There is more than a famed green jacket at stake at August National next week. A legacy is on the line, too.
How Tiger Woods conducts himself, in his first real press conference on Monday (he’ll actually take questions), and on the course throughout the week, will go a long way in determining his place in sports history.
He doesn’t have to win his fifth Masters, but in his first tournament since a lurid sex scandal trashed his well-crafted image, he will have to conduct himself with class.
That hasn’t always been an easy act for Tiger.
Maybe we were all so enthralled by his talent, drive, brilliance on the golf course — not to mention the slick packaging off the course — that we gave him a pass for his unsportsmanlike conduct.
Tom Watson — a bit of a golf grump, but certainly a gentlemen — got it right earlier this year when he called out Woods.
“I feel that he has not carried the same stature that other great players that have come along like Jack (Nicklaus), Arnold (Palmer), Byron Nelson, the Hogans, in the sense that there was language and club throwing on the golf course,” Watson told golf writers. “You can grant that of a young person that has not been out here for a while. But I think he needs to clean up his act and show the respect for the game that other people before him have shown.”
When Woods was a kid, he had Nicklaus posters plastered on his bedroom wall. He dreamed of winning more major titles than Nicklaus’ 18. Woods, with 14, could still do that.
In 1996, before Woods captured his first Masters title, Nicklaus raved about Woods, both as a young man and as a golf genius.
“There isn’t a flaw in his golf or his makeup,” Nicklaus famously said then. “He will win more majors than Arnold Palmer and me combined. Somebody is going to dust my records. It might as well be Tiger, because he’s such a great kid. He’s has the finest, fundamentally sound golf swing I have ever seen.”
Nicklaus might have been right about the swing, but it appears he was wrong about the makeup. For Tiger’s sake, and for golf’s sake, I hope Tiger can repair his tarnished legacy.
Trivia time
Four players have led the Masters from start to finish. Can you name them? (Answer below)
‘The Donald’ on Tiger
Business mogul and TV celebrity Donald Trump defended Woods on Wednesday, telling the New York Post that the pressures of professional golf led Woods toward his adultery.
“I really think that there’s tremendous pressure you wouldn’t understand from the world of golf,” Trump told the newspaper.
Wow, now there’s a ringing endorsement.
Polling
Wednesday’s “Lunch Special” poll asked readers how UConn’s women’s basketball would fare playing against boys/men. The results were decidedly mixed.
More than 35 percent said UConn would beat a small college men’s team, but just 15.3 percent thought UConn could beat a Division I program.
There were plenty of skeptics out there, too. About 24 percent said UConn couldn’t beat a good boys’ high school team. About 25 percent agreed that UConn could beat a good boys’ high school team, but would not beat a men’s college team.
Quotable
“When we share the ball, we get good results. Every NBA player wants to score. That’s just the bottom line. But we moved the ball around today, and we got a good victory.” — Interim head coach Adrian Dantley to after the Nuggets’ crucial victory over Portland Thursday night.
Blog spot
The Post’s John Henderson, on assignment at the Final Four in Indianapolis, has a great anecdote about Brad Stevens, Butler’s baby-faced head coach. Check it out
Reader’s rant
“Excuses, excuses. All Hawkins can do is make excuses. Hostility from fans and alumni alike is not directed at him because he’s not a nice guy, but (because) life isn’t fair. He’s not getting it done. That being said, CU is never going to be a winner in Division I football again if they aren’t willing to spend what it’s going to take to do so.” – Aaron J, posting on Colorado football coach Dan Hawkins’ .
In case you missed it
The National Hot Dog and Sausage Council’s annual survey says that hotdogs are still top dogs at the nation’s baseball parks.
The NHDSC predicts that ballparks around the country will serve 21,378,064 hot dogs this season, enough to round the bases 29,691 times. If laid end-to-end, the dogs would stretch from the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., to Coors Field with enough left over to give a hot dog to every fan at every Rockies’ home game for the entire 2010 season. In addition, the NHDSC predicts ballparks will sell 4,933,853 sausages this year.
This day in sports
On April 2, 1931, Jackie Mitchell, a minor-league pitcher, struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in an exhibition game in Chattanooga, Tenn. No big deal, right? Except that Jackie was a 17-year-old girl.
Trivia answer
Craig Wood (1941), Palmer (1960), Nicklaus (1972) and Raymond Floyd (1976)
Patrick Saunders: 303-954-1720 or psaunders@denverpost.com
