Showing posts with label The Golf Channel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Golf Channel. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Back after the 'Morning Drive' experience; Thoughts on the goings on -- World Series, Moneyball, BCS, Stern and Gumbel, and Notre Dame
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I took last week off from the blog for the simple reason that I was waking up at 4:30 each morning in Orlando to co-host ‘Morning Drive,’ on The Golf Channel and I found it difficult to do the show, spend some time out at Disney (for the golf tournament not for Mickey Mouse—sadly) and THEN sit down and write. Twenty years ago I probably could have pulled it off; maybe even 10 years ago. Now, not so much.
Actually I had a choice most afternoons: I could swim or I could blog. I opted to swim. That probably worked out best for everyone.
Life’s back to normal now—or at least my definition of normal—and I have a number of thoughts on all that’s going on in sports, which is a lot.
Let me start though, with the ‘Morning Drive,’ experience. The 4:30 wake-up calls sucked (I’m one of those people who always wakes up before the alarm or the call regardless of the hour. I’ve always wondered how that works, but I swear to God I rolled over in bed at exactly 4:25 each day) but the rest of the experience was fun. Everyone I worked with could not have been more welcoming and I like the way the show sets up: the hosts talk a lot. I like to talk.
If you’ve ever watched the show you know the hosts dress casually, no jacket and tie. I was told to wear whatever I wanted but NOT Golf Channel gear. So, the first day I showed up in a Richmond basketball shirt that Jerry Wainwright gave me years ago after I spoke at the team’s pre-season banquet.
The Richmond shirt got far more attention than anything I said all morning. Kevin Streelman, who is a Duke graduate, was an in-studio guest. “What’s with the Richmond shirt?” he asked on-air.
Fred Couples, who came on to respond to Greg Norman criticizing his pick of Tiger Woods for The Presidents Cup team, answered my first question about what Norman had said this way: “Didn’t you go to Duke University?”
“Yes,” I said. “They gave me a degree if I promised never to come back.”
“So why are you wearing a Richmond basketball shirt? What’s your connection to Richmond?”
“Duke never sends me stuff,” I answered.
I thought wearing an Army shirt two days later would get a lot more comment than the Richmond shirt but it didn’t. I guess people DO know my connection to the military academies even though it isn’t what it used to be.
Overall, I enjoyed the experience. I wish we’d had more time with Kelsey Grammer, who was doing a satellite tour to promote his new show and undoubtedly looked at his schedule and said, ‘Golf Channel, why the hell am I doing Golf Channel?’ I still watch Frasier most nights when I’m home and I still think Niles is one of TV’s all-time funny characters. Trivia: Did you know that Frasier was originally created for a six-show stint on ‘Cheers,’ and was supposed to be written out after Diane left him at the alter? The producers liked the character—and Grammer—so much they kept him in the show and he ended up playing Frasier for 20 years, winning Emmys for playing him on THREE shows—he won one as a guest-star on ‘Wings,’ in addition to ‘Cheers,’ and ‘Frasier.’
Okay, enough of that. On to some real stuff.
--The World Series. Riveting. Four games out of five have been terrific and the one blowout had the Albert Pujols three home run performance. I truly hope that Pujols stays in St. Louis. Great baseball towns deserve great players and Pujols is clearly that. For the record though, Tony LaRussa’s explanation that no one told Pujols that the media wanted to talk to him after his gaffe in game two doesn’t hold even a little water. No one wanted to talk to him after game 2 of the World Series? Seriously? Oh wait, maybe it’s that he’s not an important player. No. That doesn’t work either. Come on Tony, you’re better than that.
Pujols should stay in St. Louis and Prince Fielder should stay in Milwaukee. The latter isn’t likely to happen. Fielder’s going to go where he gets offered the most money and one of the big-money teams will probably come in with a blow-away offer. Too bad. Milwaukee is also a wonderful baseball town.
--On another baseball note I saw, ‘Moneyball,’ on Saturday. It’s good theater. Michael Lewis is brilliant and Aaron Sorkin is a genius so that’s about as good a writing combination as you can have. That said, I’d recommend people read my friend David Maraniss’s op-ed in the Tuesday Washington Post because it sums up pretty well how I feel about the whole ‘moneyball,’ concept. In the movie, Miguel Tejada, Tim Hudson, Barry Zito and Mark Mulder essentially don’t exist.
I’m not saying there isn’t merit to the whole ‘moneyball,’ way of thinking. I think the best organizations combine good scouting with all the Bill James stuff. I also think if Dave Roberts hadn’t stolen second base in game 4 of the ALCS in 2004, the whole concept would not be glorified the way it is. And the A’s and Beane haven’t looked quite so brilliant since the above-named players left town. Still, I enjoyed the movie just like I enjoyed the book although I couldn’t help but feel badly for Art Howe. (Philip Seymour Hoffman was great. He was also superb in ‘The Ides of March.’ I’m on a roll seeing movies of late).
--The BCS. Oh please. Or, as my good friend Bill Hancock said over the weekend, “good grief.” I’m hoping and praying for four undefeated teams so the politicians in two states can go ballistic when ‘their,’ teams don’t make the championship game.
--The NBA lockout, David Stern and Bryant Gumbel. The lockout is getting uglier by the minute. More and more people I talk to think the whole season is going by the boards. I’m still not buying it. I think both sides will cave after New Year’s; they’ll agree on something close to a 50-50 split on revenue and a harder though not totally inflexible cap. Stern is a tough guy to play poker against but he’s also smart enough to know he needs the playoffs on TV. Kobe Bryant isn’t getting any younger. For that matter, neither is LeBron James, believe it or not. I wonder how a second round pick like Maryland’s Jordan Williams, who hasn’t yet seen a penny and isn’t guaranteed a penny once the lockout ends, feels about leaving school right about now.
Gumbel is a very smart guy and you can bet he knew exactly what he was saying when he compared Stern to a plantation owner who is ‘treating men like boys,’ in his commentary on HBO’s ‘Real Sports.’ Gumbel knew what the reaction would be when he said what he said but he was clearly tired—as many people are—of Stern’s tactics and wanted to be SURE he got that message across.
I’m a Stern guy. I think he’s been a great commissioner. Can he be imperious? You bet. But I also know that implying in any way that what he’s doing has racial connotations is ridiculous. This is business, pure and simple. Stern’s been charged by the owners with getting them a better deal and he will do and say what has to be said and done to get that deal. Charles Barkley—of all people—brought up a telling stat: Since Stern became commissioner in 1984 the average player salary has gone from $300,000 a year to $5.1 million a year. And that’s in a league not nearly as successful as the NFL where there are STILL no guaranteed contracts. If Gumbel should have a problem with a commissioner or a group of owners for the way they treat their players he should focus on football.
Finally: Did Brian Kelly REALLY say the following when he was asked if he was concerned about quarterback Dayne Crist’s mental state after Crist fumbled a snap on the one-yard line with Notre Dame trailing Southern California 17-10: “No. I don’t have to worry about it he does.”? Seriously? He said that?
Wow. Talk about standing up for your players. Kelly also threw his whole team under the bus for a poor first half but refused to second-guess himself for his team’s preparation for the game coming off a bye week. Kelly cited his record coming off bye weeks the last 20 years as the reason he KNEW he didn’t do anything wrong.
