Tiger Threatens To Break Photographers Neck

ESPN.com

Tiger Woods may often look otherworldly on the golf course, but he is indeed a mere mortal. We became witness to that once again at the WGC-CA Championship, but not because he didn't win. Nope, he's lost tournaments before -- many more times, in fact, than he's come out on top. Instead, it was Woods' reaction to a photographer clicking a snapshot during his downswing on the ninth hole of the final round that proved he is hardly impervious to even the most subtle distraction.
If William Shakespeare were around today and covering the PGA Tour, he very well may have written the following:
If you prick him, does he not bleed; if you poison him, does he not die? And if you wrong him, do you wonder if he revenges?
Woods had some revenge in mind when the untimely click led to a poor swing and subsequent bogey. ''The next time a photographer shoots a [expletive] picture,'' he hissed, though to no one in particular, "I'm going to break his [expletive] neck.''
A story on ESPN.com in which Woods described his ire toward such a practice has received 1,800 user comments and counting so far, and includes those who are incensed at each of these actions from Woods:
• He used profanity when the cameras were rolling.
• He threatened bodily harm to another person.
• He failed to apologize for said threat.
• He was angered by the clicking in the first place.
OK, let's start at the beginning. Yes, he used profanity -- the "f" word, twice, if you must know -- and yes, the national television cameras were squarely on him at the time. But that's not his concern. Woods has used such language in the past and will do so again in the future, for reasons from being angry with himself for hitting a poor shot to being angry with a photographer for taking a photo too soon. It's pretty apparent he doesn't care about the public reaction, because he continues to do it. For a guy who is almost always Exhibit A for all public relations directors out there, it's one thing -- maybe the one thing -- that makes him look bad.
Then again, it also shows how much Woods cares about every shot, how concerned he is with the result and how disappointed he becomes when factors other than his own swing intervene in the final product. Think of in other terms. If the click bothered Woods and he said nothing, what's to stop a renegade photographer from trying it again? If the click bothered him and he politely asked the photographers to refrain from taking such shots too early, would it be as effective in further prevention? Admit it: For a guy who so often issues the most thoughtful, measured response to any question, it's nice to see the human side come through once in a while.
The threat? Let's be real, folks. This wasn't about Woods holding up some poor sap by the shirt collar and spraying such venom directly at him. As far as thinly veiled threats go, it's right up there with Dad telling the rowdy kids in the backseat that he's going to "turn this car around if you don't behave" after already logging 12 hours on the road to DisneyWorld. Tiger won't be breaking any necks anytime soon, so you can stop with the all-too-literal translation.
When he sat down for an interview with "ESPN First Take" three days after the incident, Woods never said, "I'm sorry." And guess what? He's not. He wants the photographers -- who will be out there again the very next time he tees it up at the Masters -- to know he's unhappy with their performance and won't tolerate the lack of professionalism.
"It's been frustrating because that's what been happening lately," he said. "It's one of the things that comes with playing in the last group, one of the distractions we have to deal with.
"Each time it's happened, well three out of four times, I made bogey. At the time I needed to make birdie, I flinched on it. [The photographer] got me in transition on my downswing."
Which leads us to why he was angered in the first place. It's been said that Woods should remove his "rabbit ears" and stop blaming others for his miscues. Ask any PGA Tour player, though, and they'll confide that there's nothing more distracting than when there's total complete silence and then right in their downswing, just before impact -- BAM! -- something impedes with their concentration. Now, a continuous noise -- say, a generator, a lawnmower or even passing vehicles on a nearby highway -- won't affect them very much, but even the tiniest peep at the exact wrong time can cause a world of damage to the result.
Do a quick Google search and look for action shots of your favorite golfers. Every single one of 'em -- unless it's a staged shot during a non-competitive round -- will show the player in his follow-through, just after impact. This is more than a common courtesy on tour; it's a rule. Photographers on the PGA Tour sign a waiver form before each tournament agreeing to certain restrictions and respecting the wishes of players is right at the top of that list. Woods -- or any other player -- is trying to compete at the highest level of his profession; he's simply asking for those covering him to do the same.
Now that I think about it, if Shakespeare were around today and writing on the aftermath of this "incident," he very well may look at the entire scene, realize the displaced fervor over Woods' outburst, and simply borrow a phrase from a previous work: Much ado about nothing.

