Memo to Rory

[rboyce]

Rory,

Please stop agitating Tiger.

We like the new Tiger too. The one who we can occasionally beat when he plays below average. The one with the strangely crunched, awkward, roundhouse swing, that he thinks he can own.

Unfortunately, the one thing that brings him back to his winning swing that he implements with perfect tempo is your preposterous comments. You beat him by five strokes head to head in a tournament that he won anyways?! Well, that's just fanfabulous, we'll all make a darn note of it.

But, for the sake of the rest of us - please stop irritating Tiger.

Signed,

The rest of the Tour Players

[Jeff_Mingay]

A few weeks ago, someone discovered I was in the golf industry and asked: You must follow the PGA Tour, then? Without hesitatation, I answered: I don't follow the PGA Tour, I follow Tiger.

It's true. Why else would I have watched the last few holes of a tournament from Firestone today, in a hotel room in beautiful Victoria, British Columbia? If Rory was battling it out against anyone else, I probably wouldn't have even known the Bridgestone tournament was being played this week!

Tiger was in brilliant form, too, wasn't he. I'm looking forward to him bringing that form to Southern Hills this week. Fingers crossed.

[James Edwards]

Jeff,

I must say, i am exactly the same!  The weather this summer in England has been atrocious! at best, OKAY! and yesterday was an amazing day... but i still had to stay in and watch that guy play golf - I teed off at 645am with 2 professionals who kicked my A**, was finished by 10, huge cooked breakfast  watched the grand prix, then the Womens British at TOC and then the early start of Firestone... when he plays like that, you have to watch! Just amazing

[John Kirk]

Add me to the list of fans who love the Tiger.  Like me, he's from California.  He defies ethnic conventions.  He's all class, and he definitely doesn't like it when somebody talks trash.

[Ted Kramer]

The punch/stinger/laser that he (Tiger) hit from the rough/trees on #16 was pretty amazing. Granted I don't know exactly what the lie looked like, but I have to imagine that he is one of the few, if not the only player out there, with the skill/strength to hit a shot like that.

-Ted

[Brian_Ewen]

As much as I admire his game , "all class" is not a phrase I would use about him.

[Brent Hutto]

I'm with Brian. Tiger's amazing but "class" doesn't usually denote public outbursts of the F-word and God-Dammit or some of his other bad habits.

IMO, Tom Watson would be a good example of "class" but there are many others. Let's see how Tiger conducts himself if he ever catches the yips. He'd probably do a Rumpelstiltskin and drive his foot into the ground before tearing himself in two.

[Dan Boerger]

Rory really should speak less and practice more.

What Tiger did to that field yesterday was pretty amazing but hardly unexpected.

[Ed_Baker]

I must admit after the " Tiger Slam" that I was starting to wish the other pro's would give him more competition.

 Now,without Tiger in contention, at least to me,the Tour has become homogenous, I'm glad to see Tiger playing his best again. I wish Phil had not injured himself,it would be great for Pro golf if Tiger had to play his very best to beat Phil when they were in the same field.

IMHO, for a man that is under the microscope the way Tiger is, and has been under that much media scrutiny for most of his life, he has handled himself well, not perfectly, but very well. His colorful language and momentary frustration with this diabolical game we all love, to me, just proves that the icon is human.

Tiger has actually learned how to smile and remain accessible to the media even after a bad round, he couldn't pull that off when he was younger, I'm sure Fatherhood will rapidly improve his perspective even more.

In my opinion Tiger carries the mantle of athletic greatness far better than many of the contemporary greats in other sports.

[RJ_Daley]

I guess no one who posts here will ever have the slightest inkling what it is like to have the pressures and expectations to be Tiger, all day-everyday.  Yet, none of us will know what it is like to have such wealth and gravitas to say or do things with such impact.  So, I quit trying to second guess his class factor or motivations, unless he did something really egregious.

But, I also figure that a guy like Sabbatini needs to get himself pumped up in a competitive mindset in order to not wilt under the pressure of going head to head with the big guy.  As long as he doesn't get mean spirited or become a jerk to fans, then I will try to understand his self talk and do within reason what he must to prep himself up to play.

[Greg Clark]

I'm not sure that what Sabbatini said was anything to get all that worked up over.  But Jim Croce had it right..."You don't tug on Superman's cape..."

[Michael Christensen]

sabbatini is an idiot.....he has proved it on more than one occassion (think that crap he pulled with Crane at Congressional)

and as far as only liking Tiger and not caring about any tour or any other player.....the PGA was here before Tiger and it will be here after him...with no PGA Tour there is NO Tiger...

and I agree with the class statement....I wouldn't say he has no class, but there are certain things he does off the course that I would not put in the class category

[Kalen Braley]

and as far as only liking Tiger and not caring about any tour or any other player.....the PGA was here before Tiger and it will be here after him...with no PGA Tour there is NO Tiger...

I disagree..

The tour needs Tiger more than he needs the Tour.

