View Full Version : Tiger--the second coming....
drdduet
03-17-2010, 11:56 AM
No pun intended here,
Tiger has announced his return to golf and will be playing this year in the Masters. An ESPN poll asks, would you be more surprised if he wins or if he doesn't make the cut?
autograf
03-17-2010, 01:03 PM
Remember he was off four months for knee surgery a couple years back, came back and won the weekend back. Nothing with Tiger surprises me. Except, of course, for the 15+ mistresses.........I would be completely surprised if he doesn't make the cut. I would also be surprised if he doesn't place top 10. It will be interesting to see the gallery and media surrounding his return. Augusta National HEAVILY controls every facet of the tournament, so I'd expect that it'll be pretty tame in comparison to other tournaments later in the year where there is more access and less crowd control.
FUBAR
03-17-2010, 01:31 PM
15 was only the amount that came forward, id be willing to bet the number is/was 50.
Golf needs him....
ChiefBenderForever
03-17-2010, 03:36 PM
Tiger will crush the field !! He is gonna make his sponsers pay for leaving him and start his life over, he should be more focused than ever.
He will make the cut and make a run for the championship, just like he almost always does. I don't blame the sponsors for temporarily leaving. I read a recent newspaper article that had stats on fame and marketability. This was about a week ago. His marketability factor was about number 500 in the US. I would guess that in the next 6 mos he will be back in the top 10. People tend to forgive and forget over time. Personally, I am non chalant on the whole thing. There is absolutely no denying he is good for golf with respect to bringing in crowds and money. regards
FUBAR
03-17-2010, 08:00 PM
He could rep for Trojan.... 15+ hotties and not one little bastard running around...
steve B
03-17-2010, 08:36 PM
Those were the ones he paid off?
I'm not so sure he's good for golf. A fascinating, dominant player for sure, but he draws a large bulk of the fans. And without fans debating who's better their guy or someone elses it gets boring pretty quickly. Plus once he finally retires a lot of the Tiger fans won't continue to follow golf.
Same thing for Lance Armstrong, great for him, but in a country where cycling is a fringe sport having people think that The Tour de France is the only bike race really doesn't help.
Steve B
Those were the ones he paid off?
I'm not so sure he's good for golf. A fascinating, dominant player for sure, but he draws a large bulk of the fans. And without fans debating who's better their guy or someone elses it gets boring pretty quickly. Plus once he finally retires a lot of the Tiger fans won't continue to follow golf.
Same thing for Lance Armstrong, great for him, but in a country where cycling is a fringe sport having people think that The Tour de France is the only bike race really doesn't help.
Steve B
Hey Steve
For the sake of debate how can he not be good for golf if he draws big crowds? I am not talking about the morality side of humanity, I am talking about the business side of the sport. As for Tiger retiring.....he only has about 35 yrs left to golf. That is the one sport that the guys can easily go into their early to mid 60's (at least on the Sr. tour) and still play....It will be "Tiger" for a long time to come unless something happens to him and/or his health. As for not having any extra, mistress babies.....It might be too early to make that statement :)+
barrysloate
03-18-2010, 06:24 PM
The key for Tiger is to not get distracted by everything in his life other than golf. And that may not be easy. Golf is such a precision sport that missing even a couple of putts is the difference between finishing first or tenth.
And how will he handle the media? Don't you think they will be all over him? If he can just play golf and block out everything else he is of course the best player. I predict his game will be off.
FUBAR
03-18-2010, 06:37 PM
When Tiger is 65, i can see him being like Bob Barker... In his 60's and hitting it with 3 of his beauties.... BOB is da man! Bob kickin Adam Sandler's ass is still one of the funniest movie scenes ever
When Tiger is 65, i can see him being like Bob Barker... In his 60's and hitting it with 3 of his beauties.... BOB is da man! Bob kickin Adam Sandler's ass is still one of the funniest movie scenes ever
Not to go too far off topic, at least talking about babes, is there anyone in the world luckier than Hugh Hefner? The guy will be 84 yrs old in 3 weeks and always has a bevy of hot chicks around him. Man 'o Man!!
steve B
03-18-2010, 08:45 PM
Yeah, Hugh has had it made for years. And no pretense about being anthing he's not.
My point about Tiger not necessarily being good for golf is maybe a finer point, and maybe not even right. And none of it relates to his morality in any way. I'll try to be a bit more clear.
He's very good for promoters of tournaments. He's a great player, and getting closer all the time to having a legit claim as the best ever.
But fot the sport of golf? That's a different thing. And it's a hard thing to figure out. We may not know the answer for a very long time, maybe even beyond my lifetime. Super dominant players in ant era have the potential to be bad over all for the long term interests of the sport. I rarely watched golf in the past, and have tried it once. I've watched a bit more with Tiger competing. But how good are the other guys? And who are they? To a casual viewer, golf is Tiger and Just Tiger. And to a casual viewer he gets a bit boring. So I'm back to rarely watching since I can see the highlights on the news.
