Tiger's Indefinite Leave Clippings, Vol. 7

Tim Finchem actually made Tiger second-hand news Thursday and maybe even into Friday...unless Tiger surfaces or his Citation overruns a short runway in Wickenberg, Arizona near a certain rehab clinic made famous by David Duchovny.

Unfortunately for Finchem, the reviews weren't so hot for his whirlwind press tour that commenced on CNBC, included a teleconference with scribes, and wrapped up with Golf Channel and ESPN appearances.

Jim McCabe says you got the feeling that Tim Finchem's "at the helm of the S.S. Good Ship Lollipop," and while he really enjoyed Finchem's praise for the President's Cup, he couldn't quite let the Dr. Galea component of the press conference and Finchem's brush-off go unnoticed:

While it’s documented that Dr. Galea is under arrest for drug-related charges, no one is suggesting Woods should be the subject of suspicions. Still, it was alarming to hear Finchem state, almost brushing it aside like a three-putt bogey, that “I have no reason to have a concern with respect to him and a doctor (Galea) who has used HGH with patients for whom it’s not an illegal drug (which is true of HGH, in Canada).”

Dick Pound wonders. The former president of the World Anti-Doping Agency said, “You would have a heightened awareness. I would not put it any further than that.”

Dr. Gary Wadler, chairman of the WADA, does take it a step further. Asked if he thought Finchem should have expressed a little more concern, Dr. Wadler said, “You can’t be dismissive. I’ve seen that for years and years and years. Let’s put it this way: As a doping expert, when I hear in the same sentence ‘blood-spinning, HGH, and Actovegin,’ I intend to straighten up and have a better look.

“(I hear) that combination, those three things, and I immediately think about doping. At best you look into it.”

“That’s what clean athletes expect,” said Travis Tygart, CEO of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. “You believe what they say, but also, you have the responsibility to verify.”

Bill Huffman also wasn't impressed.

But even more than the media’s unquenched thirst for Tiger’s secret life and his, some might say, “pending’’ divorce, is the way the Tour seems to be protecting Woods, who "reportedly'' is on his way to an addiction clinic in Wickenburg. And the big question that goes along with that is, does Tiger deserve such protection?
 
More than one reporter has brought up the fact lately, that despite being independent contractors, Woods seems to get the kid gloves from Finchem when compared to, say, John Daly. And, yes, that exact question came up Thursday and here’s what Finchem had to say about the insinuation that Tiger’s behavior had smudged the Tour’s guideline for “conduct unbecoming,’’ which is an area that allows the commissioner to level fines or suspensions.

“Historically, the PGA Tour has never, to my knowledge in our history, taken a situation in someone’s personal life and dealt with it from a disciplinary matter or considered it conduct unbecoming as it relates to our regulations,’’ Finchem said, adding quickly: “Our regulations relate to conduct unbecoming that’s either in the public arena or law enforcement arena.’’

OK, so Tiger didn’t hit the fire hydrant with his Escalade at 2:30 in the morning when he was high on Ambien, right? And he didn’t lie to the cops when he said that his distraught wife knocked the back window out of the car – on both sides! – to rescue him, correct? And, well, the hookers and the steroids are just ill-timed rumors as long as they don’t end up in the “law enforcement arena,’’ and so there is no reason to look into them, huh?

Steve Elling noted the Commissioner's often contradictory statements and finds it hard to fathom how golf wasn't damaged by the last three weeks.

Playing defense because of the manifold ties Woods has to the tour product, as well as the game's general health, Finchem came out swinging with his driver, although plenty of the missives missed the mark. Deny and defy it loud enough, brother, and somebody might believe it.

Thanks to Woods, golf news has been almost uniformly brutal for 21 days and counting. He has more alleged mistresses than majors. Porno videos are being shot with Woods' life as the punch line and plotline. He has been linked to a controversial physician who is facing drug charges. Every day brings another hurtful revelation.

Nobody is suggesting that golf will crash and burn because Woods' reputation is tainted or he's gone underground. After all, the tour survived when he missed eight months in 2008-09. But Finchem's insistence on soft-pedaling the impact, to use one of his favorite terms, is just plain counter-intuitive.

Mike Walker had a hard time telling the difference between Finchem's appearances and SNL's sketch.