So what’s his record coming off a bye week THIS year? Does this guy take responsibility for ANYTHING?
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Covering sports and the perception of stories, angles and who’s ‘rooting’ for what
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Thanks to the magic—or the curse—of the internet, those of us who write for a living have a chance to get some idea what readers think of what we write soon after it goes into cyberspace or into a newspaper or even a magazine. Books take a little longer.
This can be a mixed blessing. One has to learn to take everything that’s posted with a large grain of salt—both the good and the bad. If you take a strong position on an issue there are always going to be people who will absolutely agree and people who will absolutely disagree. Certain people are guaranteed to get readers fired up: Mention Pete Rose and the Hall of Fame and you’ll start a firestorm of some kind. The same is frequently true of Tiger Woods or Mike Krzyzewski or Tom Brady. About the only person who almost everyone—at least in Washington—agrees on is Dan Snyder and if the Redskins every make a Super Bowl while he’s the owner most of those who can’t stand him now will say, “he’s changed, matured, learned from his mistakes.”
That’s why I try to read what people have to say but rarely respond because life is too short to get into constant exchanges with people, especially since 99 percent of the time you aren’t going to change their mind anymore than they’re going to change yours.
I bring this all up not because of anything that’s been written recently about anything of mine. On Tuesday I was reading Rex Hoggard’s story (linked here) on The Golf Channel website about Tiger Woods’ hiring of Joe LaCava as his caddy. Rex is about as balanced and reasonable as anyone I know and his account of the events leading to LaCava leaving Dustin Johnson after working for him for less than six months to go work for Woods was pretty straightforward.
No one begrudges LaCava his decision to go work for Woods. Even if Woods never comes close to being the player he once was, the tournaments he plays overseas for huge appearance fees—like the event in November in Australia where he’s reportedly getting $3 million—alone will make LaCava very well paid. And, at 35, the potential for Woods to make a comeback that could make LaCava very wealthy is still there.
What bothered some people, according to Hoggard, was that no one from Team Tiger bothered to make a courtesy call to Johnson to let him know he might want to hire his caddy. Most, though not all, players will let another player know if they are going to talk to their caddy. Woods isn’t the first—and won’t be the last—player to not make the courtesy call by any stretch but this isn’t the first time he’s been down this road.
Fifteen years ago when Woods first came on tour, Peter Jacobsen was injured. He asked Woods if he would like to use his longtime caddy (they’d been together 17 years) Fluff Cowen for his first few tournaments. Woods said yes. When he had almost instant success he asked Cowen to come work for him fulltime. To this day he hasn’t called Jacobsen.
Jacobsen completely understood Cowen’s decision—working for Woods made him both rich and famous even though he got fired less than three years later for becoming a little too famous for Tiger’s taste. But he wasn’t happy that, after going out of his way to try to help Woods at the start of his career, he didn’t get the courtesy call.
Hoggard didn’t even bring up Jacobsen-Cowen. He just pointed out that this is the way life on tour is sometimes and also mentioned that, after hearing Woods was interested in him, LaCava had contacted Team Tiger to say that, if asked, he probably would accept.
This was hardly one of my virulently anti-Tiger pieces that make some people froth at the mouth.
And yet, when I read the posts because I was curious to see where the golf geeks (if you’re reading GolfChannel.com you’re a golf geek, right?) came down on this issue, I found them fascinating.
Some people thought that, especially given all the bad publicity he’s gotten since November 27, 2009, that someone on Team Tiger should have told Woods to pick up a phone and call Johnson to let him know what was going on. Some thought it was a non-story— as in who cares?
But MANY thought Rex was Tiger-bashing, that this was another example of the media being out to ‘get,’ Tiger. A number of people wanted to know why the hell Tiger had to ask Dustin Johnson’s permission to do anything since LaCava wasn’t under contract to Johnson in any way. Good point. Except no one—including Rex—ever said Woods needed to ask permission to do anything. Read the story.
I would, at this point be remiss if I didn’t digress for a moment to point out to those who commented on my Maryland/ACC column in The Post the other day that I never said Virginia Tech hadn’t scheduled good teams in the past (although the Hokies didn’t beat any of them) just that they didn’t schedule any of them this season. I also loved Randy Edsall saying this morning that he never claimed he was rebuilding and, “didn’t want to throw anyone under the bus.” Then he proceeded to throw Ralph Friedgen so far under the bus that it may be tough to find even a guy the Fridge’s size underneath those wheels.
My favorites though are the people who insist that all of us who cover sports are ambulance-chasers who would be collecting unemployment if not for Tiger Woods. (Or Michael Jordan, Tom Brady and Serena Williams—among others). We are, according to these people, complete lowlifes who undoubtedly starve our pets and beat up little old ladies every chance we get.
As Rhett Butler once said to Scarlett O’Hara while she screamed, “I hate you, I hate you, I hate you,”: “My dear you’ve made your point fairly clear.”
Even people like me who find a lot of what Woods does away from the golf course reprehensible understand that he is one of the two greatest players of all time—I’d say the greatest regardless of how many majors he finally ends up winning because of his total dominance of the game while at his peak—and has brought attention to the sport that no one since Arnold Palmer came close to achieving.
Those in and on television root unabashedly for Woods to do well because it drives ratings. Many—if not most—in the print media want to see Woods succeed because it means they get more space and better play and, in all likelihood, get to travel to more tournaments. The better Woods is doing the more interest there is in golf.
Thus, the notion that any of us, simply can’t wait for Woods to fail or can’t wait to pounce on anything he does, is simply wrong. Do I root for him? Absolutely not. But do I sit around sticking pins in a Tiger doll? No. He’s a story—for good and for bad. I’ve always taken the approach that he’s got enough people who are paid to burnish his image and gloss over his failings that he doesn’t need me to do it. And anyone who thinks Rex Hoggard or 99 percent of the golf media have any kind of axe to grind with Woods simply don’t know the people involved or understand the business they are in.
So, if you want to disagree with what Rex writes or what I write or what anyone else writes, that’s perfectly fine. And, of course, you have an absolute right to call us lowlifes if that makes you feel good. Come to think of it, in a few cases, you’re right. But I’ll save that for another day and time.
Oh, one other note: For those of you who get SO upset when I make a political comment: Look, I don’t claim to be fair and balanced. Or that I’m reporting and letting you decide. I’m biased. I’m a Democrat. If you’re reading the blog you have to know an occasional shot at the right wing is coming somewhere, sometime. God knows there are lots of places you can find shots being taken at liberals like me so have at it.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Steve Williams taking the low road; Odds and ends
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A couple of weeks ago in a column for Golfchannel.com I suggested that the title of the book Steve Williams was proposing to write should be, “Somebody Had to Carry the Bag.” I have now revised the title. The book should be called, “The Low Road ALWAYS Taken.”
Let’s give old Stevie some credit. He did the impossible: Turned Tiger Woods into a semi-sympathetic figure for at least a couple of days. Some people have said he should have turned down CBS’s request for a post-round interview after his new man, Adam Scott, cruised to an impressive four-stroke victory at The WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.
I had no problem with CBS asking to talk to him or in Williams talking. He was clearly part of the story: His split with Woods had been much talked about (mostly by Williams) since it happened and the fact that his new player won in the first week he was officially his full time caddie while Woods was struggling along to a 37th place finish in his first week back since May, was clearly a story.
