Like I said, it’s subtle. Sometimes it feels like a damning with faint praise kind of thing.
But isn’t calling that “highest praise” merely editorializing? Couldn’t the writer just as well have written: “The biggest bet hedging of all comes from Jack… etc,”. Or even: “From Jack, we have a begrudging acknowledgment of the obvious…etc.”?
Let’s face it, this is how golf coverage works now. It’s all about THE big names, and hardly anyone else gets the time of day. (Quick, who won the John Deere Classic?) I can’t really begrudge Nicklaus, as this is probably the last time anyone will hear from him again with Tigerfreakingmania 2 on the horizon.
And I’m astonished that everyone here seems to take it for granted that Tiger’s going to break the record. It’s possible, yes, but trust me, it’s going to be the challenge of his life. He’s stumbled down the stretch many, many times, including the most recent U.S. Open (and very nearly blew the Masters as well). It may be tough to admit, but he does screw up. Now, imagine when he’s at 15 or 16, age starting to catch up to him, no longer able to simply muscle his way out of heavy roughs or bunkers…and on top of that, pressure like you wouldn’t believe. Hey man, if he actually gets his 18th, much less 19th, yeah, I’ll gladly call him the greatest golfer ever, but it’s incredibly naieve to call it a lock.
But y’know, this kind of coverage is only to be expected, as there isn’t anybody at the moment who’s an enormous superstar. Vijay Singh sometimes dominates, but he’s just as apt to collapse early, Phil Mickelson seems to have reverted to feast-and-famine mode, David Duval…sheesh, what the heck happened to him? Week after week, the winners and even 2nd-placers are largely interchangable. Yeah, Annika Storenstam is lapping the field in the LPGA, but when do you ever hear about that? At the moment, the sport of golf has two names being plugged to the moon, and I’ll take that over one any day.
“Hedging”…sheesh. If I held a record and the consensus was that it was absolutely guaranteed to get broken, I’d do a helluva lot more than that, lemme tell ya.
Doesn’t matter. What part of “I would be very surprised if he doesn’t break my records” do you not understand? Those are Jack’s words, w/o editorializing. It’s very clear that Jack expects Tiger to end up being the better golfer.
Diogenes the Cynic and Liberal in agreement? I must be getting whooshed here. I think it must be here: I heard that the bastard has refused a spot in the honorary tee-offs at Augusta. What sort of piss ant personality does it take to snub the legends of the game while pretending that he still has a chance to win anything? Oh nevermind. That would be he.
So, we are wasting airtime watching an over-the-hill golfer with no chance of making the cut (psst. he missed it by three shots), but he isn’t going to show up at the Masters to be a ceremonial over-the-hill golfer with no chance of making the cut?
You picked the wrong time to complain about Jack (and Tiger). The best ever is playing his last Open and his heir apparant is leading by 4 shots. Jack is going to be on the frickin’ 5 pound note in Scotland!
The same whiners who couldn’t deal with Arnie being deposed in the 60’s by Jack are replaced by the whiners who can’t deal with Tiger’s dominance these days. Golf is an individual sport - win or lose, it is all on your own shoulders. Win or lose, it is your own fault.
If this was the first time I had to endure a “farewell” round from Nicklaus, I probably wouldn’t have complained, but it seems like this has been going on for like two years. There isn’t a tournament anywhere that Jack doesn’t have to show up at and announce it’s his last time playing the Iowa Annual Corn Festival Putt-Putt Open or something and then he sucks up all the attention and makes the dramatic walks down the 18th fairway, and the rubes give the ovations and the announcers tear up. I’ve had enough trips down memory lane with this guy. I 'm good. I don’t need to see the old clips of him throwing his club in the air anymore. He’s just milking it at this point. He’s an attention whore. I wouldn’t put it past him to show up tomorrow,
What other sport has as many old fogeys that actually play?
I agree with your rant, but the logic is there: golf, more than most other sports, is one played into old age. So it’s not surprising that the coverage concentrates on past it old guys.
The coverage we get of the Open (ESPN) is first-class. If Tiger’s done for the day - as on Thurday, when he went out early - you see the players who are actually playing. No endless replays of Tiger (or Jack or whoever). It’s a bit different with the Masters, where European tour players have to be leading to get decent coverage.
Leaving out here, I’m terrified if the Wie girl actually wins anything. It’ll be wall-to-wall Wie. Last night they had a little advertising featurette on her, and as the voiceover went “Michelle faces stiff competition in her quest for the top”, there was a brief still of Annika Sorenstam (winner of x Majors) and head and shoulders above the other women players.