He can still qualify and play in all 4 majors.  As well as he could still play in all of the World Golf Championship events. And he could get invites to Jack and Arnies events. With the rest of his time, he could play on the Asian and European tours and not miss the PGA tour one bit.  Or if he really wanted, I'm sure he could find seven sponsor exemptions for the other tournies over the course of the year.

But he might miss the Fedex Cup....NOT!!!

And the tour knows it and thats why they gave him his own limited invite tourney at the young age of thirty.

[Garland Bayley]

sabbatini is an idiot.....he has proved it on more than one occassion (think that crap he pulled with Crane at Congressional)

...

Not to mention that he had a fan kicked out yesterday for asking him what he thought of Tiger's game now.

His excuse was that he was working in his "office" and someone shouldn't come to his office and hassle him. I got news for Cory. Customers are pesky things and they can come to my office and hassle me when I under perform or act arrogantly about my product. So what is your point Cory? You don't want to take responsibility for your actions? Is that your point?

[Richard Choi]

I just laugh whenever a pro athlete uses the "office" excuse.

A case in point, I am looking around my office right now and I don't see thousands of spectators, hundreds of press members, and cameras everywhere.

And I CERTAINLY don't make hundreds of thousands of dollars from a week worth of work (even if I do it REALLy REALLY well).

They need to understand that they work in entertainment industry and as such they are always under the microscope and fan reactions (both bad and good) are part of the price of playing the game for living.

I would be happy to exchange my place with Rory anyday. And I GUARANTEE Rory won't be hassled (much) in my office.

[Joe Hancock]

sabbatini is an idiot.....he has proved it on more than one occassion (think that crap he pulled with Crane at Congressional)

...

Not to mention that he had a fan kicked out yesterday for asking him what he thought of Tiger's game now.

His excuse was that he was working in his "office" and someone shouldn't come to his office and hassle him. I got news for Cory. Customers are pesky things and they can come to my office and hassle me when I under perform or act arrogantly about my product. So what is your point Cory? You don't want to take responsibility for your actions? Is that your point?

Yea Cory...whoever the hell you are.....

[Michael Christensen]

the facts are that the PGA Tour will not end or go away when Tiger retires......it was here before 1996 and it will be here when Tiger leaves.....no one is bigger than the game...even if CBS and every other network fawns over Tiger like he is GOD and invented the game

[Kalen Braley]

the facts are that the PGA Tour will not end or go away when Tiger retires......it was here before 1996 and it will be here when Tiger leaves.....no one is bigger than the game...even if CBS and every other network fawns over Tiger like he is GOD and invented the game

I would agree with that Michael, it will carry on once he's gone....

But he is a golfing God in my book, did you see what he did yesterday in those US Open like conditions??

[A.G._Crockett]

the facts are that the PGA Tour will not end or go away when Tiger retires......it was here before 1996 and it will be here when Tiger leaves.....no one is bigger than the game...even if CBS and every other network fawns over Tiger like he is GOD and invented the game

Michael,
CBS and the other networks "fawn" over Tiger because of ratings.  They are businesses, and Tiger is good for their business.  The Tour is the same way.  You are, of course, right that the Tour will not end or go away after Tiger, but you can't possibly deny that the Tour has gotten much, much bigger and more lucrative because of him.  Even the other players acknowledge this simple business fact of life; Tiger makes lots of money for lots of people.

As to Tiger's "class", you are referring once again to his occasional outbursts of language.  Those outbursts are at worst unfortunate, but since every single shot Tiger plays gets shown on live TV, he has a LOT more chances to get seen and heard falling short of your standards.

I'll say this; I have never heard of another player having anything bad to say about Tiger as a person or a player.  In fact, to a man, they all comment after playing with him that they don't know how he handles it as well as he does, and that they couldn't cope with what he goes through every time he tees it up.

Personally, I think the guy IS class personified in a number of ways.  He holds himself to the highest standards of play, of fitness, of dress, competes only on the toughest courses against the best fields, never trashes a fellow competitor in the press, runs a major charitable foundation, and so on.  I'll take all of that and endure language milder than what I hear every single Saturday morning at my club happily.  I love the guy as a player, and feel damn lucky to be watching him make sports history.  

[Dan_Callahan]

They put up a stat yesterday about Tiger's record in these World Golf Championships. I might have it wrong, but it was something like: Tiger has 14 WGC wins while the rest of the world has 11. Based on winnings from the WGC events alone he would rank 25th on the all-time career money list.

It isn't like he is picking up Ws in the John Deer Classic, GHO, or Reno-Tahoe. If he played those events he would probably have more than 80 Tour victories to his name. Instead, he beats the best fields in golf at an amazing rate.

Classy or not, I think it is safe to say that 20 years ago people would have considered his winning percentage impossible.

[Jim Colton]

I honestly root for Tiger to win every major.  I want him to obliterate the record book just so I can say I was there to witness it.  Seriously, what's the over-under right now on Tiger major victories?  25? More?  To even consider anyone winning that many major tournaments 10 years ago is absolutely absurd.  I know records are made to be broken, but I don't see anyone breaking the records Tiger will be setting for a very, very long time.