Rick Reilly takes aim at Tiger

[kaldaniels]

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?id=4347419

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Tiger Woods has outgrown those Urkel glasses he had as a kid. Outgrown the crazy hair. Outgrown a body that was mostly neck.


When will he outgrow his temper?


The man is 33 years old, married, the father of two. He is paid nearly $100 million a year to be the representative for some monstrously huge companies, from Nike to Accenture. He is the world's most famous and beloved athlete.


And yet he spent most of his two days at Turnberry last week doing the Turn and Bury. He'd hit a bad shot, turn and bury his club into the ground in a fit. It was two days of Tiger Tantrums -- slamming his club, throwing his club and cursing his club. In front of a worldwide audience.


A whole lot of that worldwide audience is kids. They do what Tiger does. They swing like Tiger, read putts like Tiger and do the celebration biceps pump like Tiger. Do you think for two seconds they don't think it's cool to throw their clubs like Tiger, too?


He's grown in every other way. He's committed, responsible, smart, funny and the most talented golfer in history. I just thought we'd be over the conniptions by now.


If there were no six-second delay, Tiger Woods would be the reason to invent it. Every network has been burned by having the on-course microphone open when he blocks one right into the cabbage and starts with the F-bombs. Once, at Doral, he unleashed a string of swear words at a photographer that would've made Artie Lange blush, and then snarled, "'The next time a photographer shoots a [expletive] picture, I'm going to break his [expletive] neck!"


He's grown in every other way. He's committed, responsible, smart, funny, and the most talented golfer in history. I just thought we'd be over the conniptions by now.


It's disrespectful to the game, disrespectful to those he plays with and disrespectful to the great players who built the game before him. Ever remember Jack Nicklaus doing it? Arnold Palmer? When Tom Watson was getting guillotined in that playoff to Stewart Cink, did you see him so much as spit? Only one great player ever threw clubs as a pro -- Bobby Jones -- and he stopped in his 20s when he realized how spoiled he looked.


This isn't new. Woods has been this way for years: swearing like a Hooters' bouncer, trying to bury the bottom of his driver into the tee box, flipping his club end over end the second he realizes his shot is way offline.


I can still remember the 1997 Masters -- arguably the most important golf tournament ever played. Woods, then 21, was playing the 15th hole on Sunday. He had just hit a fairway wood out of the rough and was watching it. A young boy came up from behind just to touch him -- just to pat the back of this amazing new superhero. That's when Tiger pulled the club way back over his head and slammed it down, nearly braining the kid he couldn't see behind him. And this was with a huge lead.


Look, in every other case, I think Tiger Woods has been an A-plus role model. Never shows up in the back of a squad car with a black eye. Never gets busted in a sleazy motel with three "freelance models." Never gets so much as a parking ticket. But this punk act on the golf course has got to stop. If it were my son, I'd tell him the same thing: "Either behave or get off the course."


Come to think of it, if I were the president of Nike, I'd tell him the same thing.


Put it this way: Will Tiger let his own two kids carry on in public like that?


I know what you're saying. We see more Tiger tantrums because TV shows every single shot he hits. And I'm telling you: You're wrong. He is one of the few on Tour who do it. And I keep wondering when PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem is going to have the cojones to publicly upbraid him for it.


Golf is a gentlemen's game. Stomping and swearing and carrying on like a Beverly Hills tennis brat might fly in the NBA or in baseball or in football, where less is expected, but golf demands manners. It's your honor. Is my mark in your way? No, I had 6, not 5. Golfers call penalties on themselves. We are our own police. Tiger, police yourself.


Tiger does a boatload of work for kids. He raises millions for his Tiger Woods Learning Center, which has helped teach thousands. But teaching goes the wrong way, too. Tiger is teaching them that if he can be a hissy hothead on the course, they can, too.


I remember Tiger's dad, Earl, telling a story. One day, when Tiger was just a kid, he was throwing his clubs around in a fuming fit when his dad said something like "Tiger, golf is supposed to be fun." And Tiger said, "Daddy, I want to win. That's how I have fun."


Well, it's not fun to watch.

[Highlifeman21]

I'm probably in the minority, but I enjoy/get a kick out of every Tiger outburst.

