Much Ado About Something...

Forces on the left and the right are both known for criticizing bias in the media, but noone ever take the “sports media” to task about what they write or say except individual athletes and their agents. The past few days I’ve discovered a subject the whole sports media seems to be in agreement about.
In the “collective mind” of sports writers and commentators Tiger Woods has committed a major “faux pas”.
It is generally agreed that Tiger Woods is the greatest golfer presently competing in the world.
This current season is one of his best. He has won 2 “majors”, The Masters and the British Open, placed second in the US Open and fourth in the PGA..He also has won three other professional tournaments including this past weekend's World Golf Championship/NEC Invitational (pictured on the left).
So what is all the fuss about? Last week when the PGA Championship was washed out by rain for the final few holes on Sunday, Tiger who had “birdied” his final two holes had completed his round and was the “clubhouse leader” at two under par. There were 10 other golfers still playing when play was postponed until Monday morning and at the time 3 had better scores than Woods and 5 of the players were easily in range to finish better than the clubhouse leader. Probably the best Tiger could hope for was that none of the five would end up with a better score than him and there would be a playoff.
Last Monday morning the finish was televised on CBS. I remember Jim Nantz remarking (as Steve Elkington lined up a 2 ½ foot putt for “birdie to finish “3 under”). “Well I think Tiger just got in that limo to head out to Teterboro” (Private airport near NYC).
Not so fast Mr. CBS network sports anchor.. we learned later in the day that Tiger wasn’t even there. He had flown home to Orlando Sunday night and was working out in a gym there Monday morning while the finish was going on. This seems odd since Tiger is all about the “major” golf tournaments and winning three in one season would have been quite an accomplishment.
He is quoted as saying about the controversy.. “Look, there were five of the best golfers in the World there..each one of them had won a major championship ..I couldn’t believe all of them were going to come back to 2 under..”
Tiger does an ad for American Express where he says,"In my life there are no rainy days..My life is about never settling." the implication being that his whole career (even “what would be a day off for everyone else”) is planned out. Maybe this is true to the point where he hates to disrupt that schedule..
Back to my original assertion. Slowly during the past week a negative hue and cry from the sports media has been building, condemning Woods for leaving the PGA Tournament before it was settled.
Do you know what the sporting public thinks? ESPN ran a poll nationally which asked if "Woods was wrong to head home on Sunday night?" 76 % of the respondents said he wasn’t.. although for some reason respondents in Vermont and New Hampshire thought he was by 70 % and agreed with the sports media. Fox just ran a similar poll..57 % said Woods wasn’t wrong to leave although 43 % thought he was.
The Libertarian in me says, “Much ado about nothing.”