Well this is interesting. We usually interview the winning caddie, but not like this. Steve Williams (and that means Tiger Woods’s behavior) overshadowed the sparkling 17-under performance of Adam Scott, a flat out dismantling of Big Bad Firestone, including a jaw-dropping 66-65 finish.
The things Williams said in his interview were thinly veiled venom against Woods, if not a flat-out accusation that Woods lied when Woods said he fired Williams in person at Aronimink. Here’s the Yahoo! Sports analysis of the issue, plus some video. Woods and Steiney responded by saying Williams was mistaken in his interpretation, but when has Woods ever come out and said he was wrong…as opposed to making an oblique reference to “transgressions.” One of these days, that kid’ll have to grow up, (probably when the money runs out). Everything and everyone else has run out, except Steiney. Maybe that’s the change that needs to be made…
CBS’ Steve Elling has a few great observations as well. From the article:
“The dialogue cascading down the bleachers wasn’t exactly subtle, either. Another man bellowed, “How do you like him now, Tiger?” prompting a thousand fans in the grandstands to snicker at Woods’ expense all over again.
Ain’t sports grand? All it took for Williams, 47, to become an embraceable, cuddly Kiwi folk hero was to be summarily canned after 12 loyal years of service by golf’s reigning villain. Viola, the most popular man in Northern Ohio.
Just like that, Williams, a former rugby player who spent most of his time with Woods acting like a pit bull on a short leash to ensure his man didn’t get run over by the fans, has morphed into a sympathetic figure, all because of the headline “Bagman gets the sack.”
“Hey, people are probably sympathetic to it,” Williams shrugged during the lengthiest post-round interview he has ever conducted. “That’s a good point.”
Not just a point — more like the tip of a public-relations bayonet.
In their first week together since the news leaked that Woods had canned his longtime looper, Scott led from wire to wire on a course where Woods once owned the deed, if not the mineral and riparian rights. Woods won seven times at Firestone with Williams on the bag, and darned if the New Zealander didn’t beat him to No. 8 in his first try, post-divorce.”
Once again, the issue is Woods and the media’s insatiable appetite for “casual eyeballs.” Woods was never in contention this week, but my analysis of my co-writers’ Twitter feeds had them tweeting Tiger at an .875 clip – unacceptable…and because if that we get Steve Williams – Unplugged and Mic’d up – a hot mess if ever I saw. It’s an ugly fight all around.
Luckily, there’s a major being played next week. With Woods playing poorly, let’s hope the broadcast media resists the urge to make him the star even when he’s down in the hinterlands of the leaderboard. Still, I doubt it. Where heroes don’t exist it is necessary to invent them, so we’re stuck with gibbering idiot commentators fawning all over two immature children in a stupid “you did, I didn’t” argument, sticking out their tongues at one another, and running to the press to have their side told. Welcome to golf in the Tim Finchem era. Just leave your money where he can find it and ask no hard questions.
Of course, Tiger can’t get out of his own way either. He’s moved his presser
