Lorne Rubenstein | |
Time for Singh to Sing?
January 11, 2006
Vijay Singh decided not to allow the media to interview him after he missed a nine-foot putt on the first extra hole to lose to Stuart Appleby in the Mercedes Championships.
Maybe he had something more important to do. Maybe he was so mad at himself after shooting an eye-popping 66 on a difficult course during windy conditions that he didn't want to risk saying anything he'd regret. Who knows? He wouldn't say.
Photo © Robert Laberge/Getty Images |
The last Maui saw of Vijay Singh was his missed birdie putt in the playoff. |
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That's wrong.
Paul Arnett, writing from the tournament for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, also felt it was wrong. He wrote, "There was a time when the professional golfer who finished second graciously stepped to the podium to explain how the event got away, much like Ernie Els did last year after losing the Sony Open in Hawaii by one stroke to Vijay Singh."
Arnett added, "But apparently, Singh didn't get the memo."
Singh didn't get the memo at the Honda Classic last year, either.
I wasn't at the Mercedes but I was behind the 18th green when Singh missed a 30’ putt to lose a playoff to Pádraig Harrington. Singh didn't show then, so he left a media room full of unhappy writers.
Well, so what? Why should Singh care about the media?
Meanwhile, it's easy to take a run at him when he leaves us hanging. Editors expect quotes. Writers, and the PGA Tour, expect players to provide them.
Singh did provide a few comments to PGA Tour officials after his round, in the absence of the media. Arnett wrote that officials tried beside the 18th green to get him to the pressroom and tried again in the locker room. No go, Singh said. Or maybe he just shook his head.
He was giving the media the silent treatment and provided only a few cursory comments to officials for their use. No comment, really. No insights, for sure.
The question before the GolfObserver court is this: Should a golfer speak with the media after a round, no matter what he or she shoots, win or lose?
For genuine insight, allow me to call Jim Kaat to the witness stand. Kaat "Kitty to his pals" was a major league pitcher for 25 years. He played in four decades and won 283 games against 237 losses while pitching for the Washington Senators, Minnesota Twins, Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees.
Kaat works now as an announcer, and a superb one, with YES Network. He does Yankees' home games.
That is, he's one of us. One of the media. He's been on both sides and he has his views.
By the way, his book Still Pitching: Musings from the Mound and the Microphone, is really good. It's engaging, it's full of insight, humor and inside baseball stuff. I should add that Kaat is a heck of a golfer who studies the game closely. He handled the mound beautifully and he handles himself on the golf course rather well too.
And that's where I found him a couple of days after the Mercedes, on a course. He was at The Fox Club in Stuart, Florida. Kaat's a member there and he had a few things to say about the subject at hand while he played, launching one towering drive after another.
Photo © Streeter Lecka/Getty Images |
Vijay Singh would rather let his clubs do the talking. |
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"I think athletes need to be accountable," Kaat said when asked what he thought of what Singh did, or didn't do, at the Mercedes. "When the Yankees signed [Johnny] Damon I emailed Gene (Yankees' VP and special advisor Gene Michael) and told him you can ask Damon about anything and he'll talk about it. Ask him about his hair, it doesn't matter, he'll talk."
Kaat was referring to the Yankees having signed the former Boston Red Sox center fielder Damon, long hair and all, last December. Damon had to conform to a Yankees' rule prohibiting such long locks, so he had his haircut. Damon talked about this, and anything else, to the media. He made himself accessible.
"That's the way it should be," Kaat said. "Not every player is like that. You try to talk to Randy Johnson, he'll come up with excuses, maybe, but he doesn't want to talk."
Singh's the exception in golf, although players as a group are more buttoned-down than they were not long ago. They've become masters of the sound bite rather than the conversation. But Singh wouldn't even offer a sound bite after he walked off the 18th green at the Mercedes, at least to the media.
Photo © Streeter Lecka/Getty Images |
Vijay Singh has made it clear he wants what Tiger Woods has but without the headaches such as the media. |
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"Why couldn't Vijay stay there and talk about what happened on the putt he missed?" Kaat wondered. "Golf is just like baseball in that without the media and sponsors, they wouldn't be making the money they are out there."
I wrote about Singh's reluctance to speak with the media in a column after the Honda last March and here I am grappling with the subject again. I'm getting tired of the subject myself, but I really do think the PGA Tour needs to address the problem.
The PGA Tour conducts media training sessions with its rookie class every year. Maybe it should pull in some veterans on an as-needed basis. This is one of those times.
Singh's an independent contractor all right, and he's never had even a decent relationship with the press. That's a shame, because he can be interesting and funny when he does choose to open up.
But he rarely chooses to do that. At the very least, he has to be made aware that writers are trying to do their job at the tournaments he plays. He should speak with them no matter what happens.
Photo © Stephen Munday/Getty Images |
No way you can compare Vijay Singh's disappointment on Sunday to Greg Norman's. |
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It's the right thing to do. Greg Norman is the poster golfer here. He sat down in front of the world's media after shooting 78 in the last round of the 1996 Masters, thereby losing the six-shot lead he had after three rounds. Nick Faldo, with whom he was playing, shot 67 and won. Norman sat there and talked, and bled. Good for him.
As Kaat said, it's a matter of being accountable. Simple as that.
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