2010 Masters, Wednesday (Tiger) Clippings

Other than his cell phone flap and shocking fans by posing for photos in addition to signing autographs (take that Phil!), Tiger made little news Tuesday. Most of the filings still related in some form to Monday's press conference, starting with Steve Keating on players being asked questions despite Tiger's plea to make them stop.

Lawrence Donegan shares these introspective remarks from Padraig Harrington:

"I think that everyone found him difficult to know," he said. "Tiger has always struggled to mix with the players purely because anywhere he goes people want things from him. I've even seen players asking him to sign this or sign that. Over the years it builds up. I would say that, not including rain delays, he would use one out of 10 locker rooms. It gets to the stage where he can't say to players, 'Hey, do you want to go for dinner?'

"In many ways for your own balance and for your own life, when you get off the golf course you just have to get away from the golf. If you just go straight back to your hotel, you become a prisoner in your hotel room and you are going to find trouble."

Brian Keough lists Tiger's unanswered questions.

Doug Ferguson is skeptical of the new, less emotional Tiger.

Picture this.

Woods has a chip from behind the 16th green late Sunday afternoon at Augusta National with a one-shot lead. The ball scoots up the slope, then trickles to the hole and stops on the edge before dramatically dropping for a birdie as the crowd goes crazy.

Woods tips his cap, nods to the gallery and walks to the next tee.

Right.

Tim Dahlberg can't believe what he's seeing with the new Tiger.

He's the kind of guy Tiger Woods wants to be.

Devoted husband. Family man. Smiling. Generous. Friendly.

Nothing more profane than a "darn" coming out of his mouth.

The kind of guy you wouldn't mind seeing your sister date.

The guy you laugh with your buddies about in the locker room because he's out signing autographs by the hundreds while you're taking a steam.

The guy whose life suddenly looks so good now that yours has gone so bad.

So, Tiger, tell us.

Who's the phony now?

Rick Reilly wonders if Tiger the addict will be as good a golfer without his uh, pursuits on the side.

Look, worldwide humiliation and the fear of losing your family will change a man. I hope Woods really does believe it's about the way you live your life and not about championships. But what if the very traits that left him in the TMZ gutter -- self-obsession, a limitless appetite for domination, me-first-ism to the extreme -- are the same traits that delivered those championships?

I hope not, but you wonder. We don't usually build statues of nice, helpful, well-balanced men.

Rich Lerner says Tiger fatigue has set in and everyone's tired of talking about it. He then gets a column out of various Tiger observations, including Ambien, the end to the Tiger saga (barring a bombshell, blonde or otherwise) and a Tiger goatee prediction.

After watching the second practice round, Ronnie Sirak thinks Tiger's in it this week to win.

On Monday, Woods seemed to be playing merely to get on with his life. On Tuesday, he was playing to win. And while it is difficult to imagine that Woods can put aside the events of the last five months and focus on golf fully enough to take home a green jacket this year, we have seen him pull off the impossible before.

Jay Mariotti offered this review of Monday's press chat:

His objective Monday was to sell the concept that he's a completely different person after a 45-day rehab, meditation, counseling and renewed Buddhism. Yet when asked why specifically he was in treatment, Woods couldn't bring himself to respond. "That's personal, thank you,'' he said. Uh, before he can move on and we can move on, he must be forthright about the basic facts of his mess. If he can't do that, his credibility on all topics will remain dubious, and the National Enquirer and TMZ types lined up like vultures on Washington Road will continue to haunt him and his family and bombard our senses with tawdry details.

And finally, Jim Frank evaluates the media:

While I think the golf press corps could have done a better job chipping away at Tiger — read the transcript and you’ll see they asked some pretty good questions — I understand why they didn’t do more. We aren’t investigative reporters, unless you consider asking a player what club he hit into 15 an investigation. Most of what we do is reactive, reacting to the ebb and flow of a tournament, analyzing revisions to a golf course, profiling a hot player. One of the reasons we love golf is that we haven’t had to be proactive. The game has always been relatively trouble-free: No steroids (well, not much), no cheating (well, very little), with a strong connection to real people, like ourselves, who play the game.

Everything that made the Tiger story so shocking and so riveting to the outside world the last five months—scandal, sex, drugs—are things golf writers don’t usually write about. A fact Team Tiger, Augusta National, and anyone else who had a hand in planning yesterday’s press conference was counting on.