What We Learned From The Tiger-Brandel Showdown

Grantland's Shane Ryan calls the Tiger-Brandel brouhaha the "dumbest story of the year," yet puts together a super primer on the episode.

While Ryan says the whole affair suggests "Tiger is basically a jerk," I think it's a lot more complicated and significant than that to merely write off as the doings of an angry World No. 1.

Tiger had the right to be mad about the cheating analogy invoked by Chamblee, and Brandel was well within his rights to suggest Tiger has been cavalier with the rules based on the episodes of 2013.

But there was this overall assessment of Tiger by Ryan that may explain why Woods struggles to regain blue-chip sponsors, at least in the eyes of some:

He's unbelievably dynamic on the course, to the point that we root for him against our own better judgment, but his arrogance is boundless. In this case, he really believes Chamblee should be fired by the Golf Channel for a single dumb comment, and he has no problem using his own status to pressure them into it. And sure, it would suck to be called a cheater, especially when it wasn't true. But the way he behaves gives you a pretty gross feeling, doesn't it? Why is the greatest golfer on the planet so thin-skinned? Why doesn't he react with Jordan-esque ferocity instead of backbiting? I'd rather see him get angry. I'd rather see him blow up and wrestle Chamblee in a sand trap. Or break down and cry on TV. Anything human, please. Anything but these passive-aggressive power plays masquerading as "high ground."