Epic Wimbledon duel reaffirms golf’s need for a true challenger to Tiger Woods

July 8th, 2008    Subscribe To Our Feed

Golf and tennis, two hoity-toity country club sports, have served up the gutsiest athletic performances of 2008. If you thought the U.S. Open finish between Tiger Woods and Rocco Mediate was a classic, you should have seen Wimbledon Sunday.

Roger Federer, the world No. 1 and frequent guest on Tiger’s yacht, and Rafael Nadal, the up-and-coming No. 2, traded blows for the longest Wimbledon men’s singles final ever played. The winner, Nadal, is even withdrawing from his next tournament citing, you guessed it, a knee injury.

It was the kind of match that can rally casual sports fans, just as the U.S. Open captivated cubicles worldwide during its Monday playoff.

But what set Wimbledon apart was that it was a classic dethroning of the champ by the next in line. Any golf fan watching had to be shocked at the outcome: “Wait a sec, No. 1 lost? I think my cable’s broken …”

While Mediate was a cute story at Torrey Pines South, Wimbledon reaffirms golf’s largest void: a need for the “Next Guy,” someone who would make the second half of the season relevant even without Tiger.

And as Tiger spends the rest of 2008 on the sidelines, the time is now for No. 2 to start pounding his chest.

It won’t be Phil Mickelson. His inner demons - the ones that convinced him to go without a driver on the longest U.S. Open course in history - are foe enough for him.

World No. 3 Adam Scott would be a popular pick as an up-and-comer. Then again it’s hard to focus squarely on your game when your caddie is picking fights in the gallery as you compete in a major.

Although I’m still (stupidly) holding out hope for a Sergio Garcia emergence, it looks like we’ll have to look to the future instead, like Rory McIlroy, the teen phenom from Northern Ireland, or maybe Anthony Kim, the 23-year-old who cooly called Tiger “bro” on the phone after his AT&T win on Sunday.

Maybe Tiger’s eventual foe isn’t even on the radar yet. In its latest issue, Golf Magazine highlighted three 5-to-7-year-old golf prodigies as potential Tiger-beaters.

We might have to wait that long.

As always, WorldGolf.com welcomes your comments.

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Game of honor? Tiger Woods’ behavior reveals golf has lost its gentlemanly ways

April 1st, 2008    Subscribe To Our Feed

I personally think this is pretty sad.  I was watching when this happened and this young man needs to pay attention to what he says.  I is a role model for many young golfers and this display was not the role I would want my young golfer to take.  Read more now…

When Tiger Woods eventually calls it quits, he’ll have broken practically every record the game of golf has seen.

But he is also going to leave behind a legacy of unapologetic, expletive-laden outbursts.

Woods lost his cool again at Doral two weekends ago. My blog following the incident, criticizing Woods’ lack of an apology to the fans and any children who either were in the gallery or heard Woods’ reaction in the media, drew a passionate response from both sides.

“You don’t mess with Picasso while he’s painting,” argued one reader. Others said Tiger was only receiving heat because the press was backing up one of their own, the photographer who provoked the episode.

But seek out media members or fans who have been to enough PGA Tour events and they can all serve up an instance where they witnessed a hot-headed Woods with little regard for his surroundings.

“For a long time, I’ve hoped Tiger stops using profanity on the course,” commented another reader.

For being the world’s most recognizable athlete and top endorser, Woods’ on-course demeanor isn’t exactly laudable - and when you can make a case for his younger Nike Brother, Lebron James, as being the more civil under pressure between the two, it should raise eyebrows.

“You have no idea what’s being said out there, in any sport really,” Woods said in his defense on ESPN the following week.v

So the swearing and threats are nothing out of line? Then I suppose the PGA Tour has become chock full of coddled country club boys who, under pressure, develop the unfiltered profanities of a deranged street bum. The honor of the grand game we know has taken a back seat to the high stakes of $7 million purses.

For many families, the main reason they introduce golf to their children, at programs like First Tee or their local golf club, is because the game teaches civility and etiquette in a manner you can’t learn on the playground. Many kids learn how to grow up on the golf course.

If golf’s greatest icon consistently disregards that civility, it sends a dangerous message, and golf loses a piece of its nobility. Woods should be worried less about Jack’s 18 majors, Sam Snead’s 82 wins or Byron Nelson’s streak of 11 victories, and strive harder to match them in integrity.

He just doesn’t realize how important he is to the rest of the young golfers of the world I am sorry to say.

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Conde Nast will shutter Golf For Women magazine with the July/August issue after 10 years. In its announcement, Conde Nast simply says that the bimonthly mag didn't fit its "business objectives" anymore. In particular, the magazine had a particularly poor Q1, as WSJ pointed to data from the Publishers Information Bureau said Golf For Women's ad pages dropped 35 percent. At the same time, Golf ...

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