Tiger Woods puts Foot in Mouth..He still thinks He is better Than Sliced White Bread
Tiger Woods puts foot in mouth by comparing his comeback to Ben Hogan's following 1949 car crash
Saturday, April 10th 2010, 4:00 AM
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Golf writer Dan Jenkins says Tiger Woods' comments comparing his comeback to that of Ben Hogan's following a 1949 car accident are 'stupid' and 'moronic'.AUGUSTA, Ga. - It's so hard these days to root against Tiger Woods on the golf course, and much too easy to sneer at the man every time he walks off it.
There he was again Friday, magically knocking in a 20-foot birdie putt on No. 13 and burying a 15-footer on No. 15 after a bad-luck chip shot hit the front end of a sprinkler. Woods was in the left rough on 17, pulled a 9-iron from his bag, and somehow levitated the ball way over the trees and landed it eight feet from the pin.
Impossible stuff. Genius. At times he made Augusta National retreat in panic, before our eyes. It's becoming very clear that Tiger is still better than nearly everybody around him, these commonplace hackers in spikes, despite all the rust on his clubs and the tarnish on his reputation.
But then Woods was done with his round, at 6-under par and just two strokes back in third place. And after considerable debate, his handlers finally sent him into the interview room.
Once there, Woods was no longer Mozart. He was a bungler, playing clumsily to the media's strength - a sense of history. As writers groaned to themselves, Tiger compared his comeback after a four-month layoff to that of Ben Hogan, who in 1949 threw himself in front of his wife inside their car to save her from a head-on collision with a Greyhound bus.
"It's very similar to what Hogan went through coming off the accident," Woods said. "He couldn't play that much, and when you can't play, you have to concentrate on your practice."
Woods' SUV mishap, of course, was very different, even if both were driving Caddies. Tiger struck a fire hydrant in front of a neighbor's house under circumstances we will never fully know, because he won't tell us.
We only figure he didn't smack the hydrant in order to save his wife Elin from death. And by saying this silly stuff Friday, Woods only made people wonder if he really believes he is Hogan, making some heroic comeback from a fractured marriage the way Hogan came back from a broken collarbone, pelvis, ankle and rib.
Hogan required 11 months to recover and return to golf, then later limped to victory at the 1950 U.S. Open at Merion. Hogan was no saint, either, by all accounts. But the two accidents should never be uttered in the same sentence.
"It's stupid, moronic," said Dan Jenkins, the venerated golf writer who was close with Hogan. "Other than that, it's fine. Hogan nearly died. All Tiger did was damn near get syphilis."
This is the way it will be with Woods for some time, apparently. He will play brilliantly, speak cavalierly. His words, so carefully crafted and respected for so long, will now be held against him. He will provide the spit and firewood for those who wish to roast him.
Tiger is still managed and over-managed. We see a lot of that on the course, where he now drinks Powerade instead of Gatorade and where his people declare Woods will head to the interview room only if he pars No. 18, not if he bogeys it. His circumstances must always be upbeat, and products still will be positioned properly.
This is not enough anymore, however. It's as if somebody has overturned a great banquet table, made a big mess of the feast now on the floor. There is a lot of scrambling to pick things up, place them in order. Mistakes are being made in the frantic cleanup.
Just not very often on the golf course. Woods misread one putt yesterday on No. 17 and he missed some greens in regulation. For all of that, he was perfectly positioned for a weekend run at his fifth Masters title.
"I put myself right there," Woods said. "This golf course, you can make up shots and you lose shots. That's one of the beauties of it."
He is another one, a great treasure - until golf ball drops into metal cup on the 18th.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/more_sports/2010/04/10/2010-04-10_woods_could_use_a_crash_course_on_hogans_wreck.html#ixzz0koEYwGGQ
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