So I guess this means no pre-tournament press conference next week at Memorial? Kudos to Team Tiger for listening to the feedback after his taped hostage video experiment last month. I love that “LIVE” is capitalized in the above tweet.
It appears this is part two in Tiger’s social media campaign in an effort to interact with fans more directly. This time in a forward-thinking (or just 2012) format and seemingly un-Tiger-like, yet in the most Tiger-like way possible since the “fans” will be “selected” ahead of time. He’s invited people to a “Hang Out” sesh on Google+! Here are the deets, according to TigerWoods.com:
Tiger Woods, winner of 72 PGA Tour tournaments and 14 major golf championships, has invited fans to join him next Tuesday afternoon, May 29, on Google+ for his first Hangout. You are asked to send questions about the upcoming Memorial Tournament, the U.S. Open and other topics, and Tiger will pick some of you to join him LIVE next week. Please use the hashtag #TigerHangout.
The Hangout will also feature special guests and is expected to last for about 30 minutes. It will give fans a chance to interact with Tiger as he prepares for the Memorial Tournament next week and the U.S. Open in June.
The most notable person who has reached out to his supporters through Google Hangouts is President Obama.
Exciting!
Memo to “fans”: Throw some thoughtful softball questions in your initial submissions and then when you’re “Hanging Out” with Tiger, ask some hard-hitting follow-ups.
I’m waiting to hear back about whether or not he’s canceled his pre-tournament presser yet. It’d be groundbreaking if he took all our critiques of the hostage video into account and did both the “Hang Out” and regular visit to the interview room. Call me cynical, but I’m not holding my breath!
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Tiger has been pretty busy lately. He recently joined 106.7 The Fan in Washington D.C. with “The Sports Junkies” to talk about his ballstriking, confidence level post-Masters, driving stats, why he’s playing more tournaments this year, and — the one that caught my attention — why he believes he can win into his 50s. Transcript courtesy of the fine folks over at SportsRadioInterviews.com:
Looking down the road, do you think you can keep winning tournaments into your 50s?:
“Absolutely, 100 percent agree with that. It just has to be on the right golf course. It can’t be, at that age — well, by the time I’m at that age, it’ll be some golf courses over 8,000 yards. It’s probably not going to be at one of those; it’s probably going to be at a shorter golf course like you’d find at a British Open. Tom [Watson], at Turnberry, it was like the perfect Open. It was howling, it was a golf course he had won on and knew how to play and it was playing very quick. … You can certainly see a certain player playing into their 50s and being successful on a certain venue. You can’t do it on all venues, there’s no doubt. Some ballparks are just too big.”
I absolutely agree 100% with Tiger that he’ll win in his 50s…on the Champions Tour. I kid, I kid. Kind of.
Good point with the Tom Watson/Turnberry example. It certainly wouldn’t be out of the question for Tiger to win majors when he’s in his 50s, but given his physical health and all the injuries he’s sustained at age 36, I wonder if his body will be able to hold up for that long. I mean, his body seems to respond like he’s already 50. I hear once you hit a certain age, it gets even harder to recover.
I’d also make a crack about how Tiger should focus on winning at 36, but I’d just be reminded he won two months ago (duh!), which I’m well aware of. Let’s start with the Memorial Tournament, where he’s won four times. In his last appearance in 2010 he placed tied for 19th.
(AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Recent Tweets
“Memo to “fans”: Throw some thoughtful softball questions in your initial submissions and then when you’re “Hanging Out” with Tiger, ask some hard-hitting follow-ups.”
I guess this is why he would rather hang out with fans than the media.
So I guess you’ll have to spend your time prepping your softball questions for Luke Donald and suck-up questions for Lee Westwood with the rest of the “objective” media.
–Jerry
PS Don’t forget to swoon over Rory McIlroy.
Lighten up. Pretty sure it’s obvious this was written tongue-and-cheek.
Didn’t come across–probably because so many journalists a: bash tiger every chance they get, b: way overreacted to the skipping of the news conference, c: way over criticized the “hostage video”.
But I’m ok with tongue in cheek humor and can laugh at anyone including myself. It is just hard to do when so many are saying the exact same thing and being serious.
–Jerry
You are the last person who could possibly evaluate Tiger’s ability to continue to win into his 50′s, or not. You are clueless.
Lighten up. You are uptight.
LMAO@Y. What is you opinion of Tom Pernice Jr? Ever heard of him?
Imagine if all the other tour players would interact with their fans as much as Tiger does. Tiger owns.
Steph, I think your headline is hillarious. The “Hostage video is too funny. That said, I am also enjoying that fact that tiger is once again giving the media the proverbial middle finger (Re: Conor’s post a few weeks ago)
And I have to say I do agree with Jerry, the sports media tees up softball questions all the time to the guys they like on the tour. Now that they are trying to sell us of this crazy storyline that Rory is the next Tiger – it gets pretty nauseating.
tiger -i know you’re reading this bro. fyi, i put $20 on zach johnson to win at olympic. i chose to pass on better odds with you. you wanna prove me wrong?
As a longtime harsh critic of Mr.Woods, I do feel the need to give him credit for at least trying (albeit feebly) to connect with fans via these videos. It is at least a tiny step in the right direction. Of course the questions are softballs, he has never answered tough questions from anyone, and I wouldn’t expect him to start now.
I love the sense of entitlement Media and new Media have in as much as the feel they must be included. Good for Tiger to directly communicate with his fans.
I hope this is a trend. Pressers are dull and boring unless they are major championships.
Tiger is coming off as fairly petulant these days. He is a well documented control freak. I don’t blame the media for bashing him. I have been a Tiger apologist since the hydrant but it is getting tougher recently. I don’t think he is trying to connect with fans as much as he is trying to control the dialouge as best he can, again, he is a control freak. He gives no one in the media access and now he is taking to social media to completly phase the press out.
Here, here!! On point. While I am at it there ARE a bunch of uptight people posting on this story. Hostage video is right on point.
Tiger’s objective is not to interact with the fans – it’s a weenie attempt establish a precedent in order to bypass the media.
Also, I don’t see Tiger on the PGA tour past his 45th birthday. At that point, it will be very difficult to be inside the top 50. Eventually the mental wear-and-tear of trying to win majors as an significant long shot will finish him (that’s if the three knee reconstructions between now and then don’t finish him earlier).
What are the “softball” questions and what are the “hardball” questions you asked an athlete? Are athletes elected officials so people feel that they are entitled to ask whatever they want and the athlete is duty bound to answer.
Rex Hoggard checked all golf presser since 1996 to April 2012 and he noted that Woods attended 1027 pressers and the next highest was 337 which was Phil.
I guess it is fun to predict how long Woods body will hold up to play golf, but this is a foolish discussion because you are not doctors and even if you were,you dont have the facts – foolish/silly speculation
OR the 3 iron might hit him in a place that kills him next time. OR he could get HIV from a porn star. Or he could get hit by a bus….