Woods: "Not a Big Deal"

How perfect was "family man" Phil Mickelson winning The Masters over the "less than family man" Tiger Woods on Sunday? It fit, and it was too bad the media didn't realize it until Mickelson started to pull away on the back 9, because that should have been a "What If" story that could have been all over ESPN family of networks in the previous week.

"What if Phil Mickelson, who's mom and wife are both diagnosed with breast cancer, wins The Masters over the the biggest story in the world, Tiger Woods'return after having affairs with Pancake-House waitresses?"

But I'm not going to talk about Mickelson's touching win for his family and the way he torched the competition down the stretch making "big boy" shot after "big boy" shot, while everyone else was missing putts and greens on the back 9.

What irks me as a fan of golf is the criticism that Woods is taking for his less than professional on-course behavior, which he said he would clean up. As the final round of The Masters got more down to business, so did Woods, and so did his attitude. He wasn't chucking clubs by any means, but him shouting after a bad shot and letting go of clubs after a miss-hit has caused him to receive some heat for those actions, which he had previously promised to improve.


"People are making way too much of a big deal of this," Woods said. "I was not feeling good. I hit a big snipe off the first tee and I don't know how people think I should be happy about that. I hit a wedge from 45 yards and basically bladed it over the third green. These are not things I normally do. So I'm not going to be smiling and happy. And I hit one of the worst, low quack-hooks on No. 5. So I'm not going to be walking around with a lot of pep in my step because I hadn't hit a good shot yet."

Perfectly said. The only thing I wish he had not done was tell everyone he was going to clean-up his actions on the golf course previous to The Masters because he obviously didn't mean it, as we see by this quote.

Should he have said that? Probably not in the heat of the moment like he did right after the final round because this came across as too strong. But should people be making a big deal of this? No. Anyone who has ever played golf in their lives knows how aggravating the game can get. Woods just happens to have hundreds of microphones around him mixed with a great passion for the game. The camera is always on him, but it is also on everyone else, adn why aren't they shouting at themselves like he does?

Now, should Woods have been thinking about his pubic appearance while committing this on-course behavior? Yeah, he should of, especially since this was his first week back from his obliterated public image. But if he had thought of his image during his rounds, he would have never been in the position he was in on the leaderboard.

It shouldn't be this big of a deal to the media, of course, Woods can only blame himself for it. The Masters was his chance to clean up his image, and show that he was a changed man. But maybe cleaning up his image and trying to win a golf tournament was too much for him...for anybody.

His public image may be worse now than it was at the start of The Masters because of the comment after the final round because it really sounded like he didn't care about his image and his on-course behavior like everyone thought he did.

Of course, this is probably not the case, but who am I to judge? Woods fate lies in the media's hands, and if they choose to make a big deal of his on-course behavior even more, they will. Then Woods' image may be worse than before.