I miss the old days when Tiger's year end press conference from the Sherwood cart barn featured longer, carefully worded but sometimes interesting answers to scribbler and local television reporter questions. Now fresh off a spontaneous Twitter Q&A session Tiger faced seemingly the same question nearly every time and he responded (appropriately?) in Tweet form several times.
Still, there were moments.
Q. As a follow-up to the brand question, you said it's up to a sponsor whether or not they think you can help the brand. Do you think you can help a brand in the current state of your golf game and in your personal life? What are your thoughts on that? And I have a follow-up if I could.
TIGER WOODS: Yes. Go ahead.
That was funny. Okay, you had to be there.
Q. And the second question on schedule, as the year comes along there's been some reports or suggestion that Tim Finchem has spoken to you about your schedule and possibly playing more events, playing different events than usual. Has he, and your thoughts on that, and what is the most important thing that will determine your schedule this year?
TIGER WOODS: Has he? Yes, he has. He's done that every year since he's been a commissioner. So that subject hasn't changed. That's on more than one occasion per year every year that I've been out here that he's been commissioner, yeah.
Q. Are you thinking about changing, adding things?
TIGER WOODS: Well, we'll see what the schedule holds. There are a lot of things that we're trying to adapt to, our new living conditions. That's most important. We're trying to figure all that out, and then obviously I still want to play golf at a high level and win golf tournaments. But it's about getting a balance and trying to find what the right balance is going forward is the key.
So the answer is no, he won't be adding any events.
Q. From the time you returned at The Masters, how soon did you realize you had to change your swing, and why did you need to change it?
TIGER WOODS: Well, as I played throughout the summer, I kept trying to do the things that I was working on with Hank over the years, and it just wasn't working anymore, and it got to a point where I just couldn't do it. It's kind of hard to try and play tournament level golf, major championship golf especially, when at the time I was struggling with which way the ball was going to go, was it going to go right or was it going to go left. That's not fun.
That's a pretty big admission for Tiger or any elite player, don't you think?
Q. Did it ever work for you?
TIGER WOODS: It did, it did, and for some reason it just wasn't, and it was time to go a different route.
My contribution of the day was not received with great excitement.
Q. You're a sports fan; you watch a lot of sports on TV. The TOUR has its contract coming up and they're going to start doing negotiations on that. As a fan, what would you like to see done differently with golf on television, if you are a golf fan and watch it when you're not playing?
TIGER WOODS: I'd like to see me win more tournaments (laughter), as a golf fan, yes.
And this from Doug Ferguson...
Q. Curious if you go back to the start of your golfing season what you find more surprising, not winning or being on Twitter?
TIGER WOODS: It's definitely both. Definitely both.