Posted on 01/29/2010 2:10:41 PM PST by Federalist Patriot
Here is video of a news interview that golfing legend Tom Watson did where he was asked to comment on Tiger Woods and the controversy swirling around him.
Watson is asked about Woods, and said he thinks he will "probably be back sometime this year after he gets his personal life in order." Watson offered some frank and mature advice to Tiger Woods about his on and off the course behavior:
It's bad for our game. It's something he needs to get control of and a handle on and make some amends and show some humility to the public when he comes back.Watson was then asked what advice he would give Woods when he comes back:
"His swearing and his club throwing, that should end. That's not part of what we want to project as far as the professional golf tour is concerned."Amen to Tom Watson. . . . (VIDEO)
(Excerpt) Read more at freedomslighthouse.com ...
Finally, someone has the courage to say what should have been said a decade ago. You can look the other way when a teenager throws a tantrum on a golf course, but not a 30 year-old professional. His outbursts were/are ridiculous.
Closest I come to golfing is skeet shooting which also relies on the consistent calm application of technique. I can’t imagine that tantrums improve your game.
Given his upbringing, I think Tiger to some extent hates golf but can’t walk away either as so much of his identity is based on it.
All wild speculation on my part.
Tom Watson is an elitist snob.
He’s the same guy who criticized Bill Murray for dancing in a bunker at a pro-am.
Watson can blow it out his elitist ass.
“His outbursts were/are ridiculous.”
Amen to that...
I don’t know I kinda like watching someone making an ass out of himself in a tournament. Breaks up the monotony.
That whole generation of golfers (Watson, Palmer, Nicklaus, Player, etc.) really made the sport what it is today. Tiger and others may have been the ones responsible for golf’s surge in popularity, but without those other men the sport would be a sliver of what it is today.
You wouldn't think, would you? But, he certainly has them. I laugh when I hear a commentator or sports journalist talk about Tiger's "Zen-like" ability to focus. Tiger's a lot of things, but Zen isn't one of them. I have seen him - in person - lose him mind when he hits a bad shot. It's amazing how well the networks to do bury the broadcasting of them.
LOL. I can just see after a miss slamming your $3K over and under on the ground.
Seems to me Tom's opening up himself for criticism unnecessarily.
.... seems like they’re protecting Buddhism, the third ROP.
Tiger broke virtually every record in professional golf starting when he was what - 20? 21? Up until then, his life was nothing but golf. Nothing else. So he’s never had anything else to fall back on for his self-worth, except not only winning, but besting everyone, all the time.
For awhile, about five years actually, he amazed the world, breaking records over and over and over again. But he’s human, and he peaked, and he had to start dealing with that. But the only place he had to deal with it was within the realm of golf, in the public eye. Imagine all of your personal development exposed like that, to the world, under constant pressure to perform as the best in the world, with hundreds of millions in endorsements on the line, every day. Frankly, I’m surprised he hasn’t cracked up before this.
And while I’m also not not surprised about the intensity of the scorn he’s received, it’s still disappointing to see. People make gods out of other people when they see excellence in them, and then when they fall from grace and are revealed to be merely human, deliver a bloody execution they would never think of deserving themselves. The unforgiving rightiousness is pathetic.
If Bill Murray wants to dance, he should go to a disco.
Fortunately, I know it’s NEVER the gun when I miss. I’ve seen some shooters that do get upset when they miss (no gun throwers, they’d get kicked off the range) and I can’t figure why you’d spend so much time and money on a sport that ticks you off.
Tiger Woods has broken and thrown more golf clubs on tour events than ALL other golfers combined. It just doesn’t gets reported. Woods is the John McEnroe of golf, you just are not made aware of this for obvious reasons.
I'm not commenting on his personal off-course foibles. I'm commenting about his on-course, expletive filled tirades. The PGA Tour isn't the NBA where thuggish and boorish behavior is welcomed and celebrated. If that makes golf or me a snob, then I'm a snob. Golf is suppose to be a game of gentleman and for gentleman. Keep the "in da hood" vernacular "in da hood" and off the course.
At least he's just a golfer.
Look at the considerably more problematic monster the media created with their selective coverage of Obama.
They could have easily nipped it in the bud by doing their Constitutionally charged job.
Hmmmm, quite right. Along with the rest of the rabble who have so stained our kingly pursuit of leisure and competition. Quite right!
How dare they?!
(said in my best Thurston Howell III voice)
Okay, it strikes me that cussing and throwing clubs are the least of our young friend’s problems.
I saw a video of Tiger as a very young child with his Dad on a Tv program showing how he could put the ball.
I think he was only three, and I remember thinking, I bet he grows up to hate the game.
It becomes a job, instead of a hobby.
Are you any good at skeet shooting? I find it hard to be consistent. Did you take lessons or anything?
Bring back Fuzzy Zeller
Lighten up Francis...
Whoo Hoo! Two movie references for the price of one!
Oh, I’m quite aware of it. Believe it or not I have attended several events in which Tiger competed.
