The Trouble with Tiger

By Rick Eggleston
Fan Fanatic Sports Staff

Golf’s Golden Boy sure lost his luster in a hurry, but cheating on your wife and getting caught will do that to you, even if your name is Tiger Woods. Who knew? What is it about possesing incredible athletic ability and fame that makes people like Woods act so foolishly?

Admitting yesterday to “transgressions” stemming from an affair with a Los Angeles cocktail waitress (and supposedly two other women) Woods became the latest in a recent string of super-athletes whose private lives are riddled with indiscretion and deceit. Baseball’s Alex Rodriguez, Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz were this past summer’s sporting scandals involving steroid use, then this fall tennis’ Andre Agassi let it all hang out in his tell-all book about his drug abuse and fake hair. Now we head toward winter with Tiger’s tale of woe, and the latest athlete to have gone wild.

So who’s to blame? Nosy neighbors? Prying media? The game? Answer: None of the above. The blame falls squarely on the man himself as a result of the decisions he makes, and Tiger chose to dabble in the hazard of infidelity knowing full-well it could all come back to haunt him someday.

In this case, an otherwise mundane fender-bender on a private road got the media machine moving, foremost because it involved a world-class athlete such as Woods. Naturally, people (the media) started asking questions about what happened and it didn’t take long for things to go from bad to worse — a seemingly simple story about front-end damage to Woods' Escalade led to more questions than answers.

So now what for Tiger? Time will tell, of course, and winning a few more tournaments will surely help. Meantime, it’s apparent there's a lot of healing that needs to go on in the Woods’ household.

Charles Barkley said it best: Athletes are not role models.

Can Tiger pull a "B.U."?

By Josh Bremberg

Fan Fanatic Sports Staff

The only true reason anyone, and I mean anyone, watches golf now is to see Tiger Woods win a golf tournament.
With all due respect to the 49-year old Kenny Perry (who could be come the oldest golfer ever to win the Masters) or Angel Cabrera, I want to see Tiger slipping on the Green Jacket on Easter Sunday.
Currently sitting at -4, Tiger needs to pull a "B.U." and shoot the lights out of Augusta Sunday afternoon. Can he do it... why the hell not, he's Tiger Woods! What plays in his favor today is he's playing with Phil Mickleson in the 1:35 pairing. This could turn into either a huge pissing contest or golf's version of the Larry Bird/Michael Jordan McDonald's commercial of the 90's. If Tiger is able to control his driver & putt like Tiger can, maybe, just maybe he has a shot at the win.
I'm not holding my breath, but I can dream, & after watching the B.U. Terriers coming off the greatest comeback in sports last night (sorry Red Sox fans, this was better than coming back from 0-3), I think anything is possible... but Tiger may not have the luxury of pulling his caddie for an extra shot on each hole!

Lack of Coverage for the Sake of Tradition

By Matt Ingram

Fan Fanatic Sports Staff

I just wanted to get this out there this morning because this has been eating away at me for two days now.

A couple days back I wrote a Masters prediction with the hope of following some of the golfers I listed on TV. With all of the hype to the 2009 Masters Tournament, you would think a golf fan would be able to watch most of it on TV live. I understand that ESPN wouldn't dedicate 10 hours of programming to the Tournament, but doesn't golf have its own channel, The Golf Channel, to show early portions of the first couple of rounds of tournaments. They do it all the time.

At first I was thinking that it had to be a money thing, but it's not. The Chairman of the Masters, Hootie Johnson, pictured above, wants the tournament to stay with tradition and not be seen on live TV. I understand that back when the the first Masters took place there was no such thing as a TV, well there has been for a long time now. This year actually is the most live coverage there has ever been for this event, and it's pathetic. The fans could only have watched riveting live golf between 4:00pm and 7:30pm on both Thursday and Friday. Oh yeah, that's after 75% of the golfers were done for the day. This is an increase in coverage from a few years back when they refused to let the first two rounds be televised at all.

The tourney brass has thrown the fans a bone though, the ability to watch holes 11, 12, 15, and 16 on the internet. WOW four holes, thanks Chief. Speaking of the internet, pgatour.com has a great tool on its site called "Shot Tracker". Shot Tracker allows you to track any golfer's shots, distances to the hole, what the type of lie the golfer has, and other cool features in case you can't watch on TV. Yet again, Johnson has dropped the ball and does not allow pgatour.com to use this feature, or even there own leaderboard. When clicking on leaderboard on there site it instantly brings you directly to the Masters site, talk about controlling everything. This is one of the four Majors in golf and it seems as if the brain trust of The Masters, Hootie Johnson, doesn't want you to see it because of tradition.

