Stat profiles for 1500 golfers
Despite the weird way that the Florida Highway Patrol reported that Tiger didn't receive any facial wounds, will the saga die down as the new year knocks on our door?
After 30 plus years of reporting news, either on television or magazine or the internet, I am completely mystified at the way this Tiger Woods story has gone down. The last week has seen a lot of drama, from the screwup by Furman Bisher to the puzzling release of information on a secret meeting by a member of the Florida Highway Patrol. What a way to end 2009 - hopefully this saga will finally die down in the New Year.
Last night a very credible news organization, WESH Channel Two in Orlando, came out with an exclusive report from Bob Kealing, that the Florida Highway Patrol met secretly with Tiger Woods and his attorney Mark NeJame to give Woods his traffic ticket for careless driving. According to a story on WESH's website, FHP spokesperson Kim Montes gave the station an "exclusive" story on the December 1st meeting, and Montes reported that the two officers that met with Woods noted that he only had "a fat lip" and, more importantly, no other facial injuries.
WESH not only did a internet report, but also posted a video on their website had in which reporter Kealing , tells us what Montes says. Of course everything was great for WESH, as it has now been verified that they had a great scoop. An hour after they put the story on their website, the story was in hundreds of publications, all of them just taking the news as being a hundred percent accurate and running it.
Now in this case, it was 100% accurate. But as we all know, news organizations in their haste have been "duped" by not checking things out because of deadlines, trust in sources and plain laziness. I spent hours on Wednesday and most of my morning on Thursday trying to verify it. Finally, at 1pm on Thursday, I got the FHP chief public affairs officer, Mark Welch, to verify the December 1st meeting in this statement:
FHP statement:
We can confirm that, as previously reported, officers from the Florida Highway Patrol met with Mr. Woods on Dec. 1, 2009, to issue a citation for careless driving. Woods was polite and only said, “Yes Sir.” He made no other statements. The only injury that troopers observed was a bump and cut on his lip, which was consistent with the crash investigation. The Florida Highway Patrol will not comment further on this matter.
Still this brings up some very interesting questions, ones that I asked Welch to answer, but he has not gotten back to me (it IS New Years eve), and I feel that based on the statement above he isn't commenting on this matter any more.
First, why did the FHP say in a December 1st press conference that the case was closed and not report the secert meeting with Woods?
Second, why now, a month later, did the FHP reveal the story? Why did it take a month to tell the world? It would have eliminated much speculation on this subject. Isn't this supposed to be "public knowledge", or was this kept quiet to protect Woods and family? Or could a deal have been made with Woods to protect his privacy?
Third, with all of the rumors flying around in this case, why did Ms. Montes tell just one organzation, plus do it during her leave from office so that other organizations could not verify the report? In a way, by Montes telling just one organization and not everyone else it was like if President Obama told Katie Couric from CBS that he bombed Iraq without informing NBC, ABC, Fox or CNN. (Maybe that senerio is way too farfetched, but you get my point).
This highlights the problem with the whole Tiger Woods saga. In trying to protect Woods privacy, errors are being made by everyone, fanning the flames and making things worse. Just think how much easier this story would have been if the FHP had just released a statement about the December 1st meeting. There would have been zero gossip on injuries to Woods' face. Frankly, Mr. Welch of the FHP should use this opportunity to devise a better course of action for future celebrity problems.
But the big thing that I can never understand is why can't people and organizations just come out and tell the truth on this? Why can't Tiger Woods just come out and tell us the truth instead of well phrased web pages? Why can't Mark Stenberg just come out and tell us the truth instead of ignoring emails? In a way truthful, forthright answers would be better served than hiding behind a big scam. I care very much for Tiger Woods' privacy, but I also care about doing the right thing. Woods has let not only his family down but also the sponsors that gave him millions of dollars and could lose millions of dollars over this. Haven't people learned the lesson to not try to cover up such things after Watergate or Bill Clinton's sexcapade? I guess that when you see how little folks like Clinton have suffered for his faults, it's easy to see why this Tiger Woods saga has been handled this way. Frankly the power of sleazy organizations like National Enquirer, TMZ, RadarOnline and such flourish over people that try cover up "transgressions" and I can only see them growing bigger and bigger because of things like the Tiger Woods scandal.
In sum, there are two ways we can look at this. Basically this police report eliminates the reason that Woods has been undercover the last month, possible injury. It also brings up the question again why Woods has not told us publicly all of his "transgressions" So will the public and his sponsors look at Woods as being totally callous or cowardly over this affair? Or does Tiger even owe the public and his sponsors reason for his actions? Tiger never broke any laws, he never did anything wrong on a golf course which is his place of business, he never did broke any rules and regulations of the PGA Tour. This can be debated for years to come.
I guess that we still have to give Tiger the benefit of doubt. that he could be so distraught over what has happened that he can't even function. We all have experienced bad things in our life in which things race a zillion miles a minute sometimes making decisions impossible. I have to think that for Woods this could be the case right now and only time can make him function normally again. But as we end 2009 with this story and try to look forward to 2010, we wonder if the story will get any worse. Just as with Watergate in the summer of 1974, this story gets more complex by the hour. Hard core fans are now feeling deceived by Woods and are giving up, even to the point that if he wins a dozen more majors his fan base will be so ticked over this affair that they won't care anymore.
Today AT&T dropped their involvement with Woods joining a list of other companies that for the moment don't want to be associated with Woods. Making it even more uglier, Woods won't even be the host of his own AT&T event in 2010 as PGA Tour spokesman Ty Votaw said to Associated Press, since Woods is on indefinite leave from professional golf, he will not serve as host for the 2010 event. That's PGA Tour code to Woods that he has been dumped.
I would love to be a fly on the wall in Phil Knight's office in Nike headquarters as he ponders this. Just have to wonder if he has second thoughts on sticking by Woods, because in the long run business is business, and the thought of Woods being your spokesperson today is a lot like imagining John Edwards today running for president in 2012. I was in a local golf store in Northern Virginia and all Tiger Woods apparel was 30% off and the quote from the salesperson on how it was selling was "Nobody is buying the cheaters crap".
Who knows what the future will be; could Woods be the next Greta Garbo, who was left with nothing but memories as she became a prisoner in a New York apartment for over 30 years because of her many fears and phobias over fans and media? I hope not, but Woods still has to face the music of this scandal in the court of public opinion. On the day that he makes his first start, what will the reaction be? I first thought that Woods would be back in March or at the Masters. I have to think it's going to be a lot longer and it wouldn't be surprising to me if he didn't play at all in 2010. But just like with death and taxes this story will die and go away. But the biggest question will be, will time heal all of the wounds not only for Woods fans but for Woods himself?
I like many others look forward to 2010 and hope that we will be reporting more on what is happening at tour stops during the year than the newest Tiger Woods rumor. As for all of you happy New Year and hopefully we can all put the ending of 2009 in our rear view mirrors and look forward to some great golf in the coming new decade.
1 comment
Dave --- Jan 1st, 2010 08:02 am
| The view of the store clerk is correct... You may think badly of TMZ and others, but guess what Sal, they were the ones to break the coverage.. Leave it to you and most of the golf writers, we would never have heard anything.. Your responsibility is to the game not the golfers... Don't bury your head in the sand like the baseball writers did with McGuire... AT&T sees this as well as many others. Woods is radioactive and if half of what we read is true he is also destructive.. To himself, his family, and the great sport of Golf... |