I was commenting on Watson. Plus, my ass is not nearly so tightly wound as others so as to care if Tiger wants to show some emotion on the course.
Ok found it. He wasn’t putting, but he was even younger than I thought - only 2. He was on the Mike Douglas show.
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/59134/tiger_woods_at_2_years_old/
LOL! Hijacking is fine here!
Sent you a FReepmail.
If you we're away of this, then it wouldn't really be a surprise to discover that he few (are there any?) professional golfers who back him at all.
Call it jealousy if you like. But Tiger Woods is the furthest thing from a gentleman golf has ever seen. Fortunately for him, he got to play the race card to expunge all his on the golf course aberrant behavior, and it never hurt him one bit.
Too bad for him that the tabloid press didn't operate under the self imposed journalistic black out rules that the sports/news media did. Sex trumps race.
Really? What's this I found on your profile?
Simple people talk about people.
Mediocre people talk about events.
Superior people talk about ideas.
- Freeper meadsjn
‘Roid Rage.
They are just symptoms of his problems. IMO.
LOL! And without today's crop of golfers, golf would be non existant.
Golf is now too passe' and too entrenched in the days of old. today's players are more intense with more $$$ on the line thanks to Tiger Woods as echoed by John Daly.......
Its time the PGA starts adding some excitement to the game like the PBA has done. Specifically, more fan contribution and enough of this stupid "hush, hush, shhhhhhhhhhhhhh" crap.
If these guys can't hit a straight drive or sink a 3 ft. putt without perfect quiet, then they don't belong in golf!
When is the last time you ever heard a basketball stadium go totally quiet when there was 1 second left on the clock and the visiting team at the foul line needing 1 basket to either tie the score or go ahead and the entire stadium not only yelling and screaming, but the crowd behind the backboard waving pom-poms or whatever is available in order to distract the free throw shooter? That's pressure!
Golf was initially a game of elitists and has done very little to change that image........
Times have changed and it's time golf changed along with it...........
I want to see emotion from the players, I want to see club throwing, I want to see humanity out of these guys, not emotionless robots who move from ball position to ball position and occasionally tip their sponsor's cap to the crowd.......
Good! Because "Gentleman golf" is an archaic term still used by the club elitists but is now a thing of the past and well it should be...I have never once encountered a "Gentleman" on the golf course......
You nailed it. Woods might win a lot of golf games, but he's an extremely crude person. But then that is what the audience wants in sports figures today, the low life.
Slow down, man, Watson is wrong but “elitist snob” he is not. Some of the old guys have “old ideas” just like you will when your old, doesn’t make him an “elitist snob”.....! Just saying.
I see, my guess is you don’t play golf,or barely play it. The rules of golf are there for reasons other than this stereotype which lives in your head, they are there to enable people to get through a round without hurting themselves or others. Nothing worse than playing with some jerk that throws his clubs and screams when he misses a shot. It isn’t about decorum, its about keeping the fun in the game. Same kinds of rules in Baseball, football and soccer, wether you rawar of it or not.
lol — that meadsjn....he’s so snobby!!
So true. The NFL, MLB and the pinnacle of virtue and character, the NBA are all setting the example for golf to follow. If only the PGA could be more like the other sports populated with wife beaters, drug pushers and users, dead-beat dads and otherwise unsavory characters. Man, they'd really have something then. /s
Some one is going to shout something like, "Elin never threw her 9-iron and look how she scored".
How he reacts to that ball-busting will be a new measure of the man.
That will be interesting. Tiger is going to get worse treatment than Monty on his worst day, I expect. Up until now, his caddy has been able to get away with bullying people and they’ve been able to control that sort of thing.
Now, he is going to be heckled mercilessly I’m guessing — I could be wrong but I don’t think he’s going to be warmly welcomed back when he returns by the rank and file golf fan.
My guess is that he isn’t going to be able to handle it very well because it will be completely out of his control and it will be foreign to him. We’ll see.
Please!
I've been pretty close to Tiger when he's hit some shots he didn't like. I was near him when he bogeyed two holes en route to the US Open Championship at Bethpage in 2002. I was also close on several occasions when he missed the cut at Winged Foot in 2006. I guess I've seen him drop his club, and I've seen disgusted looks on his face. But I've never heard him curse. Has Watson even played with him? I think this is a cheap shot at a guy who is down.
ML/NJ
Actually I was heavily involved in golf from approx. 1966 till 1997 when I gave it up ....
ROFLMAO!!!! Nice try ODH, there's no way you can compare the direction golf needs to go in order to survive to what has happened to the other sports. Give me a break!
Golf will continue to be played by honest individuals but unless you and its fellow elitists allow the players to start acting naturally and allow fan excitement, it will remain relegated to the excitement category of curling.............
I think Elin hooked a 9-iron through the window(s) of a Cadillac Escalade though.
It hard to believe, but Tiger could probably learn a lot from John Daly.
Just kidding.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.