Morning Drive is kind of funny/interesting this morning. Damon Hack is at least insinuating there is something fishy about Woods’s “sabbatical.”
On the other hand, other panelists made the statements I put in my headline. (My quotes may not be precise, but they are at worst close paraphrases.) The fact that they keep beating the drum for the “sabbatical” being Woods’s doing (CHOSEN to be away) and so too will be his return (when HE decides to return) makes me really, really, really suspicious.
The new meme seems to be “Tiger doesn’t want to play right now.” He needs to “get his desire back.” I guess that’s kind of like how Dustin Johnson had to take six months off to get his desire back and want to play again.
Was Woods’s ridiculous chipping and professed back pain just a smokescreen for this “sabbatical”? You can’t just up and take off for a few months when playing perfectly fine without raising suspicions.
Is there a game of PED chicken going on between Tiger Woods and Tim Finchem? Perhaps Finchem told Woods he will no longer cover for him and allow him to use PEDs, and Woods responded with, “Fine, but I can’t play golf without my Tony Galea or Tony Bosch. You want me to chip across the green some more? Is that what you want?”
Lanny H Golf 
Damon said “This is not the Tiger Woods I have covered! What is going on with him?” and Charlie said “We only get very controlled information from him. We’re not going to know the whole story.” That was the end of anything resembling truth. Tiger’s camp made up an insanely ridiculous story to cover up the innocuous truth of Tiger replacing his dead tooth. There is no way they’re going to let the truth about this sabbatical reach the public.
Last year, we already saw this script….Woods exited an event early, claiming injury, only to play a few days later in a MAJOR….
This time(about the 7th time at returning now), it could be a combination of loss of game, injury, lack of ped’s, and age….(I realize to announcers/networks it will always be 2000.)
We are seeing either of combination of cover ups by agents and networks, or there are ALOT of coincidences…..
Finchem is already looking fishy in his handling with OTHER players too, so it’s not like this is about one golfer….
It really stinks, to put it bluntly.
I was just thinking about how many “comebacks” we’ve seen. Always a big media buildup followed by a bunch of media excuses. They act like every tidbit from Notah or Rosaforte is the biggest story in the world, but they ignore or mock the PED stuff.
Your list of problems is spot on, as was your assessment of the media’s desire to avoid discussing them. Age and injury are there for everyone to see with no controversy whatsoever; yet the media can’t admit Woods is on the downhill of his career. (How many times have we heard, “If anyone could do it, it would be this man. We’re talking about Tiger Woods!”) Actually, Woods has been in decline throughout much of his 30’s. He doesn’t even come close to matching Jack’s accomplishments in his 30’s. Oh, well. I truly do think this will only last long enough to enshrine Woods in the Hall of Fame. Then, after a polite waiting period, the floodgates will open on the PED stuff.
The media is so cowardly. The “feeding the cattle” mentality is pathetic. I know most people reading this website would rather me not discuss Mickelson’s insider trading, but I truly believe Mickelson was involved in illegal activity (and that he knew he was). Should I refrain from saying that to please people? Not gonna happen.
You can’t, well, technically you can, but, you can’t completely discount the desire angle. I have never had the chipping/putting yips but I did fight the driver yips. After a few years of playing par/under par golf the driver yips reared it’s ugly head and all of the sudden I struggle to break 80 and shot low 80’s more often than not. Consequently, it wasn’t nearly as fun and I didn’t play nearly as much. At this point I ‘ve pretty much worked through it and am playing closer to the par/under par golf that I was playing. Consequently, I am playing more these days.
Lot’s of folks would love to shoot in the 70’s consistently but for tour players that just doesn’t cut it. There are numerous stories of guys who left the tour because of similar things TW is dealing with.
Very logical, but…
The Golf Media is reversing the cause and effect. Woods is playing poorly because he lost his desire, they claim, not the other way around. If only he could get his desire back, it would be 2000 all over again…
the media will NEVER say it’s because of ‘DIMINISHING SKILLS’ to quote Bill Bellichick, but it HAS to be ‘lack of desire’ or HAS to be ‘time with family'(weakest link excuse of the bunch), or HAS to be ‘injury’…….