Be Like Tiger Woods

Gillette Champion and legendary golfer Tiger Woods has teamed up with Gillette Fusion(R) Phenom(TM) to kick- off a nationwide search to find the guy who can perform the most phenomenal "ball sport" feat. The Gillette Fusion "Search for the Next Phenom" competition challenges guys to reveal their unique and incredible skills, whether it's bouncing a tennis ball up and down on a racquet or performing phenomenal feats with a soccer, golf or other type of ball. The guy with the most original and captivating skill will be named the ultimate "Phenom," and will receive a $30,000 cash prize. The contest, which was announced today at Disney's Wide World of Sports(R) Complex nearOrlando and continues through June 2008, celebrates the launch of Gillette's latest addition to the Fusion family of razors -- Fusion Phenom.

"This is a perfect opportunity for guys across the country to take their talents beyond the backyard and local playing field to the world at large, demonstrating that they've got what it takes to be truly phenomenal," said Gillette Champion Tiger Woods. "I'm looking forward to seeing what these guys have to offer, and have no doubt that their videos will be as entertaining as they are impressive."

The YouTube-partnered video competition challenges guys who can perform phenomenal "ball sport" feats to record up to a :90 second video that showcases their talent and upload it to www.youtube.com/gillettephenom. Finalists will be chosen by a judging panel. The winner will be chosen by the YouTube community via on-line voting process and announced July 2, 2008 on YouTube. In addition to the grand prize, three prize packages will be awarded for top honors in other categories, including "Most Unique Skill," "Most Entertaining Video," and "Best Technical Skills."

Tiger Woods Videos

TIGER Woods said yesterday he would rather quit golf than become mediocre and that he would know when to call it a day.

The world No. 1 has enjoyed an outstanding run of recent form, winning seven tournaments in succession worldwide before finishing two shots behind Australian winner Geoff Ogilvy at the WGC-CA Championship in Miami on Tuesday.

Although retirement is not on the horizon for Woods, he said he had worked out his exit plan.

"For me it is very simple, it is when my best isn't good enough any more," he said.

"I could not live with myself going out and practising and preparing as hard as I do and knowing that if I go out and play my best someone is just going to beat me.

"But that happens. Your skills diminish, guys get better, they are more athletic. You have your time in the sun. There is nothing wrong in walking away from it.

"I have accomplished so much in the sport already and hopefully I can continue to do that for as long as I possibly can, but when that time comes, well, every athlete knows when that happens,"

Tiger Woods video, who is chasing Jack Nicklaus's record of 18 majors, said he would find it tough to carry on competing when he was not at his best.

"I am trying to prolong it, that early exit," the 13-time major winner said. "One of the great things about our sport is you can play as long as you want.

"But do you want to play in mediocrity? That is the thing I would have a hard time with."

Tiger Woods videos said he was a long way from reaching that stage.

"I am 32 and I feel like I am just entering my prime," he said.

"Every sport is slightly different.

"I think M. J. (Michael Jordan) would probably say his best years (in the NBA) were his early 30s, whereas most (NFL) running backs would probably say it is their mid-to-late 20s.

"In our sport your best years are generally in your 30s. Some guys are able to sustain that into their early 40s."

Woods said he was still hurting after failing to win on Tuesday.

"Losing is never fun," he said. "(But) there were some nice positives that came from it . . . yes, there were some three putts, there were some mistakes, and yet I was only two shots back.

"I feel I should have won the tournament. But I didn't. That is how close the gap is. You can't make many mistakes against that kind of field."

Tiger Woods Videos purple patch has coincided with disappointing spells of form for two of his closest rivals, countryman Phil Mickelson and South African Ernie Els, but Woods said a challenger could emerge from anywhere on the US PGA Tour.

"Our tour is getting so deep that anyone can win at any time. It is only going to get deeper," he said.
"It is deeper now than when I came out in 1996 and it is going to be deeper still."

Tiger in The Twilight Zone

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Tiger Woods studied his 25-foot birdie putt from every angle, convincing himself he could make it to win the Arnold Palmer Invitational because he had a similar putt in the same situation seven years ago at Bay Hill.

He wasn’t alone in his thinking.

Palmer stood behind the 18th green in his pink shirt and blue blazer, waiting to hand him the trophy. The King was joined by an army of fans who squinted into the late afternoon sun, all expecting Woods to continue a winning streak that began in September.

And then there was Bart Bryant, who challenged Woods over the final two hours, but now sat in the scoring trailer and listened.

“I heard a big cheer, and I got up and left,” Bryant said. “That’s why he’s Tiger Woods.”

This one was special.

