Tiger Statement Reading Slipped In To Coincide With Rehab Schedule, Photo Opp Shoots
/It seems Tim Finchem was much better informed Thursday than he was Wednesday about Tiger's reasons for hosting a TPC Sawgrass reading. Which is odd, considering Sean Martin's report that "the announcement has been in the works for some time" and the TPC Sawgrass room was "reserved late last week."
Anyway, the well-compensated Commish went from not knowing anything and not making assumptions to sending out a letter to PGA Tour players. Doug Ferguson writes about the Finchem letter to players, and quotes the Commish:
“As we understand it, Tiger’s therapy called for a week’s break at this time during which he has spent a few days with his children and then will make his statement before returning,” Finchem said in a letter Thursday. “Accordingly, there was very little flexibility in the date for the announcement.”
The letter also included this funny bit:
The PGA Tour made available its sprawling, Mediterranean-styled clubhouse for the announcement, and is helping set up adjacent ballrooms at the nearby Sawgrass Marriott for media, where they can watch Woods on closed-circuit TV.
Finchem said in the letter that Woods’ management asked for the facilities, and “we agreed as we would for any member of the PGA Tour.”
John Daly, Jim Thorpe, did you see that?
Meanwhile ESPN.com posts this interview with Finchem where he says people are looking for "a genuine interface" from Tiger's statement-reading and that his fellow players are now more forgiving of the lousy timing after it is explained to them that this is part of his rehab schedule. The video:
Hopefully SI's Anonymous PGA Tour Pro got the Finchem letter, because based on what he had initially heard, he texted this to Gary Van Sickle: "Tiger is a selfish prick. Nothing's changed."
A bit more info came out suggesting that Accenture signed off on this, but did they really have a choice in the matter? Rex Hoggard reports:
Steinberg also called Accenture – which dropped its endorsement deal with Woods on Dec. 13 – shortly before Wednesday’s announcement to inform officials they had intentionally scheduled the news conference outside the television window for third-round play.
“(Steinberg) spoke with CMO Roxanne Taylor,” said Fred Hawrysh, director of corporate communication for Accenture. “It wasn’t a long conversation and he just called to give us a heads up and let us know the timing was set not to overlap with the event.”
That's a no, they didn't have a choice in the matter.
Doug Ferguson reports on preparations for the "event," with the big three networks carrying the statement live along with ESPN, PGATOUR.com, YouTube (here) and Golf Channel. He also notes:
A British bookmaker has set odds at 4-to-7 that Woods' wife, Elin, will be with him. William Hill didn't stop there, however. It offers 8-to-1 odds that Woods will announce he is getting a divorce, 12-to-1 odds that his wife is pregnant and 100-to-1 odds that he is retiring.
Garry Smits reports that tension was in the air Thursday at TPC Sawgrass. And it was only Thursday!
Win McMurry explains how security has changed from the normal setup.
That is not the case this week. While bar-coded stickers still grant access through the initial gate to those who have them, there is now security in what seems like every 100 yards to protect every entrance to the TPC Sawgrass clubhouse and Tour offices, a Tour employee said. Now once through the initial security gate, in order to turn into the drive toward the clubhouse and offices, you now must show your official credential and employees must wear their credentials to report to work. If you’re a guest on the property, you also must show identification and you must be on a list. The guard gate has a list of those with already booked tee times since there will still be play at TPC Sawgrass’ Players Stadium and Dye’s Valley courses.
Richard Sandomir poses the essential question about this statement reading:
In speaking to an assembled group of friends, colleagues and associates, Woods will apologize to those “whom Tiger feels he owes a direct and personal apology,” Glenn Greenspan, his spokesman, said Thursday.
But if they all deserved an apology, shouldn’t they have gotten one from him privately, rather than on TV?
Oops.
Now, as the Commissioner makes it sound like Tiger generously slipped this statement-reading into a tight babysitting and rehab schedule, Tiger was able to find time for a second day of supremely lame photo-ops designed to devalue paparazzi images because he hates nothing more than anyone making money off his back being photographed in less-than-flattering light.
Of course, this little stunt does nothing to get the paparazzi off the Elin/Sam/Charlie beat, but is that really important? Obviously not.
Anyway, here are the Getty images, courtesy of Stephanie Wei, though the TMZ shots of the staging scene are far more fun. And uh, what's with the front left tooth? Is that just the light hitting it in an odd way? And by the way, what is he smiling about? There's nothing funny about any of this.
At least the New York Times wasn't fooled, calling the image a "Pool photo by Sam Greenwood."
Even better, they chose not to crop Tiger out of the image identifying him, as the Wall Street Journal did in some editions Thursday:
According to TMZ, the Tiger in question is Corey Carroll, the 23-year-old golfer Tiger has been mentoring for a few years. And now apparently enlisting for his photo opps. Lucky guy!
And speaking of Elin, Radar says Tiger is desperately trying to change her mind about attending Friday's event. Because it's all about what The Kid wants.