Now, I’ve been around Williams enough to know he’s not stupid. Obnoxious, yes. Arrogant beyond belief, yes. Rude…You get the picture. But stupid? No. And he’s talked to the media enough in recent years that the notion that he was overwhelmed by it all doesn’t play. He said what he wanted to say; what he had planned to say. Let’s remember he repeated the whole thing a few minutes later behind the green talking to the rest of the media.
His message was clear: F--- you Tiger. Look, everyone gets upset about being fired and you can certainly make the case that Woods had no actual cause to fire Williams. He’s clearly a very good caddie and if Woods was going to fire him it should have been years ago when he was breaking cameras and screaming profanities at fans and publicly abusing Phil Mickelson.
He didn’t. This was a change made for change sake because Woods is struggling and perhaps because the relationship between the two men had cooled since Woods’ fall from grace almost two years ago. Williams had a right to feel wronged….Except for this: Caddies are like baseball managers. Ninety-nine percent of the time they are hired to be fired. Bruce Edwards with Tom Watson was an exception and so is Jim Mackay with Mickelson. There are a few others, but not many.
Williams knows that. He also knows that working for Woods made him rich beyond his wildest dreams even if the ending was graceless—whether it happened in person as Woods claims or by phone as Williams claims. When David Feherty practically fell on top of himself trying to ask a question in a way that would set Williams up to say something nice about Woods while taking his own post-victory bow, Williams wanted no part of it.
He talked about this being the greatest win of his career and the greatest week of his career. The 13 majors with Woods never happened. Then he went into a long diatribe about what a great front-runner HE was. My God, how many shots exactly did he hit on Sunday? Was Scott even there?
As Jim Nantz said when it was over, “wow.” Exactly—wow. In a moment of triumph, Steve Williams left no doubt about just who he is for millions to witness.
Oh, one more note on Stevie’s week. On Wednesday he was told by a PGA Tour official that he would need to abandon his habit of yanking off his caddie bib on the 18th green. He’d been doing it for years to show off the corporate logo he’s paid to wear by an oil company. Because The Tour didn’t want to mess with Tiger, he was allowed to do it in spite of complaints from sponsors—who want THEIR logo on TV in return for the $8 million they pony up annually—and from other caddies who had to follow the rule that says the bibs stay on until you are in the scoring area.
Gracious as ever, Stevie growled something about the fact that, “the sponsors have never done anything for ME.” Really? Does he think the huge purses that he got a cut of from all of Tiger’s winnings the last 12 years came from the heavens or from those sponsors? When that was pointed out to him, he whined about how uncomfortable the bibs were. Only then did he agree to keep his on—because if he didn’t, his new boss would get fined and that probably wasn’t the best way to start a new job.
I reported this on Golf Channel on both Thursday and Friday. Apparently Nick Faldo, who WORKS for Golf Channel some of the time doesn’t watch the network very much and neither do his researchers at CBS because when Faldo saw Stevie still wearing the bib on Sunday afternoon he said, “Well, it used to be Steve’s tradition to take off his bib on the 18th green. Maybe he’s starting a new tradition.”
Yeah, that’s it, he’s starting a new tradition.
******
Some odds and ends on different subjects:
Jose Reyes must really be hurt this time. Usually the Mets announce that he is ‘day-to-day,’ when he gets hurt and then put him on the DL two weeks later. This time he went straight to the DL. All kidding aside: Terry Collins deserves some manager-of-the-year consideration given the way he has held this team together with David Wright and Reyes and now Daniel Murphy (who was having an excellent year) hurt for long stretches; the trades of Francisco Rodriguez and Carlos Beltran and Johan Santana not throwing a single pitch…
Gordon Gee of Ohio State is one of the 50 NCAA Presidents invited to the ‘summit,’ on big-time college athletics called by the NCAA. Isn’t that a little bit like asking Gee’s former coach Jim Tressel to chair a committee on transparency when dealing with a difficult situation?...
Someone asked recently why more of my books aren’t on tape. Good question: All my kids books are available on tape in their entirety. I am blessed to work with great people at Knopf. The non-fiction books, especially the more recent ones, are hit and miss largely because the people I’ve dealt with at Hachette Audio seem to be more interested in saving a few dollars on production costs than in putting out a quality product. To be honest, I stopped dealing with them about six books ago because it wasn’t worth the effort…
Finally: A belated Happy Birthday to my pal Jackson Diehl, who is the Deputy Editor of The Washington Post’s editorial page. Even though we last agreed political in, I think, 1979, we’ve been friends forever, dating to our days working in The Post’s Prince George’s County bureau in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. Most important, Jackson is aging up and I fully expect to see him swim the 200 fly at next spring’s short course nationals…
A couple of weeks ago in a column for Golfchannel.com I suggested that the title of the book Steve Williams was proposing to write should be, “Somebody Had to Carry the Bag.” I have now revised the title. The book should be called, “The Low Road ALWAYS Taken.”
Let’s give old Stevie some credit. He did the impossible: Turned Tiger Woods into a semi-sympathetic figure for at least a couple of days. Some people have said he should have turned down CBS’s request for a post-round interview after his new man, Adam Scott, cruised to an impressive four-stroke victory at The WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.
I had no problem with CBS asking to talk to him or in Williams talking. He was clearly part of the story: His split with Woods had been much talked about (mostly by Williams) since it happened and the fact that his new player won in the first week he was officially his full time caddie while Woods was struggling along to a 37th place finish in his first week back since May, was clearly a story.
Now, I’ve been around Williams enough to know he’s not stupid. Obnoxious, yes. Arrogant beyond belief, yes. Rude…You get the picture. But stupid? No. And he’s talked to the media enough in recent years that the notion that he was overwhelmed by it all doesn’t play. He said what he wanted to say; what he had planned to say. Let’s remember he repeated the whole thing a few minutes later behind the green talking to the rest of the media.
His message was clear: F--- you Tiger. Look, everyone gets upset about being fired and you can certainly make the case that Woods had no actual cause to fire Williams. He’s clearly a very good caddie and if Woods was going to fire him it should have been years ago when he was breaking cameras and screaming profanities at fans and publicly abusing Phil Mickelson.
He didn’t. This was a change made for change sake because Woods is struggling and perhaps because the relationship between the two men had cooled since Woods’ fall from grace almost two years ago. Williams had a right to feel wronged….Except for this: Caddies are like baseball managers. Ninety-nine percent of the time they are hired to be fired. Bruce Edwards with Tom Watson was an exception and so is Jim Mackay with Mickelson. There are a few others, but not many.
Williams knows that. He also knows that working for Woods made him rich beyond his wildest dreams even if the ending was graceless—whether it happened in person as Woods claims or by phone as Williams claims. When David Feherty practically fell on top of himself trying to ask a question in a way that would set Williams up to say something nice about Woods while taking his own post-victory bow, Williams wanted no part of it.
He talked about this being the greatest win of his career and the greatest week of his career. The 13 majors with Woods never happened. Then he went into a long diatribe about what a great front-runner HE was. My God, how many shots exactly did he hit on Sunday? Was Scott even there?
