Woke Up Without Woods...

Image Courtesy Robert Beck/Sports Illustrated
The golf community collectively groaned Friday afternoon as Tiger Woods, the savior of the game, missed the cut at the British Open. How can we go on? If Tiger’s not involved, who will watch? Who will care?

The Maestro will. In fact, I think it’s fantastic that we can tune in to a major tournament without having the television coverage dominated by Woods. Talking heads like ESPN’s Mike Tirico would have you believe it’s not only appropriate for the mass media to cover Tiger as much as possible during a tournament...it’s their obligation!!!

This is the same ridiculous thinking that pushes Fox to feature the New York Yankees and/or Boston Red Sox on virtually every Saturday afternoon national baseball broadcast and NBC to try to snare the Dallas Cowboys for as many Sunday night football battles as possible. Let the Clippers and Grizzlies rot in basketball purgatory…we want the Lakers!!!

The media should NEVER show out-and-out favoritism (sorry, Barack…this means you too). Despite all the slants and angles offered up by CNBC, CNN, and Fox News, reporting (sports included) should be as unbiased and equal as possible. Yes, champions will always get more attention, winners will always get more accolades, and big city teams will always have more people following them based on population numbers alone (Green Bay and Pittsburgh being the exquisite exceptions to the rule). However, a sports league or association is supposed to be co-operative by nature. Just ask Bud Selig now that he faces thousands upon thousands of empty seats every night because the New York teams think they’re above the economy and Pirates, Nationals, & Royals fans know their teams can never compete. Better yet, look at all the grief David Stern went through trying to find the ‘next Michael Jordan’; Kobe & LeBron were coming down the pipe, but the media & Stern were so frantic to hoist a new MJ above the masses like Simba in “The Lion King” that they nearly destroyed the sport...

Heading back to the links, I readily acknowledge that Tiger Woods is the best golfer on the planet, and probably the best ever. But to tear down an entire sport week after week for the sake of one player (or team) is abject stupidity. It’s now mid-afternoon on Saturday, July 18, 2009…the third round of the British Open is in the books. The leaderboard features a few of the usual suspects (Retief Goosen, Jim Furyk) near the top, as well as a couple of relative unknowns (Mathew Goggin, Ross Fisher) thrown in the mix for good measure. Yes, Tiger Woods is nowhere to be found, but 59-year-old Tom Watson (-4) leads the pack going into Sunday...

Sit back and get something to eat, Eldrick - the last round of this major is better off without you...