his fall from grace taking on almost titanic proportions. Phil Mickelson is more like an everyman kind of guy, your next door neighbor, who just happens to play golf extremely well.

It was Lefty’s day today. Somehow that just seems so right.

A Master Complaint

What's with the stinking "Dungeons and Dragons" style orchestration CBS is using for its music package for the Masters this year?

This writer rather liked the gentle piano led instrumental fills that were so befitting of the gentle southern environment in Augusta, GA.

At least the new version for "One Shining Moment" was an improvement for the NCAA Championship this year.

2009 Masters: May the Attention be on Golf and not How Tiger Got Some Tail

The Masters Tournament starts play today amidst the media circus brought on by Tiger Woods promiscuity scandal. Held each year with the final round played on the 2nd Sunday in April, the PGA’s most prestigious tour dating back to its founding by golf legend, Bobby Jones, who helped design the course for the Augusta National Golf Club with architect, Alister MacKenzie, its beautiful landscaping and architectural features, with its rich variety of flowering trees and shrubs most of which come to bloom at the time of the tournament create a rich aesthetic unlike that of any other sporting event. Various features and landmarks around the course are a part of the nation’s sports vocabulary as we think of Amen Corner, “The Big Oak Tree,” Eisenhower Tree, Rae’s Creek, Crow’s Nest, the Hogan, Nelson, and Sarazen Bridges, Magnolia Lane, and Par Three Fountain. The tradition of awarding the tournament winner a green sports coat honors the intense level of play making it one of the most popular and widely viewed events on the tour.

The club insists on strict standards CBS and ESPN must follow as conditions of their contracts to broadcast the event. The spectators generally known as the gallery through out the rest of golf are to be referred to as “patron” when covering The Masters. The “rough” is called the “second cut.” Much to their credit, they also significantly limit the number of commercial breaks, but given the tournament’s popularity, the event’s sponsors pay the networks dearly for their sponsorship. Announcers covering the events are kept on a very short leash. The Augusta officials will not hesitate to demand removal of any broadcaster who strays from the party line. Networks are not allowed to use on-field reporters and their use of graphics is severely limited as is any promotion for other network programming. What better shows just how much power this tournament has given in this instance the networks must pander to the sport where in other sports, the sport panders to the network to make the event as media friendly as the network brain trust suggests.

The Augusta National Golf Club is also a hotbed of social controversy as the club is one of the few major facilities that still does not admit women members using its status as a private club as its shield to justify such archaic and blatant sexism. Membership is by invitation only, an elite list of some of the most accomplished men in government and business.

The winners list of the Masters reads like a who’s who of golf’s greats; however, it is not unusual for a seemingly nameless golfer to come on strong and claim the green jacket. If a golfer wins no other event other than a single Masters, he will still be one of golf’s historical figures for that accomplishment alone. Consider the winners of the last five tournaments: Angel Cabrera (2009), Trevor Immelman (2008), Zach Johnson (2007), Phil Mickelson (2006), his second, and Tiger Woods (2005), his 4th.

Other significant winners include Nick Faldo, a three time winner who won his last tournament in 1996. Tom Watson is a two time winner who is attempting at 60 to be a solid competitor. Jack Nicklaus holds an unprecedented six championships with his last in 1986.

Other greats include Gary Player (3), Arnold Palmer (4), Sam Snead (3), Ben Hogan (2), Byron Nelson (2), and the winner of the first tournament in 1934, Horton Smith who won two.

Phil Mickelson is perhaps the odds-on favorite to win this year’s tournament with Ernie Els, Padraig Harrington, among others receiving much attention. Naturally, all eyes are on Tiger Woods. How much will not having played in competition for 144 days and the storm of controversy from his inappropriate behavior affect his game at a course he has tamed so effectively?