[SunDeck]

It'd be a wonderful thing if the gallery would just boo him and go to follow someone else at the first outburst. But people won't do it, they think he walks on water. In his defense, for him to miss a shot means an awful lot more than it does for lesser players. The media hang on his every shot and they scrutinize every detail of his game. Playing poorly for him is an event, whereas for the other guys on tour, it's just a missed cut.
Perhaps the next hurdle for him is to get over it.

[flyer85]

His readership numbers must be on the decline

[BuckeyeRed27]

I'm not saying that he should do what he does, but I do feel it at least gives Tiger a human element. He is so good at what he does it's nice to see that when he does occasionally mess up he throws his club in the air like the rest of us.

[dsmith421]

Reilly is an absolute genius of the modern age. When he's not regurgitating a column he wrote five years ago, he can always go back to the well for either (1) a treacly melodramatic tearjerker or (2) "won't someone think of the children?" stupidity. And he gets paid hundreds of thousands of dollars.

[Chip R]

It's somewhat immature for him to do that but I can relate because I used to do it myself. I don't think it's that big of a deal unless it's affecting his game. This is just another mediot trying to whine about him. If they aren't writing about how great he is, they are writing about what a jerk he can be on the course.

[Highlifeman21]

I'm waiting for the day Tiger snaps a club over a knee, or bangs it into his bag.

Anytime I toss a club, I feel better after the toss. For me, it's a great stress reliever.

When I watch Tiger do it, he seems to just get more pissed off. Make the most of those tosses, Tiger!

[Chip R]

I'm waiting for the day Tiger snaps a club over a knee, or bangs it into his bag.

Anytime I toss a club, I feel better after the toss. For me, it's a great stress reliever.

When I watch Tiger do it, he seems to just get more pissed off. Make the most of those tosses, Tiger!

When I was in college, I took a speech class. We had to give 3 speeches. One was persuasive, The other was informative and the 3rd was a "How To" speech. For the last one I picked "How to throw a golf club properly." It was very tongue in cheek and I went over all the steps on how to throw a club.

[Highlifeman21]

When I was in college, I took a speech class. We had to give 3 speeches. One was persuasive, The other was informative and the 3rd was a "How To" speech. For the last one I picked "How to throw a golf club properly." It was very tongue in cheek and I went over all the steps on how to throw a club.

Which way did you teach?

From the follow-thru position, 2 handed overhand?

Waist level 1 handed backhand?

Waist level 2 handed forehand?

1 handed over the shoulder axe throw?

Those are my 4 favorites

[Chip R]

Which way did you teach?

From the follow-thru position, 2 handed overhand?

Waist level 1 handed backhand?

Waist level 2 handed forehand?

1 handed over the shoulder axe throw?

Those are my 4 favorites

It was the waist level 2 handed forehand.

[Highlifeman21]

It was the waist level 2 handed forehand.

Excellent choice.

I find you have the most control with that throw.

[bucksfan2]

I was playing in a tournament very early on in my high school career. I used to get mad, grab the ball out of the hole, and throw it at my bag. I did it on one particular disappointing hole, picked up my ball and threw it at my bag in disgust. The coach of an opposing team picked up my ball, put his arm around my shoulder, and said "your better than that". From that moment I quite with my theatrics. I quite slamming my club into the ground. I never really threw my club. If I did anything wrong I would either slam my hand or hat against my thigh. Its just not worth looking like an idiot.

I think something should be done about Tiger. He looks like an idiot out there throwing temper tantrums. You don't see that out of anyone else on the course. The easiest thing to do is to stroke him for unsportsman like conduct. It would fall under that rule and when he would incur enough 2 stroke penalties he would stop his antics.

[SunDeck]

I'm not a good enough golfer to get mad on the course. Neither are most golfers.

[Hoosier Red]

Reilly is an absolute genius of the modern age. When he's not regurgitating a column he wrote five years ago, he can always go back to the well for either (1) a treacly melodramatic tearjerker or (2) "won't someone think of the children?" stupidity. And he gets paid hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Reilly and Daugherty are really the same guy, they try to take an "everyday Joe" way of looking at things and articulate them. This has value I suppose, but have you ever read something of either of those two and said, "wow that really makes me want to investigate where he was coming from?"

Joe Posnanski's the Greek God of sportswriting here specifically because you get the sense he's trying to investigate an answer before he writes it out.