Dispatches From Tigerworld

My sense is that Tiger's new swing coach consultant is receiving generally positive notices, based upon the sens that a.) He's just not comfortable going it alone and, b.) He needs to find a way to swing the golf club without destroying what's left of certain important body parts (see knee, left).  But kudos to Alex Myers for finding this year-old video of Como teaching....well, perhaps you can help me here:

Ground force reaction, huh?  I see mandatory reductions for his position at entry, but otherwise it's hard to see how that helps a fellow unless and until you get that invite to play at zero gravity.

Meanwhile, Alex Miceli notwithstanding, Jenkinsgate is meandering towards the Recycle Bin, with only a spattering of loose ends to clean up.  One of those is Alan Bastable's interview with Players' Tribune editorial director Gary Hoenig, who explained how the Tiger hissy fit response came to the site:

“They were aware that we were encouraging athletes to speak their mind,” Tribune

editorial director Gary Hoenig told Golf.com in an e-mail. “I think they felt we were reaching a broader audience than their site.” 

Since the Tribune launched in October, several high-profile athletes have contributed first-person stories. NBA star Blake Griffin wrote a revealing piece about his experiences with disgraced Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling. Another NBA player, Jason Collins, announced his retirement on the Tribune. 

Woods is the first golfer to grab a byline. He and Jeter are friends. Both endorse the swoosh. And both are represented by Excel Sports Management. But, according to Hoenig, Jeter did not influence Woods' decision to write for the site. “Derek didn’t solicit the piece and only knew about it when we got it,” Hoenig says.

We know they're fiends because it was famously at Chez Jeter that Tiger met celebrity-handler extraordinaire Rachel Uchitel, and the rest is fire hydrant history.  But I thought that friends don't let friens write drunk, which he must have been to act like such a....what am I looking for here?  Oh yeah, to act like such a little girl!  OK, I'll never be President of the PGA of America, but that's a small price to pay for speaking truth to Tiger.

But credit Shackelford for the tip-in with this clarification of that "Broader audience" comment:

According to Quantcast TigerWoods.com is currently enjoying 634,000 monthly unique visitors. ThePlayersTribune.com is at 54,000.

Their appeal is just more, you know, selective (how's that for two Spinal tap references in a week?).

We'll give Gary Van Sickle the final word on this from his weekly Van Cynical Mailbag feature:

Well, the Golf Digest piece written by Jenkins, My Fake Interview With Tiger, wasn’t his funniest parody. But Tiger apparently didn’t get the fake part. Or the humor. And if Tiger doesn’t speak up, the article gets ignored and floats quietly away. Tiger and his management have been stunningly unaware of how media relations work throughout his career and this was another poor decision. It’s one thing for Tiger to think the story wasn’t funny. It’s another to call it “below the belt.” It was a parody, one that never would’ve happened if Tiger would’ve found time ONCE during the last 20 years to talk to the best American sportswriter of the 20th century. Jenkins was on a best-buddy basis with Arnie, Jack and even Hogan, to name a few. Take a hint, Tiger.

True that, and I do mean all of that.  If you're Tiger Woods you've had to put up with a million meaningless interviews with the Tom Rinaldi's of the world, just a part of the job.  But the one writer that's more interesting than the interview subject and since 1996 Tiger hasn't found the time to have even an off-the-record beer with the man?  It's just inexplicably shameful and shamefully inexplicable.  No doubt it's much more satisfying to swap stories of the good old days with Rachel Uchitel...