Tied for the lead on one of the most intimidating closing holes in golf, Woods delivered his best swing of the week with a 5-iron from 164 yards into a stiff breeze, then a 25-foot birdie putt that tumbled into the cup to stretch his PGA TOUR winning streak to five.

It was his 64th victory, tying Ben Hogan at No. 3 on the TOUR ’s career list.

And it produced a celebration like none of the others. Woods backpedaled as the ball crept closer to the hole, turned and slammed his cap to the ground as he let out a roar. Woods looked perplexed when caddie Steve Williams handed him his hat.

“I was like, ‘How in the hell did he get my hat?”’ Woods said. “Evidently, it came off. I need to see the highlights. I was so into the moment of the putt going in and winning the golf tournament.”

Woods closed with a 4-under 66 to keep intact the ridiculous notion of a perfect season.

Or is it?

“What he’s doing right now, you can’t even fathom,” Bryant said after closing with a 67. He was the only player to break par all four rounds at Bay Hill, and all it got him was second place.

There have been five winning streaks of at least five tournaments in PGA TOUR history. Woods owns three of them, with the others belonging to Hogan (6) and Byron Nelson, whose 11 in a row is considered among the most untouchable records in all of sports.

Woods won Bay Hill for the fifth time, becoming the first player in PGA TOUR history to win at least five times in four different tournaments. The others are the Buick Invitational, Bridgestone Invitational and the CA Championship, where he plays next week at Doral as the three-time defending champion.

No wonder some are starting to question whether he will lose again.

Not since Bay Hill in 2001 against Phil Mickelson has Woods won a PGA TOUR event with a birdie on the 72nd hole to win by a shot.

“I kept telling myself, ‘I’ve done this before. I did it against Phil, and this time it’s a little bit deeper into the green and the putt has a little bit more break and it has a little more grain. I’ve done it before, and I can do it again,”’ Woods said.

And he did.

Palmer grinned and nodded, as if to tell those around him, “I told you so.”

“He just said, ‘It doesn’t surprise me you made the putt,”’ Woods said, who passed Palmer on the career victory list a month ago in Arizona. “Somehow you just get a good feeling. And he being a player knows better than anybody.”

Hogan won 64 times over 21 years, the last victory coming at the 1959 Colonial National Invitational. The next target for Woods is Jack Nicklaus at 73, with Sam Snead’s record of 82 victories looking closer each time Woods plays.

"It’s pretty amazing to be in that kind of company,” Woods said. “I’ve had an amazing run in my career, and hopefully, it continues.”

No one can say these guys are laying down for Woods. He had to fight to the finish under a sweltering sun, and Bryant was visibly disappointed when he heard the roar and saw the putt. A victory would have sent him to the World Golf Championship next week, and earned him a spot in the Masters.

“I was pretty hopeless sitting there in the trailer, but I did what I thought I was supposed to do, which was put the pressure back on Tiger to make the play,” Bryant said. “And he has a habit of making it when he needs to.”

Woods has won six straight times worldwide, which includes a thrilling rally in Dubai last month. The winning streak does not include his seven-shot victory at the Target World Challenge in December, an unofficial event with 16 players.

His average score during the PGA TOUR streak is 66.13, and his dominance is such that he has more career victories than Mickelson and Vijay Singh combined.

Woods finished at 10-under 270 and earned $1,044,000, putting him on the cusp of going over $80 million for his career.

Sean O’Hair, playing in the final group with Woods, overcame a sluggish start with three birdies on the back nine to keep alive slim hopes, but he could only manage a 69 to tie for third with Singh (69) and Cliff Kresge (67).

It was the biggest buzz in the final round this year, and fans who stood four-deep around Woods expected an early knockout. He delivered early with a 15-foot birdie putt on the second hole to break out of a five-way tie for the lead, and he didn’t trail again the rest of the day.

But in the stifling heat, it was never easy.

The greatest challenge came from Bryant, who played bogey-free for the first 10 holes to stay one shot behind Woods, and then both players squandered great chances to set the stage for a gritty back nine.

Woods hit yet another flawless approach to 6 feet left of the flag on No. 10 and was on the verge of going two shots ahead. But he gunned it 30 inches by the hole, quickly settled over the par putt and missed it for his first three-putt bogey of the week. That dropped him into a tie with Bryant, who had a 25-foot birdie on the 11th for the outright lead. He also three-putted for bogey, missing a 2 1/2 -foot putt to again fall one shot behind.

Woods didn’t make another birdie until the final hole.

Tigers Schedule

ORLANDO, Fla.: Among regular PGA Tour events, Bay Hill is the only stop Tiger Woods has never missed.

