"Unfortunately I guess we had to finish by 6 o'clock."
While we await the working press reactions to Tiger's press conference Tuesday, it's quite clear he's sticking to his story and his views on the Paramor situation. He'll probably be roasted by the commenters here, but I admire his stubborness here.
TIGER WOODS: The way I understood it, we were the only two in contention to win the event. We had separated ourselves. The winner was not going to come from the groups ahead, even though Robert played just a great round ahead of us. It was going to come from our group. And we were having a great battle.
You know, I just thought that even after Paddy had pitched the ball in the water, he then walked all around the lake, taking the drop, hit his shot over the green and pitched back up, we got on the 17th tee, hit our shots down the fairway and as we were arriving at the ball, the group ahead of us was now entering the 18th fairway. So we were not that far behind, maybe five minutes or whatever it may be from the group ahead of us.
If Paddy does not hit the ball in the water, we play up, we are right behind the group in front of us. So that's why I was -- that's why I said what I said, because that certainly affected how Paddy played the hole, and how the outcome of the tournament, he was in control of the event. He was 1-up with three holes to go and he had a par 5. And you know, when we were put on the clock, it certainly changed everything.
And...
Q. Just to go back to Bridgestone for a moment, Padraig was saying that he was not able to sleep Sunday night. I wondered if you had a lasting sense of frustration and whether you also felt that it was perhaps sending out the wrong message to supporters, to spectators who had been enjoying what was a pretty compelling duel.
TIGER WOODS: Absolutely. We had a great battle. Unfortunately I guess we had to finish by 6 o'clock. I guess that was that important. You know, we finished three minutes late, I think it was, so unfortunately we didn't get in in time and unfortunately that influenced the outcome of the event. Having a battle like that with Paddy when we go one-on-one like that and when we separated ourselves on the front nine, we were enjoying that battle, and that's why I think Paddy feels the way he does and that's certainly one of the reasons why I've said what I said because we were having such a great battle going head-to-head like that, and it got influenced from outside.
The 6 o'clock part interests me. Anyone else getting the vibe that someone actually mentioned that time to Tiger and Padraig either on the course or after the round?
Q. Going back to the timing issue last Sunday, do you in any way regret personalizing the issue by naming John Paramor in your criticism of --
TIGER WOODS: No. Because he's the one who did it.
Q. And secondly, do you have any sympathy for what he has to do and officials like him have to do under these circumstances? And thirdly where does discretion begin and end in the discussion of slow play which is really strangling the game?
TIGER WOODS: Yeah, that's why I thought they would have used better judgment on that considering that, as I said, we were the ones that were probably going to win the golf tournament in the last group. We separated ourselves.
And after what Paddy went through, we were still right there behind the group in front of us. So I don't know if the group in front of us was being timed or not. They didn't look like they were rushing. But it certainly influenced us in how we played and influenced the outcome of the tournament, which that's not how you want to have the tournament come to an end.
Q. Where does discretion begin and end on the subject of slow play, which is strangling the game?
TIGER WOODS: Yeah, you're right. But then again, we were in the last group, and you know, we finished at 6:03.
He probably could have taken the bait on the slow-play-strangling-the-game component to the questions, no? After all, Tiger is the one who prefers limited field sizes and did take over 4 hours in just such an event even if it was Padraig.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009 at 11:17 AM
Reader Comments (7)
At some point, we need to give this a rest. They were "on the clock". Do you really think the Tour would have ACTUALLY allowed a penalty shot to decide this? Players get put on the clock all the tim. But, when was the last time one of them actually got penalized in strokes. Can you imagine ths sh*t storm if Tiger had won because Paddy got penalized a shot for slow play? Then we would all be screaming that the Tour rigs the events for Tiger's benefit.
And, let's be fair. Tiger isn't exactly Rory Sabbitini out there. He hits the shot when he is ready. Period.
Now if only he'd rethink his swearing and club pounding...
Bet you money this doesn't happen again for a long long long long time...
Excellent points....couldn't agree more.
This is the most interesting and expansive I have ever heard Tiger be in his interviews and I think it's great. Plus, as I said from the beginning, this tournament was affected by outside issues that should never have made it to the final group of a world championship event. The whole reason these events are staged is to see great competition at the highest level - not to rush through as quick as possible to get back home. They screwed up bad!
Maybe slow play isn't a big problem. But I think most people believe it is, and a very big one at that. These players have no idea how slowly they play, and they clearly don't care at all about the example they set for recreational golfers.