I Hope My Final Thoughts On Tiger

First, to the Golf Writers Association — you all are a bunch of suck-up hypocrites and your ‘ban’ of Tiger’s announcement was the ultimate in “You really don’t get who you are and why you are here.” You think Tiger not answering questions is an insult to journalism?

I’ll tell you what an insult to journalism is — the way you babied Tiger, never asked him any hard questions, help hide his disease, and kept your mouth shut when he was on top of the world. Let’s be honest, your organization hasn’t exactly produced the kind of work that is going to be seen on Nightline or Sixty Minutes. You looked the other way with Couples, Daly, and Woods. You weren’t looking to expose anything when you were writing all those puff articles on Tiger and getting paid. Please don’t grandstand now.

Having said that, I’m still amazed that people are amazed.

While Tiger did his usual saying a lot to not really say a whole lot, I don’t think he owes me or the public a more detailed explanation of what he did wrong. I get the picture. I’d soon move on. His bosses and sponsors and wife and kids may deserve more but I don’t. The hardest critic is still his wife and kids. The real hard questions will come without the cameras and microphones.

As for Tiger’s comments, nothing really groundbreaking. He’s out of mind to think the media will leave him alone. It can’t. Part of that is accountability, part of that is consequence. It’s insane to think he is just another golfer, he’s not. He’s a brand unto himself and he created himself that way. This is just part of that package. All the press releases in the world stating otherwise won’t change that.

Every Tour player and fan will have to decide what to do with Tiger once he decides to play again – shut him out, root against him, forgive him, or mixture of all. As with any situation, that decision will say more about us than it does Tiger.