His PGA Tour schedule has become as predictable as azaleas blooming at Augusta National in April. It doesn't require a Ph.D. in statistics or even a crystal ball to figure out where he will play. And considering how his last eight months have gone, there is not much guesswork involved in how he will play.

Woods has seven official victories since July, and the one time someone else hoisted the trophy, Woods was runner-up.

A couple of years ago, Ernie Els tried to motivate himself by stating publicly a three-year plan to replace Woods at No. 1 in the world. Asked about that after the Big Easy won the Honda Classic a few weeks ago, he smiled and said, "I didn't realize that Tiger was going to win 10 times since I said that."

He could have picked where Woods might win.
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Woods will be going for his fifth title at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. He opened his 2008 season by winning the Buick Invitational for the sixth time. He also has six victories in the Bridgestone Invitational, six more at the World Golf Championship that now goes by the name CA Championship.

He has four green jackets from the Masters, four Wanamaker Trophies from the PGA Championship.

Woods, perhaps more than any other golfer, is a creature of habit.

He has won 63 times in his PGA Tour career, yet he has trophies from only 24 tournaments. Vijay Singh has a far more diverse record, winning 31 times at 23 different tour events.

What inspires Woods is the competition and the course.

"For a while now, I've said my game has improved since 2000, and it's not just about the Ws," Woods said on his Web site. "It's something I've been saying internally, and until recently, no one picked up on it. ... I'm playing in fewer events on the toughest courses against the best fields. That's why I feel my game has progressed, and why I feel so good about all the hard work I have put in."

Woods won nine times in 2000 while playing 20 events. He won seven times last year in only 16 tour starts.

Then again, familiarity certainly helps.

Consider another statistic that illustrates how his schedule works in his favor. Woods has won 52 times at the 17 tournaments tentatively on his 2008 schedule (that doesn't include two victories at Doral, which has been merged into a WGC).

One thing about Woods as he gets older — he doesn't add events, only subtracts.

The first to go was the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, which he won in 2000 and stopped playing after 2002. It will be interesting to see if Woods returns before the 2010 U.S. Open. Then came the Mercedes-Benz Championship, the EDS Byron Nelson Championship and Disney, none of which he has played since 2005, all of which have combined to add five victories to his account.

The most recent subtraction was his hometown event, the Northern Trust Open at Riviera, which Woods played nine times without winning. There is no indication he will return.

It would be easy to suggest he only plays the courses on which he has had success, but that's true for everybody. Jack Nicklaus won 73 times in his PGA Tour career at 37 different tournaments, although the schedule looked much different in the 1960s, before Nicklaus and Palmer led a revolt that created the PGA Tour.

Everything Woods does, everywhere he plays is geared toward getting ready for the majors.

Where does that leave everyone else?

In a clear case of the haves and have-nots, two tournament directors were standing next to each other near the putting green Tuesday morning at Bay Hill.

One was Steve Timms, who is making all the right moves for the Shell Houston Open.

Timms helped Houston snag the week before the Masters, and Redstone will be set up this year with fast greens and collection areas, appealing to players who want to compete before going to Augusta. Among those planning to play are Els, Phil Mickelson, Steve Stricker and defending champion Adam Scott.

That would be a strong field, the envy of many tournaments.

But it won't have Tiger.

"That's the first question I get asked," Timms said. "The reality is, Tiger has set his schedule and he's had tremendous success. Everyone would love to have him. We hope someday he'll change his mind. But we're going to do everything we can in areas we can control."

The other tournament director was Kym Hougham of the Wachovia Championship, where Woods is the defending champion.

Hougham is blessed with a good date (the week before The Players Championship) and a great course at Quail Hollow. Woods heard so much about it that he began playing in 2004 and only skipped the year his father died.

"We're fortunate our golf course attracted him," Hougham said.

Hougham has lived on the other side of the tracks. He was the tournament director of the John Deere Classic, where Woods hasn't been since he lost to Ed Fiori in his third tournament as a pro. Hougham sympathizes with tournaments that don't get Woods.

"It's a dwindling opportunity because of the majors, the WGCs, and now the playoffs," Hougham said. "It's like in college, when you have requirements and electives. We're the electives. And there are lot more requirements now."

The four majors, three WGCs, three playoff events and The Players Championship take up 11 spots on Woods' schedule. There has been only two additions to his schedule since 2002 — Wachovia and the AT&T National, his own tournament.

Otherwise, he plays against strong fields on strong courses. Mostly, he plays where he wins.

So far, it appears to be working.