As Jim Nantz said when it was over, “wow.” Exactly—wow. In a moment of triumph, Steve Williams left no doubt about just who he is for millions to witness.
Oh, one more note on Stevie’s week. On Wednesday he was told by a PGA Tour official that he would need to abandon his habit of yanking off his caddie bib on the 18th green. He’d been doing it for years to show off the corporate logo he’s paid to wear by an oil company. Because The Tour didn’t want to mess with Tiger, he was allowed to do it in spite of complaints from sponsors—who want THEIR logo on TV in return for the $8 million they pony up annually—and from other caddies who had to follow the rule that says the bibs stay on until you are in the scoring area.
Gracious as ever, Stevie growled something about the fact that, “the sponsors have never done anything for ME.” Really? Does he think the huge purses that he got a cut of from all of Tiger’s winnings the last 12 years came from the heavens or from those sponsors? When that was pointed out to him, he whined about how uncomfortable the bibs were. Only then did he agree to keep his on—because if he didn’t, his new boss would get fined and that probably wasn’t the best way to start a new job.
I reported this on Golf Channel on both Thursday and Friday. Apparently Nick Faldo, who WORKS for Golf Channel some of the time doesn’t watch the network very much and neither do his researchers at CBS because when Faldo saw Stevie still wearing the bib on Sunday afternoon he said, “Well, it used to be Steve’s tradition to take off his bib on the 18th green. Maybe he’s starting a new tradition.”
Yeah, that’s it, he’s starting a new tradition.
******
Some odds and ends on different subjects:
Jose Reyes must really be hurt this time. Usually the Mets announce that he is ‘day-to-day,’ when he gets hurt and then put him on the DL two weeks later. This time he went straight to the DL. All kidding aside: Terry Collins deserves some manager-of-the-year consideration given the way he has held this team together with David Wright and Reyes and now Daniel Murphy (who was having an excellent year) hurt for long stretches; the trades of Francisco Rodriguez and Carlos Beltran and Johan Santana not throwing a single pitch…
Gordon Gee of Ohio State is one of the 50 NCAA Presidents invited to the ‘summit,’ on big-time college athletics called by the NCAA. Isn’t that a little bit like asking Gee’s former coach Jim Tressel to chair a committee on transparency when dealing with a difficult situation?...
Someone asked recently why more of my books aren’t on tape. Good question: All my kids books are available on tape in their entirety. I am blessed to work with great people at Knopf. The non-fiction books, especially the more recent ones, are hit and miss largely because the people I’ve dealt with at Hachette Audio seem to be more interested in saving a few dollars on production costs than in putting out a quality product. To be honest, I stopped dealing with them about six books ago because it wasn’t worth the effort…
Finally: A belated Happy Birthday to my pal Jackson Diehl, who is the Deputy Editor of The Washington Post’s editorial page. Even though we last agreed political in, I think, 1979, we’ve been friends forever, dating to our days working in The Post’s Prince George’s County bureau in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. Most important, Jackson is aging up and I fully expect to see him swim the 200 fly at next spring’s short course nationals…
Friday, June 18, 2010
Day out on the course, soaking in spectacular views; Rocco with fantastic news
The wake-up call came at 4:30 in the morning. I had to be on the air for Golf Channel at 6. That was the bad news. The good news was I was off-air and finished with my TV work for the day by 8 a.m. which gave me some time to get out and actually watch some golf.
There are times, especially at the U.S. Open when I don’t get to watch nearly as much golf as I’d like to watch. In past years I’ve done book-signings in the USGA merchandise tent that, while fun and a nice sales-boost, keep me pretty tied up. There are also frequently radio interviews to do as part of book promotion and times when I need to be around the media tent or the clubhouse to try to talk to people.
Today, for a change, I had none of that. Because the USGA doesn’t control the merchandising at this Open—it’s too complicated to explain but it has to do with the contract they sign with Pebble Beach; it’s a similar deal at Pinehurst—I wasn’t asked to do any book signings. On the one hand, yeah, I’d like to sell extra books. In fact, a number of people walked up to me on the golf course today to say they were disappointed to find I wasn’t signing books this year. I said me too—sort of.
I managed to get most of the book promotion for ‘Moment of Glory,’ done before I came out here, especially knowing that with the time change I didn’t want to get tied down at all sorts of strange hours. So, once the Golf Channel morning show signed off, I had the day free to play reporter. On the one hand, I was really tired from the early-morning wake-up. On the other hand, it was a gorgeous day and it was Pebble Beach so I thought I’d be insane not to get out and walk for a while.
So I decided to walk with the threesome of Shaun Micheel, Rocco Mediate and Graeme McDowell. No, I’m not contemplating a book on McDowell. The other two have already been involved in book projects with me. In fact, when Rocco got in to the championship on Sunday as the first alternate, I e-mailed Shaun and jokingly said that he and Rocco could discuss the pleasures of working on a book project with me while on the golf course.
The afternoon turned out to be more fun that I could possibly have imagined. The first piece of good news came on the first tee when Rocco came over and said, “I just got some unbelievable news. They found a donor for Cindy.”
Cindy Hilfman is probably the reason Rocco is still playing golf. She is certainly the reason why he almost won the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines two years ago. After years of back miseries that almost ended his career, Rocco was introduced to Cindy through a mutual friend. She figured out a way to make his back feel better.
The problem was he couldn’t figure out a way to make her kidneys better. Cindy has been afflicted with a rare kidney disease since childhood and has desperately needed a transplant. Finding a compatible donor has been the problem. Now, they’ve got one and her surgery is scheduled for July 20th.
“I found out an hour ago,” Rocco said. “I can’t tell you how good I feel. I’m actually nervous and jumpy about being out here right now and I haven’t felt this way for a long time.”
If this were a movie Rocco would have gone out and shot 68, led the tournament and been the story of the day. He couldn’t quite pull that off, shooting 77, but still I was happy for him, knowing all he and Cindy have been through the last several years with her health issues.
I was also happy for Micheel, who didn’t get off to a good start, but made back-to-back birdies at five and six to get going in the right direction. Shaun has been through a lot himself the last few years. He had a testosterone issue that turned into a battle with the tour because even though several doctors said he needed to take a pill, the tour didn’t want to allow it. On one occasion they denied him a waiver after doctors THEY sent him to said he needed to take the pill.
After getting through that problem, he had shoulder problems and had to have surgery two years ago. In 2009, coming back from the surgery, he had to go back to qualifying school after not playing especially well. Worst of all, his mother is very sick, fighting cancer.
He’s battled back from all that to play well this year, getting into some tournaments on his status as a past champion and a few others—though not as many as you would expect given that he’s a past major champion—on sponsor exemptions. A week ago, he played six great rounds of golf: two on Monday to qualify for the Open, then four in Memphis, to finish tied for fourth place. That check just about wrapped up his card for next year.
Shaun played well all day, tripped up at 17 when he missed a short par putt but bounced back to make a long birdie putt at 18 to shoot a two-under-par 69. That made him the first guy to make it in under 70. I sincerely hope that he continues to play well, NOT because the publicity he might get would help sell books—Mike Weir finished at one-under-par today by the way—but because he’s a good guy who has dealt with some really tough times.
