Not much changed for Tiger Woods from Sunday to Monday — the only difference was he hopped across the pond to Ireland for the JP McManus Invitational Pro-Am. And he was playing with celebrities and Irish millionaries. He posted another crappy score, carding six bogeys, a double, ten pars and a birdie for a 79.
The crowds cheered loudly all day as Tiger hit beautiful knockdowns that might have produced better results at another course, like, say, at St. Andrews. And he looked like he was having just about as much fun as he did admitting to the world on live TV that he was a cad.
Reader RC, an Irish international amateur, attended the event and reported back with his observations. First, apparently the R&A won’t need to worry about inappropriate crowd behavior at the Open or the Ryder Cup:
The fans cheered for Tiger all day. Huge following, easily the biggest crowd of the day — just pipping wee McIlroy. No heckling at all. Crowd were very pleasant to him.
More interesting, it was clear Tiger pretended he was playing St. Andrews.
I watched Tiger on the range and he was ripping it, hitting little low bullet trajectory. Obviously working on penetration for the wind in St. Andrews. He was hitting it a lot lower than the rest of the guys today.
Conditions were tough as the wind was up, which perhaps excuses Tiger’s awful score. Actually, naw. RC described Tiger as looking “tired, drained and jetlagged” on the course. But he did try to endear the adoring Irish fans at one point during the six-hour round.
He showed a bit of humour on the sixth tee as he rubbed his belly as he approached the sausage stand, where he got his protein fix with a burger (no bread or salad) and washed it down with his own “SHOCK” vitamin drink.
He hit a terrible shot on that hole — finished a full twenty yards short on the par 3. I got the impression he doesn’t really wanna be here, but just shows the pulling power JP McManus has for these guys.
Or perhaps Tiger needs the money. Or maybe it’s part of his preparation for the Open Championship. (I don’t know anything about the course and if the conditions are similar to St. Andrews, but RC said it was really windy.)
Curiously, Tiger’s not staying in the area longer to practice links golf and he’s not making a pit stop in Scotland for an extra practice round.
Very surprised Tiger is flying back to the States tomorrow after he is finished. I would have thought he would have stayed on and played some links golf around Ireland like he has done before. This doesn’t bode well for his British Open bid. But I’m sure he does have a lot of other stuff going on back home.
Like signing divorce papers. And come on, Tiger doesn’t need practice. He dominates at St. Andrews. Especially with the way he’s been playing — or should I say putting and chipping. Oh, wait…Well, RC did emphasize again that Tiger was hitting it really well on the range — he was just playing the wrong course in his head.
Almost forgot — it’s probably nothing, but one last detail from RC:
No Stevie Williams on the bag either.
Oh noes! Where’s Stevie?
[AP Photo/Peter Morrison]
July 6th, 2010 on 10:02 am
Kind of surprising that someone would fly across the pond for a quick charity 18 – and then fly BACK to the US for a week ? That seems crazy.
Why would he need Stevie at a charity event ? They aren’t tied at the hip for everything.
Nice tabloid touch, forcing the divorce theory in there.
Tiger doesn’t need practice ??? Finishes in the 40′s in non-major events sounds like a pretty good reason to practice to me.
Let’s hope the conclusion that the crowds will be well behaved at the British AND Ryder Cup is correct. Crowds showing up for a fun 18 are one thing – Ryder Cup cheering is different.
July 6th, 2010 on 11:29 am
No, let’s hope the crowds treat him with the respect he deserves while he is on the golf course.
And when he is off the course, I hope they turn it completely around and give him the respect he deserves off the golf course.
July 6th, 2010 on 11:54 am
Nothing to do with money, no appearance fees and any prize money is generally donated as well, there is a fund of €1 million. JP and Tiger are great friends, Tiger was married at JP’s resort in Barbados, the wedding reception was a gift to Tiger.
Much better round of 69 today, not sure if the course is playing easier today, as I only went yesterday. It’s an inland parkland course by the way, which hosted the Irish Open in 2007 and 2008.
July 6th, 2010 on 3:53 pm
About the scoring – I know it’s cute to make fun of Tiger, there were four scores of 71, and that was as low as anybody got. Justin Rose shot 80. Must’ve been some pretty tough wind.
July 6th, 2010 on 3:57 pm
Tiger shot 69 today, and from what I hear had a pretty interesting press conference. If you haven’t seen the transcript yet, might be worth trying to find it. Someone asked if all the women were worth losing his marriage and endorsements, Tiger dodged it a bit and then responded with a string of icy one-word answers. This is all 2nd hand by the way.
July 6th, 2010 on 4:06 pm
heard this on the radio, before i saw it was on espn.com
sure everyone’s seen it by now.
July 6th, 2010 on 4:14 pm
I wouldn’t trust ESPN’s coverage as far as I could throw Chris Berman (though after his US Open performance, I might be able to give him a good toss off the “Cliffs of Doom”). They do a lot of editing unless the press conference is live.
Just checked ASAP Sports and they don’t have today’s transcripts up yet – just the ones from the 5th. Maybe tomorrow it will be up.