2009 December, 5th

Phil Butler

The recent scandal surrounding Tiger Woods may go away after a while, but PGA Golf may never be the same. I read an article earlier today which pretty much boiled my blood because of its narrow view of these events. If the personal life of Tiger Woods is anything like the sleazy picture being painted in the news, Golf as a gentleman’s sport will surely cease to exist. In a professional sports world that looks more like NWA Wrestling back in the 60′s and 70′s, Golf somehow managed to remain above the others in integrity on and off the course, until now that is.

Patrick Goldstein of the LA Times came out defending Tiger Woods’ right to a private life, and all manner of rationalizations as to how Woods’ action off the course have little to do with his responsibility or impact on the greens and fairways. I have seldom read a more incorrect bunch of dribble. Goldstein compares Woods’ to such professionals as Charles Barkley and Michael Vick, actors like Keifer Sutherland, and so on. Essentially the author weaves a deceiving article suggesting these other celebrities would not have been subjected to the same ridicule because of their past indiscretions – BULL.

Goldstein, and anyone who thinks like him have no place talking about sports in the first place, let alone the depth of public responsibility some people have. He claims Woods is not as responsible as a public official or even Wall Streets lechers. More malarkey. Who is this guy kidding? He is on the “Tiger Woods Google Bonanza” like most of the rest of the world. For Charles’ part, he never advocated role models any way, but Tiger never shunned the concept.

Getting off Goldstein’s case for the moment, the reason Golf AND Tiger Woods will never be the same is because the man perpetrated a huge lie on a public that basically identified an entire sport with him as its iconic embodiment. Not many of us have the opportunity to give it a go at the LA Times, let alone at the Masters. Extrapolating this, the higher anything is revered, the further it has to fall – there is reason in this. The reason in Woods’ case is that his success is inextricably tied to the persona he conveyed.

No one would be surprised if Charles Barkley’s wife chased him with a nine iron because Charles never conveyed a persona divergent from this possibility. Goldstein name drops Sir Charles in a lame attempt to buy Tiger Woods some slack. Charles Barkley never lied about who he is. The people cut him slack because of this too. As for nine irons and coarseness, Charles dealt under the backboards, not on the putting green, no one expects him to be overly tame. Goldstein’s piece starts to read like the start of some crisis management campaign for me. Besides all the apparent “right to privacy” BS Goldstein slings, the suggestion that Keifer Sutherland or any of the rest of his “subjects” got any slack from the media is preposterous.

I wrote  an article about Woods at the point in time when all of this seemed like conjecture. To be honest, back then I was hoping all the allegations were false, not just for my own send of idealism, but for the sport and the people who knowingly or unknowingly believed there was still such a thing as a winner who had it all. Sure Goldstein is talented and entitled to his own opinion, but this skillful manipulation of the essence of these events is beneath his ability, and maybe even down right subversive. Tiger Woods shamed his family worst of all, and then the ideals of millions of people who believed in him – not to mention Nike and a dozen other brands. Does anyone really think Nike paid this guy all those millions just because he could wield a driver?

I hope the reader will think about this little rant of mine for a minute. Woods had an opportunity, and subsequently a responsibility, which so few people ever really come close to. The people Goldstein uses in his ham handed attempt at redirect had nowhere near the impact Tiger Woods has. I mentioned Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus in my previous article as a way of showing this idea. Woods was on a freight train headed just where those giants of sports are now, to a place honestly where just winning (as Goldstein an others suggest) is not quite enough.

Winning as defined for people of this magnitude is more than the score at the end of 72 holes, it is a momentous achievement over the course of time. Pete Rose won, all those steroid junkies in sport Goldstein uses to water down Tiger’s situation won, our departed President George Bush won, and 20 years from now all those people will just be footnotes or imperfection in a world looking for a few perfect examples of excellence – maybe even just one by that time.

Golf, unlike so many other professional sports, is pretty much an act of singularity. Besides track and field, tennis, and a very few others, there is maybe no other athletic endeavor which focuses on the individual. It is a sport where precision, class, refined manners (relatively), gauged emotion and patience are the virtues. A mirror if you will of human conduct in a way. Certainly there was room for exuberance and passion as in the case of Arnold Palmer, but without turning the game into some sort of sport for nuns and priests, suffice it to say it is one where cheating (though it happens with the duffers) is highly improper. Goldstein, if he even plays golf, is likely one of those people who uses the “foot club” as much as any in his bag to win.

For Patrick Goldstein, he is a writer just shy of every award their is, save the Pulitzer. He should stick to writing about what he knows about in my book, and I will stick to writing a little less skillfully about a little bit of everything. Tiger? Well, as suggested by some, all he has to do is win some tournaments to get back in the game I guess. More malarkey. The game and Tiger Woods are forever changed like some opportunity cost economists talk about.

No one will ever watch from the wings in awe at such skill and whisper; “Now there is a giant among athletes, someone who did and had it all.” The saddest part of this story (unlike Goldstein’s epitaph about poor Tiger versus mean old media madness) is that the man’s family is in pain not because of the crazy press, but because of his own folly. As much as we all hate tabloid journalism, sometimes the frenzy has a way of driving the truth out in the open. What a disappointment.

• 2010/04/11 -- Jim Carrey Blames Elin Woods for Tiger’s Infidelities
• 2010/04/08 -- Nike’s New Tiger Woods Commercial Brings Earl Woods Back from the Grave
• 2010/04/05 -- Tiger Woods Hailed as Da Man At Masters Practice Session [practice video]
• 2010/04/03 -- The Vatican, Capitol Hill, Hollywood and the Olympics of Monumental Idiocy
• 2010/03/29 -- Woods Versus Els, The Battle Royal for Golf’s Middle Earth
• 2010/03/17 -- Los Angeles News Media Dumbfounded by 4.4 Quake
• 2010/03/11 -- Tiger Woods’ Golf Return Spans Real and Virtual Worlds

About the Author

Phil Butler is editor-in-chief of Everything PR and senior partner at Pamil Visions PR. He’s a widely cited authority on beta startups, search engines and public relations issues, and he has covered tech news since 2004. Phil wrote in the past for ReadWriteWeb, Mashable, Profy, SitePoint, Search Engine Journal, AltSearchEngines. Follow Phil on Twitter or send him an email at phil [at] pamil-visions [dot] com.

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