Tiger's 5-minute Interview Clippings Vol. 2

Tiger passed up the revolting Tavistock Cup to play Augusta on Monday. Don't ever call him selfish again. This was a great day for golf! You go, Tiger!

Seriously, just think of the world's already-dim view of golf if they saw Tiger wearing a red bowling shirt surrounded by a gallery in similar red and blue shirts, all the while helicoptering into Lake Nona.

Even though he's not there, Jeff Rude says that he's all anyone can talk about on the range.

Jason Sobel talks to Mark O'Meara, who says he tried to talk Tiger into a Tavistock Cup return, but that Tiger just wasn't ready.

Bill Carter of the NY Times explains how CBS was approached and made its decision:

The decision not to interview Mr. Woods was made by Sean McManus, the president of CBS News and Sports, said one senior CBS executive, who added that Mr. McManus informed the CBS chairman, Leslie Moonves, about the decision.

The talks with Mr. Woods’s camp were amicable, another CBS executive said. The CBS executives said they believed they were chosen by the Woods camp for a possible interview — along with the two cable channels — because CBS broadcasts the Masters, the first tournament Mr. Woods will play in his comeback from self-imposed exile from golf.

I have it from a reliable source that NBC was not approached.

Len Shapiro points out that Kelly Tilghman has a major conflict of interest as the voice of EA Sports' Tiger Woods video game.

At the time, Tilghman called Woods, who she described as a good friend, and apologized for her comment, and Woods said he was satisfied with that response. According to the Golf Channel's website biography of Tilghman, she has since appeared as a play-by-place voice on Woods's highly popular video games, Tiger Woods PGA Tour '09 and '10, produced by EA Sports, one of his main sponsors.

Journalism 101 tells you that friends really should not be interviewing friends, or that broadcasters performing as journalists should not be handling interviews with people with whom they have a business relationship. Then again, the Golf Channel's journalistic standards often have been laughable, and while Tilghman did ask some of the obvious semi-tough questions, another choice of interviewers -- perhaps Jim Gray or Scott Walker, among others on the network's roster -- would have been far more appropriate.

Jason Whitlock thinks ESPN should have pulled a CBS and told Tiger no.

Of course, I blame ESPN more than the Golf Channel, which doesn’t pretend to be an instrument of journalism. ESPN could’ve easily taken the journalistic high road and published a story about Woods and his handlers’ manipulation of the news.

Instead, the Associated Press broke the story of ESPN’s interview and the details of the confidential agreement that delivered Woods to TV on Sunday.

It was a brilliant move by Woods, my favorite athlete. It’s exactly what I would’ve done in his situation.

Speaking as a journalist -- not as a Woods fan -- Tiger’s ploy is another sign that he’s intent on changing nothing about the way he tightly controls his public image. He’s going to ration out the bits and pieces he wants us to see.

Mike Lupica dropped this in his criticism of Woods, though it's the first time I've read about a possible Oprah interview:

Before Woods' statement in February, his handlers at IMG tried to get him to sit down with Oprah Winfrey and Woods reportedly declined. So he reads his statement in front of the blue drapes that day and in front of his mother and some friends, and a month later, he decides to continue the buildup to his return to golf with ESPN and with The Golf Channel.

Both Rinaldi and Tilghman did as good as you can in the five minutes that Woods allowed them. Why could he tell them how long and when they could air it? Because the new Tiger Woods has at least some of the arrogance of the old one, despite the Buddhist bracelet he showed off to Ms. Tilghman.

Martin Dempster notes the timing of the interviews was just not stellar, and one more of these little poorly timed breakout sessions will not reflect well on Tiger or the Commissioner.

In one of his interviews, Tiger said he wasn't sure about how his schedule would pan out after the Masters. If he could get away with it, I reckon he would play in the four majors this year and nothing else. That, though, would really be taking the mickey out of the game and, in particular, Mr Finchem.