They have tournaments for that now???
That was good.
Combine that with “I don’t want the honorary tee at the Masters” (the place for emeritus golfer to take a prolonged fairwell tour, until the roll you up in a wheelchair and you tee off with the same stroke my five year old daughter uses) and you have a guy that doesn’t seem to be respecting the traditions or other players in the game. Though to give him the benefit of the doubt, he isn’t holding a gun to the heads of the broadcasters and saying “me, me, its all about me!”
I don’t think Tiger will be eclipsed gracefully in private - too damn competitive. I suspect however, he will be very graceful about it publicly.
The thing you have to understand is that each major has it’s own history, it’s own traditions. Given Jack’s unequaled record at the majors, it is a big deal when he plays each one for the last time. Add to that his own tournament (the Memorial), and there are a lot of goodbyes to be had. If you want to rag on a golfer, how about Monty or Vijay? And I certainly agree that the media turns the whole farewell aspect into a circus. But… ragging on Jack? You don’t know if golf you’re ragging on Jack.
Arrrrgh!! You don’t know golf if you’re ragging on Jack.
And if you don’t want to watch Joe Buck fellate Derek Jeter, you don’t know anything about baseball. And if you don’t want to watch Terry Bradshaw grab his heels and take every inch of Brett Favre, you don’t know anything about football. Christ, there’s no middle fucking ground here. Either love every minute of the wretchedly sentimental coverage of the media darlings, or admit complete ignorance of the sport. So it has been deemed. Now excuse me while I turn to Fox so I can enjoy yet another special, special Yankee-RedSox game, since it is impossible to care about baseball and not live for those games we can only see on national television every other week during the season.
Golf coverage can drive you mad. I’m a big Mike Weir fan, since I’m a Canadian (and also because he’s a really cool guy). He’s totally in the tank right now, but a couple of years ago he was one of the top five golfers in the world. It would be totally frustrating to be watching a tournament where Weir is 2 shots back from the lead, and Tiger is 8 shots back, and the coverage is all Tiger, all the time. We’re watching Tiger hole after hole, with the commentators going, “Well Bob, he needs six straight birdies and at least one eagle to stay in contention, but he can do it!”. In the mean time, they’ve gone four or five holes without showing Weir at ALL, even though now he’s only one shot back from the lead and he’s birdied two holes in a row… And we never got to see any of them, because it was much more important to show Tiger Woods putt for a routine par.
Don’t get me wrong - I like Tiger. A lot. Both as a player and as a person. But when your favorite guy is playing the golf of his life, and the coverage is focused on a guy back in the pack playing average golf, it’s very annoying.
Nope. I said the media goes overboard, but you can’t blame the players for that. Nicklaus is unquestionably the best golfer that ever played the game. One day Tiger will most likely supplant him, but until that happens, it’s still Jack.
“Everybody’s got Bob McNamara’s ulcer except Bob McNamara.” — George Ball
I disagree that Tiger isn’t already the best ever. He’s closing in on his 10th major at 30 years of age. Jack didn’t do that. Jack never won four in a row either. Tiger is longer than Jack ever was and is a better putter. His skills right now are better than Jack’s in his prime. Unless Tiger gets hit by a train, he’ll get past 18 easy.
And to some extent, its hard to compare players. Best has a lot of attributes. Jack has been very good. Arnie was better loved. Bobby Jones. Gary Player. Francis Ouimet, Ben Hogan. Different eras, different players.
Not to worry, the crowds on the PGA Tour do that job already.
I won’t dispute any of that, except to note that "Tiger is longer than Jack"doesn’t mean much given the differences in equipment. I’m not sure there’s a good way to compare, other than looking at the their relative standings in driving distance at comparable ages. Besides, “long hitter” is not the same as “the best all round”. Frankly, the statistic I’d look at as being the most meaningful is most cuts made in a row. Tiger blows EVERYONE away on that. The difference betweeing winning and 2nd place often comes down to 1 stroke. But making the cut week after week after week like Tiger did in his last run is simply mind-blowing.
The thing that makes Jack great is that he was so good for such a long time. Maybe Tiger is, at this moment, a better player than Jack was in his prime, but that’s a different metric. And I’ll certainly say that if Tiger does beat Jack’s record of major wins, it will be a significantly greater achievement, given the greater depth in the field today than there was 30-40 years ago.