The real highlight though, I must admit, was the golf course. I’ve walked Pebble Beach before but not under absolutely perfect conditions like today. It was cool and breezy and the views—seemingly from everywhere—were spectacular. Standing on the third tee, which is where the golf course really begins, Micheel looked towards the water and said quietly, “how about this place?”
It just gets more spectacular as you go from there on the front nine. The view from the fourth green? Amazing. Five? Great. Seventh tee? Ridiculous. Eight, nine ten? All incredible. And then of course the two finishing holes. You can’t help but be reminded why people deal with the trip to get here and why people will pay $495 a pop to play here.
I’m sore and tired from all the walking but I’m very glad I did it. Early to bed for me tonight. Another 4:30 a.m. wake-up call awaits.
-------
John recently appeared on The Jim Rome Show (www.jimrome.com) to discuss 'Moment of Glory.' Click here to download, or listen in the player below:
------------------------------
John's new book: "Moment of Glory--The Year Underdogs Ruled The Majors,"--is now available online and in bookstores nationwide. Visit your favorite retailer, or click here for online purchases
There are times, especially at the U.S. Open when I don’t get to watch nearly as much golf as I’d like to watch. In past years I’ve done book-signings in the USGA merchandise tent that, while fun and a nice sales-boost, keep me pretty tied up. There are also frequently radio interviews to do as part of book promotion and times when I need to be around the media tent or the clubhouse to try to talk to people.
Today, for a change, I had none of that. Because the USGA doesn’t control the merchandising at this Open—it’s too complicated to explain but it has to do with the contract they sign with Pebble Beach; it’s a similar deal at Pinehurst—I wasn’t asked to do any book signings. On the one hand, yeah, I’d like to sell extra books. In fact, a number of people walked up to me on the golf course today to say they were disappointed to find I wasn’t signing books this year. I said me too—sort of.
I managed to get most of the book promotion for ‘Moment of Glory,’ done before I came out here, especially knowing that with the time change I didn’t want to get tied down at all sorts of strange hours. So, once the Golf Channel morning show signed off, I had the day free to play reporter. On the one hand, I was really tired from the early-morning wake-up. On the other hand, it was a gorgeous day and it was Pebble Beach so I thought I’d be insane not to get out and walk for a while.
So I decided to walk with the threesome of Shaun Micheel, Rocco Mediate and Graeme McDowell. No, I’m not contemplating a book on McDowell. The other two have already been involved in book projects with me. In fact, when Rocco got in to the championship on Sunday as the first alternate, I e-mailed Shaun and jokingly said that he and Rocco could discuss the pleasures of working on a book project with me while on the golf course.
The afternoon turned out to be more fun that I could possibly have imagined. The first piece of good news came on the first tee when Rocco came over and said, “I just got some unbelievable news. They found a donor for Cindy.”
Cindy Hilfman is probably the reason Rocco is still playing golf. She is certainly the reason why he almost won the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines two years ago. After years of back miseries that almost ended his career, Rocco was introduced to Cindy through a mutual friend. She figured out a way to make his back feel better.
The problem was he couldn’t figure out a way to make her kidneys better. Cindy has been afflicted with a rare kidney disease since childhood and has desperately needed a transplant. Finding a compatible donor has been the problem. Now, they’ve got one and her surgery is scheduled for July 20th.
“I found out an hour ago,” Rocco said. “I can’t tell you how good I feel. I’m actually nervous and jumpy about being out here right now and I haven’t felt this way for a long time.”
If this were a movie Rocco would have gone out and shot 68, led the tournament and been the story of the day. He couldn’t quite pull that off, shooting 77, but still I was happy for him, knowing all he and Cindy have been through the last several years with her health issues.
I was also happy for Micheel, who didn’t get off to a good start, but made back-to-back birdies at five and six to get going in the right direction. Shaun has been through a lot himself the last few years. He had a testosterone issue that turned into a battle with the tour because even though several doctors said he needed to take a pill, the tour didn’t want to allow it. On one occasion they denied him a waiver after doctors THEY sent him to said he needed to take the pill.
After getting through that problem, he had shoulder problems and had to have surgery two years ago. In 2009, coming back from the surgery, he had to go back to qualifying school after not playing especially well. Worst of all, his mother is very sick, fighting cancer.
He’s battled back from all that to play well this year, getting into some tournaments on his status as a past champion and a few others—though not as many as you would expect given that he’s a past major champion—on sponsor exemptions. A week ago, he played six great rounds of golf: two on Monday to qualify for the Open, then four in Memphis, to finish tied for fourth place. That check just about wrapped up his card for next year.
Shaun played well all day, tripped up at 17 when he missed a short par putt but bounced back to make a long birdie putt at 18 to shoot a two-under-par 69. That made him the first guy to make it in under 70. I sincerely hope that he continues to play well, NOT because the publicity he might get would help sell books—Mike Weir finished at one-under-par today by the way—but because he’s a good guy who has dealt with some really tough times.
The real highlight though, I must admit, was the golf course. I’ve walked Pebble Beach before but not under absolutely perfect conditions like today. It was cool and breezy and the views—seemingly from everywhere—were spectacular. Standing on the third tee, which is where the golf course really begins, Micheel looked towards the water and said quietly, “how about this place?”
It just gets more spectacular as you go from there on the front nine. The view from the fourth green? Amazing. Five? Great. Seventh tee? Ridiculous. Eight, nine ten? All incredible. And then of course the two finishing holes. You can’t help but be reminded why people deal with the trip to get here and why people will pay $495 a pop to play here.
I’m sore and tired from all the walking but I’m very glad I did it. Early to bed for me tonight. Another 4:30 a.m. wake-up call awaits.
-------
John recently appeared on The Jim Rome Show (www.jimrome.com) to discuss 'Moment of Glory.' Click here to download, or listen in the player below:
------------------------------
John's new book: "Moment of Glory--The Year Underdogs Ruled The Majors,"--is now available online and in bookstores nationwide. Visit your favorite retailer, or click here for online purchases
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Positive feelings about Golf Channel documentary 'Caddy For Life'; book to movie process
Since I’m scheduled to fly to Pebble Beach first thing Tuesday morning—and dreading the trip given my complete hatred of the entire flying experience—I’m writing this on Monday night just prior to Golf Channel’s airing of the documentary based on, “Caddy For Life.”
I can honestly say I’m very proud of the documentary and I hope if you did not watch it Monday night you will watch one of the re-airs that will occur periodically throughout this week.
When Keith Allo from Golf Channel first contacted me last summer about the notion of turning ‘Caddy,’ into a documentary I was pleased—and skeptical. The experiences I have had with my books becoming—or not becoming—movies has been checkered to say the least.
Many of you know that “A Season on the Brink,” did become a movie. The general consensus is that it was one of the five worst movies ever made. I would rank it number one on that list but then I’m biased. I had no control at all when that movie was made. It’s a long story not worth rehashing in detail here but the synopsis is that a long-forgotten guy named Mark Shapiro (unless you are a big follower of bankrupt theme parks) was trying to blackmail me into doing things for ESPN I had no interest in doing. When I refused to be blackmailed he did two things: ordered Joe Valerio, the executive producer of The Sports Reporters to stop using me on the show and put out the word that NO ONE was to allow me to see the script of ‘Season.’
