Tiger’s game fine, but rest needs work
The state of Tiger Woods’ golf game is no longer in question. but his character - the root element all golfers are supposed to display in this gentlemen’s game - is under attack in some quarters.
Woods won for the fourth time in seven 2013 starts Sunday - he has won seven of his past 24 dating to last March- strutting past a diverse cast of characters en route to a victory in The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass.
Woods still has a ways to go to surpass Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 majors - he’s been stuck on 14 for almost five years - but with 78 PGA Tour victories he appears to be a cinch to pass Sam Sneed’s all-time record of 82, and he might do it this year.
Yes, his golf game is back where it was before infidelity and injury did what nobody else could, knocking him off his pedestal as golf’s No 1 player.
But now, barely one month after he received a two-stroke penalty for a making an illegal drop at the Masters, Woods’ character is being called into question in a report by SI.com golf writer Michael Bamberger.
Woods says course marshals told him the coast was clear when he pulled out his club to hit with playing partner Sergio Garcia out of eyesight on the second hold of Saturday’s third round.
“The marshals, they told me he already hit, so I pulled a club and was getting ready to play my shot, and then I hear his comments afterward and it’s not real surprising that he’s complaining about something,” Woods said.
It’s quite possible somebody might have told Woods it was OK to hit, but it wasn’t the course marshals.
“He didn’t ask us nothing, and we didn’t say nothing,” marshal Gary Anderson told Bamberger.
“We’re told not to talk to the players.”
Bamberger continued.
“Anderson’s boss, John North, was the chief marshal for the first three holes. He stood over Woods’s ball to protect it from the throng and was five feet away when Woods played his shot. North has worked the tournament as a volunteer marshal for 30 years, he’s a graduate of the Naval Academy, he served in Vietnam, he’s a FedEx pilot and he donates his round on the Stadium course for being a volunteer to the Wounded Warriors project.
“ ‘Nothing was said to us and we certainly said nothing to him,’ ” North said. “I was disappointed to hear him make those remarks. We’re there to help the players and enhance the experience of the fans. He was saying what was good for him. It lacked character.” Unreal McCoy
Philadelphia Eagles rookie quarterback Matt Barkley was a four-year starter at Southern Cal and heralded as Heisman Trophy material before his senior season, but Eagles running back LeSean McCoy reportedly spent most of an organized team activity Monday calling the Eagles’ fourth-round draftpiack “Mark,” until reporters corrected him.
“I’ve been calling him that all day. He ain’t said nothing about it,” McCoy said.
Barkley, however, had a different take on McCoy’s attempt at hazing.
“Ha Shady has been call in me Matt since the beginning!” Barkley wrote on his twitter account. “Guess he knows how to work the media and make a headline.”Quote of the day “I thought 20 would win it. I thought 20 might win it by a game or
two because I thought
everybody would just
beat up on each other.” Arkansas baseball Coach Dave Van Horn on the 17-9 Razorbacks and his thoughts about the SEC race before the season
Sports, Pages 20 on 05/15/2013