Tiger Woods will never get the warm reception he enjoyed in the past as now we know too much and see that carefully prepared image we’ve become accustomed to endorsing was nothing more than a carefully created veneer. Whether its temperamental outbursts, foul mouthed tirades at various folks around the clubhouse, to almost any personal digression, it’s all out in public now. How many of us take the notion of “rehab” for sexual addiction seriously? That’s what the elite have available. For the rest of us, we’d just be seen as cads or carousers.

His unsatisfactory behavior was not lost upon tour officials. Billy Payne, Masters Chairman, blasted Tiger Woods in a statement before the media covering the event. In his pretournament address, Payne stated in part:

"As he now says himself, he forgot in the process to remember that with fame and fortune comes responsibility, not invisibility. It is not simply the degree of his conduct that is so egregious here; it is the fact that he disappointed all of us, and more importantly, our kids and our grandkids.

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Our hero did not live up to the expectations of the role model we saw for our children."

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Adding to the controversy is a strange ad by Nike featuring a stone faced Tiger filmed in black and white with the voice of his late father speaking. We here him saying:

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“I want to find out what your thinking was. I want to find out what your feelings are. Did you learn anything?”

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The tone of the ad is solemn but creepy to be sure. Is it exploitation?
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The less said of the Tiger Wood “sextravaganza” the better. It’s all about the game of golf and how well he performs. He’ll get no more good will votes any longer. He’s no longer America’s son. The only thing that matters is where he stands on the leader board on Sunday and how well he lives up to expectations.

Tomorrow Mr. Woods Speaks -- Reports are More a Scared Kitten than a Tiger

For the first time since last Thanksgiving when a late night auto accident just outside his house soon led to revelations of vociferous appetite for sex with a parade of assorted mistresses, escorts, and bimbos coming out of darkness to absolutely obliterate his squeaky clean carefully crafted image, Tiger Woods will appear before an audience to begin reestablishing his career.

Given how the event is being staged, we hesitate to say Tiger Woods is going public. The expose is far too scripted and private and something about the way the whole event is being presented makes Woods’ attempting to come to terms with his difficulties seem still so out of touch.

Tiger Woods will appear before a group of friends and associates at the TPC Sawgrass clubhouse in Ponde Vedra Beach, Florida to offer some kind of statement or apology regarding his behavior. The people in attendance will be a carefully selected group of hand picked supporters. The event will be covered by one single camera. Meanwhile approximately a mile a way, a crowd of legitimate media will be gathered in a hotel ballroom to watch the spectacle. There will be no interaction, no question and answer, just Mr. Woods reading a prepared statement for the world to see.

True to form, in attempting to rebuild his career, once again Woods is working with his handlers to attempt to create a carefully crafted, perfectly packaged image…in essence re-launching the Tiger Woods brand.

How can we not predict that no matter how perfectly written his statement is, and surely it will be carefully written with all the right words and phrases that this endeavor will surely leave the public unfulfilled with just as many questions as ever? What is needed so badly is a little bit of authenticity and pure emotion some opportunity to measure the man and his sincerity to make amends for what he has done wrong. We’d darned well not hear any conditional or qualifying catch phrases we hear all too often in public apologies, the sleazy old, “If I have offended anyone….”

The bottom line is we don’t know Tiger Woods. We probably never did, and tomorrow won’t take us the slightest step to knowing him any better at all. His contributions to the sport of professional golf have been tremendous. Few athletes have dominated his sport the way he has. No one can deny his breaking the color barrier in such an elitist white sport was a long overdue accomplishment which he served so well.

As time went by, Tiger Wood became less a person and more a brand name as he was selling everything from Buicks to investments to Gatorade to Nike. His selling power was supported by an All-American squeaky clean image that he will never be able to convince us is real again.

Tiger Woods can only redefine himself by how he plays golf. If he plays at the highest championship level, all this will calm down. Some will remain forever skeptical of him, for most, his exploits will most likely be put aside. If he struggles on the links, the doomsayers will be proclaiming his misadventures have done him in. He’s washed up. It’s over.

We’ll see what comes tomorrow, but the prequel is making us think the only folks who will gain anything from tomorrow’s activities will be talk show hosts and gossip reporters. That’s a crime.