Of course I did see the script in advance and knew it was God-awful. ESPN hired a distinguished screenwriter who, sadly, knew nothing about basketball to write the script and he produced a cartoon. The funny part of the story was when critics savaged the movie, I dropped Shapiro a note saying that it didn’t need to have turned out the way it did except for his massive ego. (Pause here to note my ego’s pretty big but I was never in this guy’s ballpark). He wrote me back—I still have the e-mail—saying the reason the reviews were so bad was because I had ripped the movie publicly.
If only I had that kind of power the world would be a much better place.
Flash forward: There have been a number of false starts with other books, but none ever made it to a screen. In one case I’m grateful because I read a script sent to me by a movie company that optioned, “Last Shot,” that was so bad it actually had the potential to be worse than ‘Season on the Brink.’
It has always been my belief that I’ve written two books that had the potential to be truly compelling movies. One is ‘A Civil War,’ the book I wrote about the Army-Navy football rivalry. There’s been interest in it at times but it has never gone anywhere. Years ago I sent a copy of the book to Ron Shelton (Bull Durham, Tin Cup among others) who I respect as much as anyone in Hollywood—not that I know that many people in Hollywood. I’d met Shelton and gotten to know him a little when he was on the golf tour doing research for Tin Cup. He called me and said, “This is a great book but it’ll never be made into a movie.”
“Why not?”
“Because Leonardo DiCaprio can’t play one of the players. Maybe if you could cast him as a waterboy you’d have a shot. You need STARS to get a movie like this made and there’s not star in Hollywood who can legitimately play a college football player.”
I thought Shelton was stretching the theory but that was ten years ago and the movie hasn’t been made. Maybe I can get The Jonas Brothers to play college football players? My daughter would watch.
The other book I thought was a natural for a movie was, ‘Caddy For Life.’ When Bruce Edwards first asked me to write the book in 2003 shortly after he was diagnosed with ALS it never occurred to me that it was that kind of story. But spending that year with him, seeing his remarkable courage up close and the amazing resilience and loyalty of his family, his wife Marsha and his pal Tom Watson, I came to believe the book was going to be made into a movie.
This time Shelton agreed with me. He thought a big star would want to play Bruce—maybe even his buddy Kevin Costner—and that Gary Sinise would be perfect to play Watson. A number of producers were interested in optioning the book as soon as it came out. For the record, getting a book optioned is one step in a journey of a thousand miles towards getting a movie made. When you read in the publicity notes for a book that it has been “optioned to be a major motion picture,” 99 times out of 100 the movie will never get made. I have now had, I think, eight books optioned.
This is the first time I’ve felt good about the end result. With the help of my friend Terry Hanson, ‘Caddy,’ did get optioned eventually by a production company called, “Live Planet,” that was owned in part by Matt Damon. He was (is) a big golf fan. He planned to be co-executive producer on the film. We interviewed screenwriters and chose David Himmelstein who wrote a superb script. ABC loved the script and green-lighted it (that’s Hollywood talk) with one caveat: They needed to wait until the end of the year (2007 I think) to get their budget from Disney. The plan was to get my old friends at ESPN to pay some of the costs from their movie budget since the first run would be on ABC and then the movie would be re-run a bazillion times on ESPN.
The ESPN people, in spite of my involvement, said they loved the script. The New Year arrived. We got a call from the people at ABC. There was a problem: Because ESPN’s movies had been so BAD—starting with, you guessed it, ‘Season on the Brink,’ their movie budget had been slashed to close to nothing by Disney. Without the ESPN money, ABC Entertainment didn’t have the dollars to make the movie.
End of story.
Until the phone call from Allo. Golf Channel wanted to make a documentary and they wanted to make it right. They wanted to start by making a large contribution to The Bruce Edwards Foundation, the organization I’d started in 2005 to raise money for ALS—with HUGE help from Watson and The Edwards Family. They understood that the script had to work for me but more important as far as I was concerned for the family and for Watson. They wanted me to be co-executive producer and do most of the on-camera interviews.
They were as good as their word on all of it. Stage Three Productions in Philadelphia was hired to actually produce the documentary and the people there, led by Steve Ciplione and Kelly Ryan did, I think, a masterful job. If this reads like a press release, sorry. This is the first time I have seen one of my books on a screen somewhere and felt really good about it.
Bruce was an extraordinary person and his relationship with Tom was a remarkable story about two men who were, as their pal Neil Oxman so eloquently put it in the book, “closer than brothers.”
I hope you watch. I will be surprised and disappointed if it doesn't make you cry.
-------
John recently appeared on The Jim Rome Show (www.jimrome.com) to discuss 'Moment of Glory.' Click here to download, or listen in the player below:
------------------------------
John's new book: "Moment of Glory--The Year Underdogs Ruled The Majors,"--is now available online and in bookstores nationwide. Visit your favorite retailer, or click here for online purchases
I can honestly say I’m very proud of the documentary and I hope if you did not watch it Monday night you will watch one of the re-airs that will occur periodically throughout this week.
When Keith Allo from Golf Channel first contacted me last summer about the notion of turning ‘Caddy,’ into a documentary I was pleased—and skeptical. The experiences I have had with my books becoming—or not becoming—movies has been checkered to say the least.
Many of you know that “A Season on the Brink,” did become a movie. The general consensus is that it was one of the five worst movies ever made. I would rank it number one on that list but then I’m biased. I had no control at all when that movie was made. It’s a long story not worth rehashing in detail here but the synopsis is that a long-forgotten guy named Mark Shapiro (unless you are a big follower of bankrupt theme parks) was trying to blackmail me into doing things for ESPN I had no interest in doing. When I refused to be blackmailed he did two things: ordered Joe Valerio, the executive producer of The Sports Reporters to stop using me on the show and put out the word that NO ONE was to allow me to see the script of ‘Season.’
Of course I did see the script in advance and knew it was God-awful. ESPN hired a distinguished screenwriter who, sadly, knew nothing about basketball to write the script and he produced a cartoon. The funny part of the story was when critics savaged the movie, I dropped Shapiro a note saying that it didn’t need to have turned out the way it did except for his massive ego. (Pause here to note my ego’s pretty big but I was never in this guy’s ballpark). He wrote me back—I still have the e-mail—saying the reason the reviews were so bad was because I had ripped the movie publicly.
If only I had that kind of power the world would be a much better place.
Flash forward: There have been a number of false starts with other books, but none ever made it to a screen. In one case I’m grateful because I read a script sent to me by a movie company that optioned, “Last Shot,” that was so bad it actually had the potential to be worse than ‘Season on the Brink.’
It has always been my belief that I’ve written two books that had the potential to be truly compelling movies. One is ‘A Civil War,’ the book I wrote about the Army-Navy football rivalry. There’s been interest in it at times but it has never gone anywhere. Years ago I sent a copy of the book to Ron Shelton (Bull Durham, Tin Cup among others) who I respect as much as anyone in Hollywood—not that I know that many people in Hollywood. I’d met Shelton and gotten to know him a little when he was on the golf tour doing research for Tin Cup. He called me and said, “This is a great book but it’ll never be made into a movie.”
“Why not?”
“Because Leonardo DiCaprio can’t play one of the players. Maybe if you could cast him as a waterboy you’d have a shot. You need STARS to get a movie like this made and there’s not star in Hollywood who can legitimately play a college football player.”
