Payne's Comments Today !!!

[Jud_T]

Pat et al,
I know it's an invitational and they can essentially do what they want, but if Tiger was playing and winning the other three majors and not invited to Augusta, not only would it quickly become the fourth major, but they'd get almost as much criticism faster than you could say "stuffed shirt"

[Melvyn Morrow]

George

I agree with Niall and would go on to say that as soon as a sportsman tries to get us to buy a product he is more or less asking us to trust his judgement. So I feel it is very much our business. I know that today the celebrities like to have their cake and eat it but lets remember who is at fault and why.

Melvyn   

[George Pazin]

Melvyn, Niall -

It's a two way street that's only true if you accept his judgment or his request for your trust. Choosing to believe someone based on marketing, well, let's just say my position is caveat emptor. I don't make a single decision in my life based on what Tiger (or IMG, or whomever) via corporate marketing departments tells me to do. And even if I did, it would be based on his public persona, not his private life, which I have no access to.

[Richard Choi]

Thats fine as far as it goes but what seems to have got a lot of people on here upset is being sold a lie. If its none of our business then why did we get the family man thing thrown at us, and why the new Nike ad with his dad ?

I don't know why anyone keeps mentioning how Tiger "sold" family man image.

Show me ONE commercial or an ad where Tiger shows up with Elin or his kids. Show me ONE! There is absolutely no selling of Tiger as the "family man" in his ads. They are always about his dominance, his winnings, his intensity. There are pros on the PGA Tour who have their wives and kids run out to the 18th green when they win (say Phil), Tiger is not one of that. Elin is usually the 3 or 4th person that he hugs (usually after his agent!).

In fact, there were rumors that Tiger threatened CBS that he would forego interviews if they kept showing Elin on TV during rounds. If you go back and watch the telecasts, they hardly ever show Elin during his rounds. Compare that to other pros where they constantly show the leading player's wife, girlfriend, kids, etc.

You may have inferred Tiger's family man persona, but don't tell me how he "threw" that at you.

[Rick Shefchik]

Back to Niall's point about the new Nike ad: It's not about on-course performance. What is it about, but an attempt to make us like him -- or at least understand him? If Nike -- and by extension, Tiger -- want to make it about character, then people are going to talk about Tiger's character. Even Masters chairmen.

[Matt_Ward]

Jim:

Please -- ANGC may think of itself as the epitome of moral virtue and character but it's really getting tired of people who believe they have hit a triple in life when they were born on 3rd base.

Jim, glad you can believe that others can set the "course" for others. How bout Tiger do that for Tiger and that he work through his failings in the manner he decides.

If Payne the holier-than-thou types had a problem with Tiger then don't issue the invitation to him to play -- simple as that.

You don't invite someone to the party then submarine them with your pompous lectures.

[Jud_T]

Matt,
3rd base comment is one for posterity!

[Sean Leary]

Thats fine as far as it goes but what seems to have got a lot of people on here upset is being sold a lie. If its none of our business then why did we get the family man thing thrown at us, and why the new Nike ad with his dad ?

I don't know why anyone keeps mentioning how Tiger "sold" family man image.

Show me ONE commercial or an ad where Tiger shows up with Elin or his kids. Show me ONE! There is absolutely no selling of Tiger as the "family man" in his ads. They are always about his dominance, his winnings, his intensity. There are pros on the PGA Tour who have their wives and kids run out to the 18th green when they win (say Phil), Tiger is not one of that. Elin is usually the 3 or 4th person that he hugs (usually after his agent!).

In fact, there were rumors that Tiger threatened CBS that he would forego interviews if they kept showing Elin on TV during rounds. If you go back and watch the telecasts, they hardly ever show Elin during his rounds. Compare that to other pros where they constantly show the leading player's wife, girlfriend, kids, etc.

You may have inferred Tiger's family man persona, but don't tell me how he "threw" that at you.

I agree with this 100%, which is surprising because I make it a point to try to agree with Richard as little as possible. 

People inferred that he was a great family man because they assumed that someone who was presented to us in the way Tiger was had to be. We may have been sold "perfection", but Tiger almost never threw the family man image at us. Yes I remember the one picture with the kids and the dog. Whatever.

Mickelson sells us on the family man image. If and when he ever gets outed as something other than that, it will be interesting to see if you guys carry the same venom towards him. 

[Jim Nugent]

Just read an article from the Sunday Times (London) about sex on the tour.  Says extramarital affairs are real common (what a shock) and many indulge more than Tiger does. 

One quote from the article:

“I’m not surprised at all,” one player told me in a moment of rare candour after I’d promised anonymity. “They’re all at it. I know loads who are worse than Tiger, they’re just not so famous, so no-one talks about it. There’s a rule, a code of omerta: what happens on tour, stays on tour.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/golf/article7093249.ece

[Patrick_Mucci]

Pat et al,
I know it's an invitational and they can essentially do what they want, but if Tiger was playing and winning the other three majors and not invited to Augusta, not only would it quickly become the fourth major, but they'd get almost as much criticism faster than you could say "stuffed shirt"

Jud,

I think you'll find that your hypothesis is seriously flawed.

The Masters has an "INVITE SYSTEM"

And Tiger is an "AUTOMATIC INVITEE"

Whether he plays or not, the game and tournament are bigger than any one golfer.

The Masters would remain a Major irrespective of his participation.

Conversely, if Tiger won the other three majors, fell and fractured his wrist and couldn't play, would you still insist that The Masters isn't a Major ?