Rory Riffs On Tiger; Where Was Chubby's Red Pen?

Okay, we're not in Stephen Ames territory quite yet, but you do have to wonder what Rory McIlroy thinks there is to gain from these comments about Tiger in a self-bylined golf.com item that appears in this week's SI Golf Plus special issue.

I wasn't playing against Tiger Woods when he had that aura. I was watching on TV! I remember getting nervous when I first met him. I was 15. There was a presence about him. There still is to some extent, but when you're on the golf course you simply block it out. But Tiger is not playing as well as he was even a couple of years ago, never mind going back to the late 1990s and early 2000s, when he was at his best. I'm not sure we are going to see him dominate again the way he did. He never seemed like he would make a mistake.

Okay, that was edgy but at least that's the...oh there's more.

It's not that he's playing badly. He's simply playing badly by Tiger's standards. He's playing like an ordinary golfer. People expect more of him because of what he has achieved. As much as I would love to have the success that Tiger has had on the golf course, I wouldn't want to live his life. He has made the same mistakes as any footballer, or NBA or NFL player. Tiger is obviously different from the rest of us because he is a bit of a rock star. But he can't really take his kids to the cinema. It's a tough life because of what he has done and what he represents, being the first African-American golfer to break down the barriers.

Why didn't Rory's ten-percenter, Chubby Chandler, turn into Ben Bradlee on this one? Or do they just not ever anticipate having to face Tiger in contention anymore and enjoy beating the lad while he's down?

Or...maybe this was just a ploy to bury the real lede: Rory writing that The Players has lost its luster moving to May!