I thought Shelton was stretching the theory but that was ten years ago and the movie hasn’t been made. Maybe I can get The Jonas Brothers to play college football players? My daughter would watch.
The other book I thought was a natural for a movie was, ‘Caddy For Life.’ When Bruce Edwards first asked me to write the book in 2003 shortly after he was diagnosed with ALS it never occurred to me that it was that kind of story. But spending that year with him, seeing his remarkable courage up close and the amazing resilience and loyalty of his family, his wife Marsha and his pal Tom Watson, I came to believe the book was going to be made into a movie.
This time Shelton agreed with me. He thought a big star would want to play Bruce—maybe even his buddy Kevin Costner—and that Gary Sinise would be perfect to play Watson. A number of producers were interested in optioning the book as soon as it came out. For the record, getting a book optioned is one step in a journey of a thousand miles towards getting a movie made. When you read in the publicity notes for a book that it has been “optioned to be a major motion picture,” 99 times out of 100 the movie will never get made. I have now had, I think, eight books optioned.
This is the first time I’ve felt good about the end result. With the help of my friend Terry Hanson, ‘Caddy,’ did get optioned eventually by a production company called, “Live Planet,” that was owned in part by Matt Damon. He was (is) a big golf fan. He planned to be co-executive producer on the film. We interviewed screenwriters and chose David Himmelstein who wrote a superb script. ABC loved the script and green-lighted it (that’s Hollywood talk) with one caveat: They needed to wait until the end of the year (2007 I think) to get their budget from Disney. The plan was to get my old friends at ESPN to pay some of the costs from their movie budget since the first run would be on ABC and then the movie would be re-run a bazillion times on ESPN.
The ESPN people, in spite of my involvement, said they loved the script. The New Year arrived. We got a call from the people at ABC. There was a problem: Because ESPN’s movies had been so BAD—starting with, you guessed it, ‘Season on the Brink,’ their movie budget had been slashed to close to nothing by Disney. Without the ESPN money, ABC Entertainment didn’t have the dollars to make the movie.
End of story.
Until the phone call from Allo. Golf Channel wanted to make a documentary and they wanted to make it right. They wanted to start by making a large contribution to The Bruce Edwards Foundation, the organization I’d started in 2005 to raise money for ALS—with HUGE help from Watson and The Edwards Family. They understood that the script had to work for me but more important as far as I was concerned for the family and for Watson. They wanted me to be co-executive producer and do most of the on-camera interviews.
They were as good as their word on all of it. Stage Three Productions in Philadelphia was hired to actually produce the documentary and the people there, led by Steve Ciplione and Kelly Ryan did, I think, a masterful job. If this reads like a press release, sorry. This is the first time I have seen one of my books on a screen somewhere and felt really good about it.
Bruce was an extraordinary person and his relationship with Tom was a remarkable story about two men who were, as their pal Neil Oxman so eloquently put it in the book, “closer than brothers.”
I hope you watch. I will be surprised and disappointed if it doesn't make you cry.
-------
John recently appeared on The Jim Rome Show (www.jimrome.com) to discuss 'Moment of Glory.' Click here to download, or listen in the player below:
------------------------------
John's new book: "Moment of Glory--The Year Underdogs Ruled The Majors,"--is now available online and in bookstores nationwide. Visit your favorite retailer, or click here for online purchases
Friday, May 7, 2010
Tiger still draws all eyes, but to make quick judgment on his game right now is silly
There’s a golf tournament going on this week—an important one. It isn’t a major but it is one that players do care about; in part because they are playing for a lot of money; in part because a win carries a five year exemption on tour (as opposed to two years for other non-majors); in part because it is called “The Players,” and makes the tour a lot of money.
But I’m not sure anyone who isn’t a golf geek really cares that much. Oh sure, the whole world wants to know everything that Tiger Woods does all day, every day. But he could be playing in Charlotte, the way he was last week, or in Milwaukee—where he played his first tournament as a pro—and the same would be true.
There might be a little bit of extra interest in Phil Mickelson because, at least in theory, he has a chance to pass Woods as the world’s number one player this week. If Mickelson wins here and Woods finishes outside the top five, Mickelson will go to No. 1 in the world rankings.
Seriously though, if you aren’t a golf geek, do you really care about that? You might look up and take note of it, but if you stop and think about the fact that Woods has only played in three tournaments this year and his life is a complete mess, what’s the big deal? What Mickelson has done that’s truly important this year is win The Masters.
The next truly important moment in golf will come at Pebble Beach next month at the U.S. Open. If Woods doesn’t play well THERE, a place where he won the Open by fifteen shots 10 years ago, then it will be time to begin wondering if he’s going to make it back close to the level he was at as recently as two years ago when he won the Open while playing on one leg at Torrey Pines.
For now though, all the analysis of his swing and his mindset and his game and his life is kind of moot. As he correctly pointed out after shooting a two-under-par 70 on Thursday, he had only played six rounds of golf this year before arriving at The Players. So, to make any kind of judgment on his game RIGHT NOW, is just plain silly. Sure he was awful in Charlotte last week—all that does is prove that he’s human; that the carnage he has left in his wake the last six months has had some affect on him.
This week there are all sorts of rumors going around that he’s fired Hank Haney, his swing coach. It was the talk of the range on Wednesday and Woods’ denials don’t sound all that convincing. Maybe he hasn’t fired Haney, but technically he never fired Butch Harmon back in 2002. He just stopped working with him during The British Open and hasn’t worked with him since.
There was also a Woods-Haney joke making the rounds on the range on Thursday: “If Tiger keeps working with Hank for another few months, his swing will look like Ray Romano’s.” For those of you who aren’t Golf Channel geeks, Haney is involved in a show in which he is trying to coach Romano to the point where he can break 80. The good news in Charlotte was that one of his clients—Woods—did break 80, shooting 79 on Friday.
What is remarkable to me is the continuing fascination with all things Tiger. Maybe nowadays it is just people rubbernecking at the scene of a car accident but no one can seem to take their eyes off of Woods—regardless of how he’s playing or what he happens to be doing. Vanity Fair just came out with a SECOND story on Tiger’s various trysts (the first one did some serious damage to Mark Steinberg’s, “I know nothing,” claims not to mention to the late Earl Woods) and people are acting like the news that Woods is getting a divorce is going to be news.
It will be, sort of along the lines of tomorrow being Saturday.
On Thursday, I was on The Golf Channel set as part of their, “Live From,” show. We went into a break and the plan was to come back and talk about, I think, Vijay Singh, who has dropped to No. 42 in the world and could actually be in jeopardy of dropping out of the top 50 between now and May 23d—which would knock him out of the U.S. Open for the first time since 1994.
Suddenly, mid-break, the producer’s voice came into our ears saying, “Change of plan guys. We have video of Tiger walking in from the parking lot so we’re going to that.”
Yup, Tiger walking in from the parking lot. Look, I get why Golf Channel wants to cover every move he makes. It is what people want to see. I may have written this before but Tommy Roy, who has produced golf on NBC forever, once told me that a survey he’d seen showed that more golf fans would prefer to see Tiger Woods leaning on his bag than another golfer hitting a shot.
