It is a scene that has become more extraordinary with the passing of time. Plenty of sportspeople have been guilty of or admitted to extramarital capers. Only Tiger Woods appeared live on television, in front of a hand-picked audience, to deliver a 14-minute mea culpa on his transgressions.
American golf executives in their perfectly ironed slacks stood in sombre mood as Woods laid bare his “personal sins”. The venue, hilariously, was the home of the PGA Tour. Woods had no need to go into tawdry detail about his antics; the tabloid media had done that for him. “I convinced myself that normal rules didn’t apply,” said Woods. Sixteen years on from that speech, it is worth pondering whether much has changed.
Two episodes over the past week have exposed the new, grim normal for Woods. TGL has been a welcome and fun addition to Woods’s sport as an indoor simulator experience that the world’s leading players seem to enjoy. As Woods appeared – sweating, face bloated – on Tuesday night’s staging of the golf league, it was astonishingly billed as a Masters test run. One of the greatest golfers of all time, who would have disregarded indoor golf as a pointless gimmick when in his pomp, was supposedly preparing for the rigours of Augusta National by whacking balls into a giant screen. The coverage was absurd.
Woods was typically vague when asked whether teeing up at the Masters on Thursday week was a viable option. The 50-year-old has always had a weird fascination with keeping everyone guessing even when, at this point, it appears little more than a game to keep sponsors of a mind to write cheques. Woods will never formally retire; rather he will fade towards competitive irrelevance. July 2024 marks the last time he teed up in serious competition. You cannot drop in and out of elite golf.
By Friday evening, matters had turned more serious for Woods. He spent eight hours in jail after his arrest on suspicion of driving under the influence. Woods refused to give a urine sample to police officers who believed he was impaired when rolling his Land Rover on to its side. The poor driver of a pressure cleaner truck, merely trying to go about his daily business on sleepy Jupiter Island, was clipped by Woods as he tried to overtake. The local sheriff said Woods was travelling at “high speed” before the crash. Woods is yet to comment on the situation.
The 15-times major winner’s latest brush with the law should leave us questioning why golf remains so beholden to him. The PGA of America, for a second time, is desperate for Woods to captain the United States Ryder Cup team. The PGA Tour has placed Woods front and centre not only of its board but as the chairman of a committee given the specific remit of reshaping its schedule. Woods’s desire to remain relevant in his sport is understandable – bluntly, he has little else to do – but a glance at his behavioural pattern raises questions about the validity of that.
In November 2009, as his personal life capitulated around him, Woods careered into a fire hydrant outside his home in Florida. Eight years later police found Woods slumped over the steering wheel of his car, again in Florida. A toxicology report revealed he had five different medications in his system. He completed a clinic course to handle his use of tablets and a sleep disorder. In February 2021, Woods cheated death after a serious crash in Los Angeles. “That’s all been answered, it’s in the police report,” said Woods when pressed on what precisely happened. Gone was the expansive, remorseful Woods of 2010. He was never charged but nor was there any adequate explanation. Woods risked not only his own health but that of others.
Woods drew eyeballs to and interest in golf, which fuelled a boom, including in prize funds. The post-Tiger world scares the sport’s office bearers. Connecting the Woods bailed by the Martin county sheriff’s office with one supposedly knee deep in the minutiae of the PGA Tour is impossible. Woods has no credentials whatsoever to captain the US in the Ryder Cup – a ferociously individual sportsman, he toiled in the event when a player – and his dithering over the role is embarrassing. Simply because he is Tiger Woods, once unmatchable with club in hand, he is given licence to call the shots. Normal rules once again do not apply.
Sportspeople who adopt this approach will always find themselves on shaky ground. Woods believed he was invisible and infallible when meeting waitresses for a touch of extracurricular. He presumably did again when flying along Beach Road on Friday afternoon. It has taken the long arm of the law to expose Woods’s flaws.
Roger Federer would never find himself in this scenario. Neither would Lionel Messi. Applying Ryder Cup captaincy context, it is fair to assert that Paul McGinley, Pádraig Harrington, Jim Furyk, Davis Love or Steve Stricker wouldn’t be the subject of Floridian mugshots after crawling out of an overturned car in a residential area, either. It should be possible to feel sympathy for Woods’s plight while pointing out there is no need for an athlete of this standing to find himself in such a pickle. It says little for those around him – yes men and umbrella holders – that Woods’s status is fading in such a depressing manner. They are not the only ones who should be reassessing their relationship with a troubled idol.
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