I have no idea how Tiger shot 11 under par. He made 14 bogies, 17 birdies and 4 eagles (his 21 holes under par were two more than even Phil Mickelson). At times (especially on Sunday) his game was literally worse than it has ever looked. To shoot 69 on Sunday at The Masters with six horrible tee shots, a duffed bunker shot, and a three putt from six feet is just simply unbelievable.  

I was very curious as to how I would react to seeing Tiger play golf again. Since 1994 he has been by far my strongest rooting interest in all of sports, but this was the first time we got to witness him in the light of man no longer worthy of any form of worship. I found myself extremely conflicted. After all of this time, it is almost part of my DNA now to cheer for Tiger and there was still a small part of me that did so. However, I think the main reason that I was in part rooting for him was because I simply wanted him to be in contention so he wold continue to be part of the story and to see what he was really capable of. After all, a significant part of Tiger’s allure (at least for me) has always been the notion that he was a human lab experiment for the potential of our species. This weekend we found out that it is not possible to take five months off, have your life turned upside, and win The Masters.

While part of me was, almost instinctively, cheering for Tiger, had I been at Augusta National I can assure you that the week would NOT have ended without even a single “incident” from the patrons. I have absolutely no doubt that I would have heckled Tiger to the point of being tossed from the grounds (I was temporarily removed from Augusta National in 1992 because I was using a press pass with the wrong name on it), if only to make the point to him and the world that there are still people who feel very strongly that he has let them and the game of golf down. I am saddened that no one apparently had the balls to take a stand this week.

My overriding emotions in reacting to seeing Tiger’s return to golf was probably sadness and anger. I am extremely sad that one of the great joys of my life has been needlessly destroyed and angered at Tiger for having soiled his very special place in our culture for a bunch of dumb sluts.  

I don’t know what to make of Tiger’s pronouncement on CBS after the tournament that he doesn’t know when he will play again and implied that it might not be for quite a while. If he thinks that he can do things the way Ben Hogan did after his accident (no, Tiger, your car accidents were NOT at all similar) and basically only play the majors he is very mistaken. This week showed that his swing is simply not built for that type of schedule. He is far too much of a feel player and with his short game magic gone and his swing clearly out of sync he looked totally lost. I really believe that his reentry at Augusta and his future schedule have been planned based far more on media/spectators issues than what is best for his golf game. 

It certainly appears that this talk of a “new” Tiger Woods has been greatly exaggerated. First off all, after be careful to smile as much as possible and use the first names of his questioners (which surely sent the narcissitic press corp into full swoon) at monday’s press confernece, Tiger basically blew the media off for the rest of the week. As far as I could tell he only signed a few autographs, and on at least three occasions he let out various verions of “God Damn It!” and even one “Jesus Christ!” (I thought he was Buddist!). Back in the glory days of the First Church of Tiger Woods we would have surely used these religious-based outbursts of examples of Tiger simply engaging in an internal family dispute with his Father, but now I see them as simply further evidence that Tiger Woods is a fraud and far too many people (especailly in the media) are still buying what he is selling.