Last week in Charlotte, with Mickelson in contention, with Rory McIlroy playing a spectacular round of golf, ratings on CBS were down 37 percent from a year ago—when Woods was in contention. To we golf geeks that’s unfathomable. I sit here looking at the names in the field here at ‘The Players,’ and I can literally find 100 stories I find interesting. Most people would have little interest in at least 99 of them.
The Players, as I said, is a big-time tournament. But if Henrik Stenson defends his title or if my buddy Paul Goydos somehow wins or if Jim Furyk wins—or if any of the 154 players in the field not named Woods or Mickelson wins—very few people will remember two weeks from now who the champion was in 2010.
But they’ll know there were Tiger Woods-used golf clubs on E-Bay this week. There’s no sense rolling our eyes about any of that, it’s just the way of the world. It was before November 27, 2009, it is now and it is going to be for a long time to come.
Tiger may not be the hero he used to be but he’s still the guy no one can take their eyes off.
-----------
John's new book: "Moment of Glory--The Year Underdogs Ruled The Majors,"--is now available online and will be in bookstores nationwide May 13th. Visit your favorite retailer, or click here for online purchases
But I’m not sure anyone who isn’t a golf geek really cares that much. Oh sure, the whole world wants to know everything that Tiger Woods does all day, every day. But he could be playing in Charlotte, the way he was last week, or in Milwaukee—where he played his first tournament as a pro—and the same would be true.
There might be a little bit of extra interest in Phil Mickelson because, at least in theory, he has a chance to pass Woods as the world’s number one player this week. If Mickelson wins here and Woods finishes outside the top five, Mickelson will go to No. 1 in the world rankings.
Seriously though, if you aren’t a golf geek, do you really care about that? You might look up and take note of it, but if you stop and think about the fact that Woods has only played in three tournaments this year and his life is a complete mess, what’s the big deal? What Mickelson has done that’s truly important this year is win The Masters.
The next truly important moment in golf will come at Pebble Beach next month at the U.S. Open. If Woods doesn’t play well THERE, a place where he won the Open by fifteen shots 10 years ago, then it will be time to begin wondering if he’s going to make it back close to the level he was at as recently as two years ago when he won the Open while playing on one leg at Torrey Pines.
For now though, all the analysis of his swing and his mindset and his game and his life is kind of moot. As he correctly pointed out after shooting a two-under-par 70 on Thursday, he had only played six rounds of golf this year before arriving at The Players. So, to make any kind of judgment on his game RIGHT NOW, is just plain silly. Sure he was awful in Charlotte last week—all that does is prove that he’s human; that the carnage he has left in his wake the last six months has had some affect on him.
This week there are all sorts of rumors going around that he’s fired Hank Haney, his swing coach. It was the talk of the range on Wednesday and Woods’ denials don’t sound all that convincing. Maybe he hasn’t fired Haney, but technically he never fired Butch Harmon back in 2002. He just stopped working with him during The British Open and hasn’t worked with him since.
There was also a Woods-Haney joke making the rounds on the range on Thursday: “If Tiger keeps working with Hank for another few months, his swing will look like Ray Romano’s.” For those of you who aren’t Golf Channel geeks, Haney is involved in a show in which he is trying to coach Romano to the point where he can break 80. The good news in Charlotte was that one of his clients—Woods—did break 80, shooting 79 on Friday.
What is remarkable to me is the continuing fascination with all things Tiger. Maybe nowadays it is just people rubbernecking at the scene of a car accident but no one can seem to take their eyes off of Woods—regardless of how he’s playing or what he happens to be doing. Vanity Fair just came out with a SECOND story on Tiger’s various trysts (the first one did some serious damage to Mark Steinberg’s, “I know nothing,” claims not to mention to the late Earl Woods) and people are acting like the news that Woods is getting a divorce is going to be news.
It will be, sort of along the lines of tomorrow being Saturday.
On Thursday, I was on The Golf Channel set as part of their, “Live From,” show. We went into a break and the plan was to come back and talk about, I think, Vijay Singh, who has dropped to No. 42 in the world and could actually be in jeopardy of dropping out of the top 50 between now and May 23d—which would knock him out of the U.S. Open for the first time since 1994.
Suddenly, mid-break, the producer’s voice came into our ears saying, “Change of plan guys. We have video of Tiger walking in from the parking lot so we’re going to that.”
Yup, Tiger walking in from the parking lot. Look, I get why Golf Channel wants to cover every move he makes. It is what people want to see. I may have written this before but Tommy Roy, who has produced golf on NBC forever, once told me that a survey he’d seen showed that more golf fans would prefer to see Tiger Woods leaning on his bag than another golfer hitting a shot.
Last week in Charlotte, with Mickelson in contention, with Rory McIlroy playing a spectacular round of golf, ratings on CBS were down 37 percent from a year ago—when Woods was in contention. To we golf geeks that’s unfathomable. I sit here looking at the names in the field here at ‘The Players,’ and I can literally find 100 stories I find interesting. Most people would have little interest in at least 99 of them.
The Players, as I said, is a big-time tournament. But if Henrik Stenson defends his title or if my buddy Paul Goydos somehow wins or if Jim Furyk wins—or if any of the 154 players in the field not named Woods or Mickelson wins—very few people will remember two weeks from now who the champion was in 2010.
But they’ll know there were Tiger Woods-used golf clubs on E-Bay this week. There’s no sense rolling our eyes about any of that, it’s just the way of the world. It was before November 27, 2009, it is now and it is going to be for a long time to come.
Tiger may not be the hero he used to be but he’s still the guy no one can take their eyes off.
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John's new book: "Moment of Glory--The Year Underdogs Ruled The Majors,"--is now available online and will be in bookstores nationwide May 13th. Visit your favorite retailer, or click here for online purchases
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Updated -- This week's radio segments (The Sports Reporters, The Gas Man, Tony Kornheiser Show):
Today I joined The Sports Reporters' Steve Czaban and Andy Pollin in the normal timeslot (5:25 ET on Wednesday's). Click the permalink, then the link below, to listen to the segment focused on Gilbert Arenas and his suspension and college basketball.
Click here to listen to the segment: The Sports Reporters
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I also made my regular appearance on The Gas Man at 5:25 PT on Wednesday. In this segment, we spoke about the 'Caddy For Life' Golf Channel documentary I am working on and player exemption scenarios for this year's US Open at Pebble Beach.
Click here to listen to the segment: The Gas Man
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On Thursday I joined the newest The Tony Kornheiser Show in my normal Thursday slot. We talked about golf today (the documentary, Phil Mickelson's brief words on Tiger, Rocco Mediate) before transitioning to Maryland basketball.
Click here to listen to the segment (starts within 1st minute): The Tony Kornheiser Show
Click here to listen to the segment: The Sports Reporters
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I also made my regular appearance on The Gas Man at 5:25 PT on Wednesday. In this segment, we spoke about the 'Caddy For Life' Golf Channel documentary I am working on and player exemption scenarios for this year's US Open at Pebble Beach.
Click here to listen to the segment: The Gas Man
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On Thursday I joined the newest The Tony Kornheiser Show in my normal Thursday slot. We talked about golf today (the documentary, Phil Mickelson's brief words on Tiger, Rocco Mediate) before transitioning to Maryland basketball.
Click here to listen to the segment (starts within 1st minute): The Tony Kornheiser Show
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