The silver lining for the Tour is that when Woods comes back, interest in him and the game will be greater than ever. Finchem told Rovell that Woods is not bigger than golf. That's wrong. After what happened these last two weeks, he's bigger than sports. When he comes back, the Tour will have Brangelina on the course 16 weekends a year. Someone ought to be able to sell that.

Jay Busbee summed up the teleconference this way:

Regarding Woods, Finchem pursued an it's-unfortunate-but-let's-give-him-his privacy approach. One wonders what Finchem would have said if it were any other golfer, with the possible exception of Phil Mickelson, who had acted in the same way Tiger Woods apparently has been over the last few years. I'd expect he'd have far harsher words for any other golfer who had, by his own admission, subverted the very "gentleman's code" upon which golf so prides itself.

Just now weighing in on the saga is a once big Tiger fan Gene Wojciechowski, who writes:

How many times will we get burned by corporate -- and, yes, media -- image inventions before we learn?

Mark McGwire … fraud.

Sammy Sosa … fraud.

Barry Bonds … fraud.

Roger Clemens … fraud.

Alex Rodriguez … liar.

I could keep going. The list is as long as a Wrigley Field bathroom line.

Woods is the latest name on the disgraced sports hero time line. His descent is stunning because we never saw it coming. The Ice Man melteth.

I'm not sure Tiger was beloved. He was admired, respected, even feared. We saw his sharp edges but rarely saw the sanded-down parts of his personality. He was in total control -- or so we thought.

In an improvement over his last piece, Huffington Post's Matthew DeBord takes shots at just about everyone in the golf establishment from The Golf Channel to Phil Knight to the National Enquirer to Tim Rosaforte to Dubai, then says this about Tiger:

The game is in no way bigger than Tiger. In fact, Tiger is so immensely, hugely, ginormously larger than mere golf that golf may never recover from this monumental fall from grace. You could go nuts and say that Tiger is golf, except that he's even bigger than that. Tiger, truth be told, is bigger than Tiger. He is, or was, so mega, so money, that he transcended even himself. The complexity of this scandal, the depth of psychological and emotional trauma that must have been and may still be present to enable it, is of Hegelian dimensions. More than a decade of intricately orchestrated deception. Nixon wasn't this good.

Phillip Reid features lengthy comments from Padraig Harrington.

“That’s what amazes me, I thought the guy was, and I’m particularly loath to use the word, but let’s say had a quiet life, went back to his hotel room every night . . . (to) sit in your room for six hours is not a pleasant experience, he couldn’t go out.

“I felt sorry for him in that sense, (because) I could go out (for dinner) every night. I assumed life on tour was real tough (for him). You knew when he was off tour he enjoyed his boat and going fishing and that was the only freedom he ever got.

“I’m amazed by both sides, that if somebody goes down that road you usually can tell, there’s a bravado in it and all that sort of stuff . . . the odd time he’d be in a hotel and you’d see him going getting his ice to have an ice bath for his knee and things like that, you’d see him in the gym, always just incredibly diligent.

“You’d kind of often think (of asking), ‘do you want to go out for dinner?’, and not (ask), think he is trying to do his own thing and trying to be special in that sense. I felt for the fact he was absolutely in a fishbowl, life was tough in that sense.

“The only thing I can give on the whole story is ‘wow’, I was out there on tour with him for 10 years and often Tiger himself has said I’d be (considered) a friend, and I had no idea this was going on in his life . . . a triple life: golf, home and when he was away.”

Bookies are offering some unusual bets.

Bookmaker William Hill is taking bets on just how much Nordegren will get if she decides to divorce the world's No 1 golfer. As the scandal widens with claims of more mistresses, punters can get odds of 25-1 that Nordegren will receive more than half a billion dollars in a divorce settlement. The odds drop to 6-4 for a settlement under $100m. William Hill offer 1-2 that she gets between $100m and $500m. William Hill spokesman Rupert Adams said: "It's largely a bit of fun."

That's nice.

Besides the divorce rumors getting picked up just about everywhere, US featured this about Tiger's current routine:

After those grueling sessions -- which a source describes as the golfer "just apologizing over and over again" -- Woods heads to a nearby course to hit golf balls "to clear his head," another local says. "He goes after dark so he can't be seen. For him, what's more therapeutic than hitting golf balls, the thing he's best at in the whole world?"

And finally, several outlets seem to think Tiger is headed to Meadows Rehabilitation Center, former home to celebrity sex addicts like David Duchovny, and Halle Berry's former hubby, Eric Benet.