04/17/24
March 11, 2004
Imagine Kobe deciding to only play road games when the Lakers visited Philadelphia (he grew up there), Portland (close to Nike headquarters), New York (legendary showcase Madison Square Garden) and Atlanta (Coca-Cola headquarters). Or Jason Giambi only playing road games in Oakland (began career there) and Anaheim (southern California native). True, those are players in team sports, but it's close to the scenario explaining why Tiger Woods only plays certain events, and why tournaments he doesn't usually play have so little chance at getting a lift from golf's number 1 drawing card.
The comparison to players in team sports and players in singular sports isn't really proper. Golfer don't have a contractual obligation to play in every single tournament during the golfing season. Athletes in team sports, such as baseball and basketball, are contractually obligated to play in their teams' games, barring injury or court appearances. Woods is chasing history, so his real interest is in the major tourneys, with some interest in those tournaments close to his heart/home. Nothing wrong with that, and it's something the small tournaments are just going to have to deal with.
posted by bcb2k2 at 08:39 AM on March 12, 2004
I was 60% more likely to read that article because it was about Tiger and not some other golfer. Sorry folks, but I am an huge Tiger fan.
posted by 86 at 09:13 AM on March 12, 2004
no kidding 86, how boring would this article be if it were about Vijay Singh.
posted by patrickje at 10:11 AM on March 12, 2004
Wonder what JJ would say... Paging JJ....
posted by billsaysthis at 04:35 PM on March 12, 2004
Sorry - wasn't paying attention. The dude can play where he likes. The onus should be on the crap tournaments to make themselves better and not on the better players to patronise the crap tournaments. Until we shift to a multi-divisional world tour (something like the Formula One set-up would entertain me in terms of how the top flight would battle it out) this problem will persist. I've not been to Doral, so I guess I'm looking at this from a bit of a skewed angle, but, even if they weren't paying me a million dollars to do so, I think I'd rather spend the week in Dubai. I sort of wish this post HAD been about Vijay - that way I could have worked myself up into a decent rant.
posted by JJ at 06:15 AM on March 15, 2004
I wouldn't want to be running one of the no-show tournaments, but I can't blame Tiger for playing a limited schedule to save himself for the Majors. He probably should try to play one or two new ones a year until he has hit them all, though.