Who will wear Green on Sunday? The Masters Preview

By Matt Ingram
Fan Fanatic Sports Staff

The field at the 2009 Masters is so deep with talented golfers it makes it hard to predict a winner. With that said, here are the top ten players that I believe will be in the hunt come Sunday afternoon.

10. Trevor Immelman, the defending champion has been quiet this year but his play looks encouraging through the Florida swing.

9. Sean O'Hair has the length to neuralize August National, and he's had a week to get over that heartbreaking choke job at Bay Hill.

8. Mike Weir, 2003 Winner, has had a slow start to 2009 but Augusta seems to bring out the Canadians best game.

7. If Vijay Singh's, 2000 Champ, back is healthy he has a good chance to win another Masters.

6. Rory McIlroy, the 19 year old phenom, won on the European Tour this year but to expect the teenager to slip into a Green Jacket in his first visit is a bit of a stretch.

5. Zach Johnson, 2007 Masters Champion, knows what it takes to win at Augusta and he's playing really well this year. Don't be suprised to see him near the top of the leaderboard come Sunday.

4. Phil Mickelson, 2004 and 2006 Masters Winner, has won two events this season. Mickelson recently regained the No. 2 spot in the world, but will "Lefty" implode in another Major?

3. Geoff Ogilvy has a major league game and two wins under his belt this year. The former U.S. Open Champ should contend.

2. Padraig Harrington, thanks to Tiger, is not the top story coming into The Masters; even as he attempts the third leg of the Paddy Slam (Harrington has won the last two Majors). Although, so far this year he's been sub-par.

1. From Tiger Woods', Masters Champ in 1997, 2001, 2002, 2005, full rookie season in 1997 through 2008, Tiger has been victorious in one out every three Majors he's competed in and only missed the cut once, The 2006 U.S. Open.

Tiger's Major Results

Since 2005 Tiger has won six out the twelve Majors he's played in, that's before his recent knee surgery to correct his ailing limb. Now that his knee is better than ever, which he proved at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, if I were a betting man and the choice was Tiger or the field, I'd go with Tiger. But, let's see what pans out over the next four days..

Tiger's Back on the Prowl

By Matt Ingram

Fan Fanatic Sports Staff

What a crazy weekend in sports! Spring training is wrapping up, as are the NHL and NBA regular seasons, and how about the last second wins in the NCAA Basketball and Hockey tourneys. Still with all that going on, the most exciting moments this weekend happened in Orlando at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. As you well know by now, Tiger is back, which means the PGA Tour is watchable again.

Although Tiger wasn't at his best on Saturday, he was able to put himself into the last group for Sunday which meant everything. The youthful Sean O'Hair never had a chance once the two were paired together for Sunday, even with a five shot lead. Don't get me wrong, O'Hair had his chances to wrap it up during the round but consistently shot himself in the foot. You can't expect to have four bogies in the final round of a tournament and beat the best golfer of all-time, and yes, Tiger is the best ever.

The backbreaking shot happened on the par-5, 16th when Tiger had to layup from a bad tee shot landing in the deep rough. O'Hair's biggest moment would come when he had a choice; he could lay up short of the water surrounding the green or increase his one shot lead and put it on in two. He and his caddie decided to end it on the 16th; after all it was only 175 yards to the hole. He did "end it" when his ball landed in the water short of the green. After the ball became alligator bait, O'Hair was bent over ready to bring his lunch up. At that point everyone knew that Tiger's pressure got to him and he was all done. If that wasn't bad enough Tiger lined up a 16 footer on the 18th green in the twilight to win it. In Tiger's dramatic fashion he put the ball right in and O'Hair was finished with a fist pump.

Even though Tiger is only three events in since surgery and is a little rusty, he still has the intimidation factor on his side. In a couple of weeks at the Masters, he will need that intimidation as well as a more overall consistent game if he wants to beat a full PGA field. Not to take away the accomplishments of Sean O’Hair, but the skills and mental fortitude of Tiger’s competitors at the Masters will surpass that of what he experienced this past weekend at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.