Woods v. Jenkins, Days 3 and 4

Doing my best impression of a stray dog with an ankle between my teeth...

Let's see, first we have Alex Miceli, in the midst of a no-good, awful week, telling us that the dispute will linger:

Woods, who will be 39 next month and is six-plus years removed from the most recent

of his 14 major championships, remains an enigma. He seems to have remade himself after the sex scandal and resultant divorce of a few years ago, but few people see it now because he and his handlers restrict media access. 

The first time the media likely will see Woods in an interview setting since the Digest parody will be in two weeks in Orlando, Fla., before the Dec. 4-7 Hero World Challenge that benefits the Tiger Woods Foundation. 

It’s unlikely that Jenkins, a World Golf Hall of Fame member who will be 85 in two weeks and no longer travels, will be there. Thus, the feud between one of the game’s most accomplished writers and its iconic player will linger. 

Is this how Shakespeare would have written it?

Alex most recently was trying to tell us that Brooks Koepka's win in Turkey highlighted a major issue in the Ryder Cup selection process.  Alex, I'll try to speak slowly...the problem isn't with how the players are selected, the problem is, you know, the players.

Again, mouthing the words agonizingly slowly, Mr. Jenkins is not skipping the Hero World Challenge because he's old and infirm.  he's skipping the Hero World Challenge because it's the Hero World Challenge.  Any questions so far?

The "dispute" sparked interest because Team Tiger threw a hissy-fit and made us focus on an article that would otherwise already be down the memory hole.  It didn't hurt that it hit during the golf vacuum of November, but there is no reason for it to linger, unless of course Tiger wants to ensure that we reread it.

Meanwhile, back on Planet Earth, Shack reminds us of when Fuzzy stepped in it at the 1997 Masters, Tiger's coming out party, and of his ill-advised lawsuit thereafter, from this 1998 account:

Now, five months after the 1998 Masters, the issue again is Zoeller and poorly chosen words. But this time, there's a twist. Zoeller didn't say any of them. The quotes were the creation of Florida Today sports columnist Peter Kerasotis, who put a grand total of 293 words into Zoeller's mouth in an April 12 column titled, "Fuzzy speaks with forked tongue." 

That column now is at the center of a lawsuit brought by Zoeller against Kerasotis and his newspaper in U.S. District Court in Orlando. The golfer seeks unspecified damages from the defendants, claiming the column was an invasion of privacy and has harmed his "character, reputation, friendships, emotional state and financial interests." Lawyers for Zoeller and the newspaper did not return phone calls last week. 

In court documents, Kerasotis and the Florida newspaper, who have asked the court to dismiss the suit, acknowledge that the columnist didn't interview Zoeller and that the golfer never uttered the quotes attributed to him. They include observations about amateur phenom Matt Kuchar ("You talking about the kid with the Howdy Doody smile?"), veteran Gay Brewer ("What kinda name is Gay for a man?") and Mark Calcavecchia ("Maybe if he won ...we can have spaghetti and meat balls at the Champions dinner next year.")

Shack includes an addendum indicating that the matter was resolved fifteen months later, no doubt when Fuzzy got tired of writing checks to his lawyer.  I must admit that the Fuzzy item seems particularly lame,  as Fuzzy trashing Gay Brewer won't, you know, sell too many newspapers.  But public figures don't get much sympathy from the courts, as they shouldn't.  

Lastly, Tiger has garnered sympathy from one predictable source, David Feherty:

David Feherty said Wednesday that it’s “always been open season” on Tiger Woods but that Hall of Fame writer Dan Jenkins and Golf Digest crossed the line with the satirical piece that touched on Woods’ failed marriage, fired employees and reputation as a bad tipper.

“I think I would be upset,” Feherty said on the “Dan Patrick Show”. “It was mean-spirited and not particularly funny.”

We all like Feherty and I encourage you to watch the video to which Ryan Lavner is referring, which can be found here at Shack's place.   He makes an emotional defense of Tiger that is worth a listen, specifically citing his appearances at his event to benefit wounded warriors.  But he does admit that Tiger does a horrible job at presenting himself, and isn't that really the issue?

But to me the story remains Team Tiger's botched PR response to the Jenkins faux-interview, an effort that only served to increase the visibility of the piece.