ok, he had a freaking broken leg when he was at the u.s. hmmm, seemed to get around a bit after that. shoot even finished the tourney. last i checked he won.
so a broken leg and fauxed up knee while in contention - i’ll fight through it.
crap. my neck is sore and barely made the cut and am totally out of it - i quit.
Given that you don’t know he would have battled through it in the past, I don’t see the problem. It’s not the first time he withdrew from a tournament.
I think golf is boring as hell, so I don’t play. (Now, minature golf, there’s a game worth playing.) I do sometimes pay attention to Tiger Woods because I respect him as an athlete.
Generally, if I am not feeling good, I don’t play golf. I can’t say I’ve ever been injured on the golf course, either. I’ve walked off a few courses because I didn’t want to play a 6 hour round. Am I a quitter? Should I have struggled through the adversity to shoot my 86 and go home proud?
I think this “you have to be tough and play every hole like your manhood depends on it” is a bunch of macho BS.
The only time I’ll criticize someone for walking off the golf course is if they are a complete and total irresponsible disaster (like Daly and his fondness for the drink getting in the way of his career) or if they are pretty clearly manipulating the rules for some reason (like how Michelle Wie a couple years ago withdrew rather than taking an 85 or something that would endanger her sponsor exemptions, how however that rule worked). If someone doesn’t have a history of being a malingerer, I’ll take them at their word if they believe they are injured.
TW is having a press conference at 2 pm et. My guess that he will be taking another indefinite hiatus from the game to recuperate.
Yesterday, he said that his neck has been bothering him for a month. If so, I cannot believe he has not already seen a doctor, with x-rays and MRIS etc.
I wonder if he could have played if he hadn’t gone to rehab for vicodin addiction. oops.
and guys, i totally agree with what you are saying.
plenty of times i haven’t felt good enough for a round. shoot even going to the range and going “nope this is not going to work”. but when i tee it up on 1 i think the expectation is that i am going to be holing it out on 18 and post a score, whether i like it or not.
tiger is the best golfer since nicklaus or watson. but his disdain for the game that has made him richer than all of us combined is troubling. that’s all i am saying. when i tee it up with anyone i expect a certain level of conduct. and if you quit mid stream because i am hammering you that does not lead to a lot of respect.
And I think interpreting one withdrawal as “disdain” is overblown to the point of being totally ridiculous.
through his carefully crafted vague and ambiguous statements in the last 3 months, he has admitted his disdain for golf.
That is my opinion and YMMV.
and as you have previously indicated you don’t play this game a lot.
there is a certain respect that all “true” golfers have for the endeavor. to quit in the middle of a round is total nonsense. this “endeavor” has made him richer that sin. the fact that he lames it up is pure flackery.
it’s the seventh game of the alcs but boston has decided that they are tired and a little sore. they therfore, quit. yankees win the pennant. yankees win the pennant.
btw, this is a freaking hoot.
Cite, please.
Bad example. Pitchers get pulled from games ALL THE FREAKIN’ TIME.
And for the umpteenth time, Tiger was not in contention, he was not in the 7th game of the ALCS. If you are going to use metaphors, at least make them accurate.
Are you familiar with the concept of cascading injuries? An athlete has a relatively minor injury and chooses to play through it, but in doing so he has to change his mechanics to avoid stressing the injury, which means he’s now putting a lot of extra stress on parts of his body which are unaccustomed to it, and in a manner in which he doesn’t have a lot of experience, thus greatly elevating the risk of new injuries (in addition, naturally, to the risk of aggravating the old injury). This happens all the time in other sports, and I don’t see why the same wouldn’t be true in golf.
So you make a risk/reward calculation: leading the U.S. open? Then the possible reward is worth the risk of additional injury. Barely made the cut at a non-major? Then both the athlete in question and the sport of golf in general are better off avoiding that risk. Holding an absolutist position here leads to all sorts of wacky conclusions in golf and other sports. If every time an athlete could plausibly play through an injury he did, we’d all be watching a lot more games featuring backups and scrubs. Sometimes the way to maximize your time on the field is to come off it.
Yes. On the other hand, I do follow tennis, where withdrawals are an even bigger issue. So I think I know a legit withdrawal when I see one, and can recognize a pattern of behavior and “disdain” for the sport. This appears to be none of those things. Essentially you’re criticizing him because there’s an opportunity to do so. Did you call him a quitter who disdained the sport when he withdrew from the Nissan Open in 2006? He had the flu and withdrew after the second round when he didn’t have a chance to win.
To use the famous “bloody sock game,” as an example, yes, when a championship is on the line, you want Curt Schilling to suck it up and play hard, even if he’s hurt.
But if the Red Sox were trailing the Yankees 10-2 in the middle of the 7th inning of a regular season game, would you be yelling for an injured Curt Schilling to “be a man” and complete the game?
I suspect you’d WANT Terry Francona to take Schilling out, reasoning that this game is lost, and your best bet is to keep Schilling healthy for later.
Tiger wasn’t in contention last weekedn, at the time that he pulled out. He showed up, he did his best, and he says his body just wasn’t up to the task. His playing partners seem to confirm that Tiger was in a lot of pain. If so, it doesn’t seem unreasonable to pull out.
did you miss the part where I said this is my opinion and YMMV?
It’s apples and oranges. Sure, he stuck it out because he had a chance to win. But he also had to miss the Open and the PGA, and the rest of the season. Why risk that again, now, when he had little chance of winning a non-major.
There are times when it makes sense to stick it out, and times when it doesn’t. In fact, Tiger may very well realize that he made a mistake at the US Open. He got one major, but missed out on any chance at 2 others.
If you can’t see the difference, then there is no reasoning with you on this issue.
It’s more like the last game of the regular season before the playoffs start, the Colts already have their playoff seed wrapped up and Peyton Manning has a bit of a gimpy ankle, so they sit him so he can rest it for the postseason.
The Majors are the playoffs. This is not a major.
It is your opinion that Tiger Woods said something that made you doubt his interest in golf, and you can’t even tell me what he said?
I am talking about his 13 minute statement back in February, his 5 minute chat on ESPN with Rinaldi and his 5 minute chat on TGC with Tilghman.
I read between the lines on what he did say (and the parts that he conveniently left out).
Even the fact that he had the February chat right in the middle of a big tournament on the PGA Tour schedule.
sorry john i don’t see the difference. when i have that four footer on 18 it doesn’t matter, to me, whether it is for 82 or 69. i’m going to do my darndest to make the sucker. quitting is what quitting is. certainly you can justify it in all sorts of scenarios but having played golf for over 40 years it’s a slap in the face to the game to limp out just because you are sucking that day, tourney or whatever.
and coming from someone who is supposedly the “best ever” it really looks smarmy. hey, when things are cool (the open, the masters) i’ll battle through it. oh fuck, noes, some effort is required and i probably won’t win. i quit. that’s not cool.