TIGER BEING TIGER
Golf is, and always will be, the ultimate Gentlemen’s game.
Bobby Jones, who founded Augusta National Golf Club in 1933, once said this about calling a penalty on himself when he claimed his ball moved when his playing partners swore it did not. “You might as well praise me for not breaking into banks. There is only one way to play this game.”
Apparently, according to Tiger Eldrick Woods, there IS more than one way to play this game. Unlike Bobby Jones, Woods has adopted the “win at all costs” philosophy that would have Jones and the other trailblazers of golf spinning in their graves.
He may ultimately overtake Jack Nicklaus in his quest for 19 major championships, but his legacy, already tarnished by his tawdry behavior, will be one of bending the rules to attain an advantage.
I’m not saying the illegal drop he gave himself on Friday on the 15th hole was egregious. His original approach shot was struck perfectly--but it was too perfect. When it hit the flag and rebounded into Rae’s Creek, it was a cruel twist of fate that
all golfers can relate to. The game is insidiously hard. And when you are able to conquer it only to be rewarded with a bad break of ridiculous proportions on golf’s grandest stage, one can see how your mind can be clouded with rage and not working properly.
I give him a pass for the error. But when it was brought to his attention, Woods could have engrained himself along side golf’s immortals and disqualified himself from the 2013 Masters.
I find it interesting that two penalties were handed out on Friday. One to a fourteen-year-old amateur who was attempting to make golf history by making the cut. When he was penalized a shot for a borderline slow play call that even had his playing partner past Masters champion Ben Crenshaw scratching his head and left him precipitously close to the cut line, he accepted the penalty with a grace and dignity that Tiger Woods apparently does not possess.
Woods may be the #1 player in the world, but he takes #2 status in relation to China’s Tianlang Guan when it comes to ethics and golf diplomacy.
So CBS Television will have their wish. Tiger will be in the hunt, and the ratings will soar on Sunday.
But the game has sunk to a new low--and Woods simply doing the right thing could have avoided it.
But then again, Tiger Woods has always had a problem doing the right thing.