Some More Thoughts on Tiger Woods

What is it about our obsession with the PRIVATE lives of public figures?

If it doesn’t affect their professional responsibilities, why should we care? Marital infidelity is wrong. As with so many things, in today’s society, folks shy away from declaring things as wrong such as children born out of wedlock with no father figure in a child’s life among many other things that would be frowned upon severely in the past.

Estimates suggest one in four men cheat on their wives. If we don’t make a big deal about celebrities’ marriages if they’re stable, why should we care when they’re shaky?

Bill Clinton’s womanizing was more involved than just seeking his pleasure outside his relationship with his wife, Hilary. Since he was “on the job” and had a relationship that involved a subordinate in the White House barely an adult, more serious issues surfaced with his tryst. If any family realized their daughter was being taken advantage of by a male superior at her workplace, that would be a legitimate issue for condemnation which exceeds the scope of a messed up adult relationship involving the parties involved.

There’s a line between having an affair and becoming a sexual glutton involved in far more than the casual affair.

Tiger Woods’ situation is troubling, but so far it appears to be something that should be kept out of the press. The extent to which the trashy press, the tabloids, are invested in playing this up to the max is disturbing, but the sports media and cable news can’t resist despite their moralizing which seems to say, “should we really be doing this,” makes it all the less genuine.

Tiger Woods is a real person who has been living a carefully constructed public image. That image has led to the Tiger Woods brand, one of the most popular images to be used to sell product. Aside from being professional golf’s first successful Black, though truly multi-racial, champs, he has also been promoted off a friendly, squeaky clean image of the young man who learned to play golf from a loving father who was always by his side in his early days. It’s hard not to see Tiger Woods as a man with a huge ego too. All in all, who could be seen in a more positive light than Tiger Woods?

He will never been seen the same again. How far this goes depends partly on his efforts to rise above it. Much will depend on how well he plays golf when competition resumes next month. Meanwhile the press will milk his errors for every last bit of exposure for their outlet they can gain.

How much of this is “should know” or “need to know” is very debatable.

Tiger Woods Fined $164 for Driving Mishap

The World's Greatest Golfer!

Tiger Woods has been fined $164.00 for careless driving and will have four points charged against his record. This is what happens when a person hits a tree and fire hydrant when operating a motor vehicle and is not under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Sgt. Kim Montes of the Florida Highway Patrol reported to the media the results of the department’s findings on this episode and announced the case is closed.

How many people who might read this column have not been charged with some moving violating from speeding tickets, failure to signal turns, or minor fender benders?

Somehow, because this was Tiger Woods and this event happened Thanksgiving weekend when there’s nothing going on in the news, his little traffic mishap took on a life of its own.

We should all file this away in the “too much information” category and move on, but when someone is Tiger Woods, it’s not that simple. Is there a more recognized face in all of sports than Tiger Woods?

His accomplishments are amazing. He is on a pace to conceivably surpass all major records in professional golf. When he finishes his career, he will be on just about every leader’s list imaginable if not on the top. All this is especially significant because until his arrival, there wasn’t a more lily white sport than professional golf. Some golf courses still exclude black members and many more did before Tiger Woods came on the scene.

Tiger Woods gained much respect from some and condemnation from others for never making race an issue in his career. He let his performance speak for itself. Some who specialize in the politics of race criticized him for not being more involved in certain issues or serving as an advocate, but could Tiger Woods have accomplished more for breaking down racial barriers hanging around with Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton?

Unfortunately, when a person attains the celebrity status Tiger Woods has achieved, that person will forever live under a microscope and both TMZ and The National Inquirer have much invested in digging up dirt on celebrities to satisfy the worst kind of Schadenfreude. We seek not to dignify what these sleaze outlets are publishing, other than to acknowledge they’ve spent a fortune to find leads which would confirm Woods is engaged in an extramarital relationship and that his wife’s anger about this led to the early morning driving mishap.