A few parallells are the US basketball teams for the olympics and other international tournaments. In 92 the team was unbelievably good. And their playing was a bit overdue since the rest of the world was getting big headed about beating an assortment of college kids that included guys that couldn't make the NBA. In 96 I got to see a game against China in person. I left after the game thinking I'd just watched a team put up 166 points an look bad doing it. At the time the NBA was riding high and considering expansion to Mexico and Japan. Add a bit of international dissapointment and a tattooed thug attitude and you've got what we have today. An NBA that has retreated from international expansion, and is somewhat struggling. International basketball has done better but not in anyplace that it didn't have a steady market. And part of that is that the incredible assortment of great players has been replaced by lebron and maybe a couple hundred guys that are barely known. I don't watch much basketball anymore, like the dream team II game, it's become a game of setting up a few set piece plays for one particular player.
The same thing could be said of parts of baseball. Just look at the AL east. it's been The Sox or Yankees for a very long time. If those teams weren't dominant (Either through big spending or better player choice) The fortunes of the other teams would be much better. I am a sox fan, and watch a good bit of baseball and get to maybe one game a year. And I'm happpy to see them playing in the playoffs so regularly. But I know the fans of Baltimore aren't so happy or engaged. And a team that isn't competetive isn't gaining as many new fans. They'll follow football or soccer or snowboarding or something else. So while it's been great, the Yankees/Sox rivalry and mutual dominance of the AL east hasn't been good for baseball in general. But it has been great for those owners.
Steve
drdduet
03-19-2010, 11:56 AM
I see it differently Steve--I admit I don't follow your logic though....
Having someone like Tiger in an otherwise dead sport, brings the sport back to life. What that does is create more interest, more interest results in higher levels of participation in the young ones....higher levels of participation equates to an increase in the talent pool....an increase in the talent pool increases the level of competition and increases the odds of developing the next big thing....
teetwoohsix
03-19-2010, 12:05 PM
I agree Steve.But you can bet that if Baltimore made it to the play off's,or better yet,the world series,all of the closet (and hardcore) fans would be selling out the stadium.
As far as Tiger goes-he does seem to be "the spark" in golf.I have no interest in golf,but used to enjoy watching what he did in the highlights of the sports news-because he was "that good".There doesn't seem to be any other golfer that pulls my attention that way.Not that there aren't any other good golfers,but thats my point.Tiger was dominant,and I figure he still will be dominant.
The only good thing that came out of all the "Tiger drama",is that everyone got to see that he is also just a human being-we all make mistakes,and no one is perfect.He appologized,what more can anyone expect?
Leon's right Jim-too early to tell if there's going to be any unknown "baby Tigers" surfacing-but I'm sure at least one or two of the "golddiggers" will be on Extra or TMZ claiming he fathered their new baby!!:D
steve B
03-19-2010, 04:51 PM
I definetly agree about how good he is. Some of the stuff he's done is just amazing. The thing a year or so ago sacrificing the club to make a shot bocked by a tree was impressive and creative all at once.
And yes, he;s great for golf right now.
And we'll have to wait to see who comes along that started golfing because of him. Although I have my doubts you don't often hear about a new young phenom. Michelle Wie is pretty close, but nowhere near ready yet, and might never be really ready because of how her early efforts were handled.
But long term, or near term if he retires early?
A scenario - Tiger makes a comeback. Wins back sponsors, reaches a few career goals. But he still takes heat for his mistakes off the course. 3-5 years from now he gets tired of the travel, tired of the publicity, tired of the scrutiny. And he realises that he's still pretty young, absurdly rich, and doesn't have to golf to have enough money to live on. So he retires young, not pursuing the extra 25 years or so of career he could have left. He leaves a load of money on the table to be sure, but becomes a happier guy.
And golf goes one of two ways. Either it becomes a lively sport of rivalries among equals, or it becomes a vast wasteland of mediocrity.
Neither has to happen, and reality is that he'll probably be forgiven and chase the money for another 20+ years. But either could happen, and in the case of the latter course it could be that his early retirement would be horrible for golf in the long run.
I work in a bike shop, and I've actually seen a decline in knowledge and interest in the sport, at least in the US and it's mostly because of Lance. And he's as good as Tiger, and was as good for cycling as tiger is for golf when he was winning. But a decade of him has set the sport back a lot both in the public eye, and in the business end of things.
Steve
FUBAR
03-19-2010, 05:09 PM
Leon
I agree, Hef is DA MAN , hands down period! Anyone 84 years old that has 6 hot hot, 23 year old girlfriends, that all know about each other, and are willing to share, will always go down in history as the greatest ever!
its like hitting .500 with 125 hrs and 300 rbi's
When i am 84 (if i make it) i would be happy with one!
(ah hell who am i kidding, it isn't going to happen!)
barrysloate
03-19-2010, 07:18 PM
Hugh Hefner and my mother were born the same day: April 9, 1926. Talk about pointless trivia.