Marriages are hard to maintain for the media heroes in our society. There is not a destination in the world where they are not recognized and revered where some will take advantage of any encounter for the most selfish reasons possible. Imagine being treated like a deity or royal figure everywhere on the planet.

The one person who does not see the star in such heroic terms is the celebrity’s spouse who knows what he or she looks like at 5:30 am and all his or her faults, personal ticks, and defects. How does a loving wife compare to a person who’d practically faint on the spot to be in the presence of greatness?

This is not offered to make excuses for extramarital relationships or other bad behavior by these famous people. It’s just plain and simple, reality. Their lives are unreal. Just as the media loves to build them up, they love to knock them down. Some might genuinely be interested in them and be potentially good allies, many have far less desirable intents. Some are just plain evil. Consider the horrible death of former NFL Quarterback, Steve McNair, for instance.

We have the horrible hunch that this driving episode will be used to tarnish what has been an unbelievably clean image. Tiger will have hell to pay for little more than being human. We pray for his marriage, his wife, and children and hope all will work out for the best.

A Masterful Masters; A World Event

Just as a casual stroll on the fields of Antietam where the bloodiest day of slaughter in American warfare was fought, one can hardly imagine the intensity of competition against the pastoral beauty of the Augusta National Golf Club when the Masters Tournament winds down the final stretch as the world’s top golfers seek the privilege to borrow the green jacket for the following year. In the lush Georgia pines the voices of golf’s greatest whisper wisdom to those on today’s field of battle. Beginning with Horton Smith, winner of the first tournament in 1934 followed by legends of the sport: Gene Sarazen, Byron Nelson, Ben Hogan, and Sam Snead, the PGA tour became one of the world’s most prestigious and extensively covered sports in the 1960’s when Arnold Palmer, Gary Player and then Jack Nicklaus, the “golden bear,” dominated the historic event.

Through the 1970’s and 80’s into the 1990’s, dreams of capturing Jack Nicklaus’s glory would go unfulfilled as Nicklaus would win again in 1972, 1975, and for a final bow in 1986, golfers like Nick Faldo and Ben Crenshaw would become champions among sports’ elites for their repeated triumphs in the spring time splendor deep in the Georgia woods.

Who would suspect on the eve of the Masters in 1997, the whole world of sports was about to give birth to a legend who could likely sit at the same table as Babe Ruth, Michael Jordan, Richard Petty, Johnny Unitas, and Wayne Gretske as the legendary face of their respective sports?

Tiger Woods shot his way to win the 1997 Masters suddenly making golf hip and liberating it from being perceived as an exclusive club for white boys only. As Woods became the sports most dominant figure, he never talked politics, never made speeches about what it meant for a citizen considered Black to open up such a lily white sport. He simply was glad to be considered an American and to look at Tiger Woods’ family tree, he is the son of an Asian-American mother and a father with American Indian, European and African lineage. Woods has since won three more Masters and has been in the hunt for more becoming a one man marketing sensation perhaps only rivaled by Michael Jordan in his prime.

This year, the dynamic duo of Tiger Woods and, Phil Mickelson, his most significant competitor for the green jacket would not be in the final march for victory only finishing among the top ten with Mickelson finishing in sole possession of 5th place and Woods in a four-way tie for 6th, but what would define the chase for victory provided a high drama finish almost unprecedented in PGA tour history.

At the conclusion of regular play, three golfers would move on to contest being tied after four days of golf as Chad Campbell, -3 for today’s action, Angel Cabrera, -1, and Cinderella story, Kenny Perry never finishing better than 12th in the Masters losing a sudden death playoff for one chance at a major win in the 1996 PGA, face the intense pressure of all eyes of the patrons watching to gain just a one shot lead on their adversaries.

Chad Campbell would be the first to fall, and then there were two. Finally, even knocking a ball off a tree in the playoff, Argentinean Angel Cabrera would survive to the 2009 Masters winner. Welcome to one of the most exclusive fraternities in sports as last year’s winner, Trevor Immelman surrenders the coat worn so proudly by the legends of golf.