Question about Tiger Woods

[Dooby]

The below article says that Tiger did nothing to help Casey Martin play in the PGA. That, if he had endorsed Martin's right to play, the PGA would have capitulated.

Am I mistaken? I thought Tiger did say that Casey martin should be allowed to play with a cart.

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Is this the stand Tiger should be taking?

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By Adrian Wojnarowski
Special to ESPN.com


¾ Tiger Woods sends his regrets for missing the Western Open this week, the common cold sparing the world a weekend of listening to Woods' ridiculous insistence that golf's Grand Slam resides on his resume. Between now and the British Open, he'll stay out of sight, out of reach of the questions that inspire his stubborn idiocy on the issue.


Everybody wants to see Tiger swing. Fewer agree with him on his "Slam."

After winning the U.S. Open, the way Woods talked, he sounded downright delusional. Seriously, does this Stanford dropout think that the world is so enthralled with him, they'll believe anything that comes out of his mouth?

"I've won the slam before," Woods sniffs. "You can call it what you want, but when I was at home I had all four trophies on my mantle."

Four majors trophies on his mantel is no more the Grand Slam than Sammy Sosa going 162 games from August to August, spreading 74 home run balls on his kitchen table and declaring Barry Bonds home run record obliterated.

"So this will be a different type of slam ... the calendar year," Woods says.

There is just one slam -- the Grand Slam -- and Woods damn well knows it. Perhaps, this is his way of diffusing the pressure, playing mind games with himself. The pressure to do it? Not at all, he insists, I've done it. How hard can it be to do it again? Maybe this eases the burden for him. Maybe Tiger just thinks because he's Tiger everyone eventually will take his word as golfing gospel. Maybe he's just covering himself for history's sake. In the even he never wins a true Grand Slam, maybe he can incorporate a Tiger Slam into a true Grand Slam.

"Sixty-Forty (odds) that he will do it," Arnold Palmer said recently, a monumental vote of confidence for Woods' bid to take the British Open and PGA Championship this summer. Yet, Palmer's endorsement comes with a disclaimer. This hasn't happened yet. Palmer and Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player are forever bowing to the greatness of Woods, but he hasn't sold the sport's most credible living arbiters of his reasoning that he won the Slam by delivering the 2000 U.S. Open, British and PGA and finally the 2001 Masters.

Whatever Woods' reasoning for staying so stubborn on of one of golf's most sacred traditions, it leaves you wondering this: If Woods wanted to take on the golfing establishment, stand in the storm of the sport's most sacred traditions, he picked the wrong cause to champion. He should've started a few years ago with Casey Martin, with something far bigger, and far more profound than the vanity of his own victories.

He could've used his power of his platform for a fight golf never would've wanted with him: Backing his old Stanford teammate, Martin, on his right to use a golf cart on the PGA Tour with Klippel-Trenaunay-Weber Syndrome, a circulatory disorder that wouldn't let Martin walk the course. The United States Supreme Court sided with Martin and the Americans with Disabilities Act in May of 2001, but it was too late. Martin had missed his best chance to get on tour, his window fading with the disease lurching him closer and closer to amputation. What's more, Woods missed a chance to honor his promise as the sport's true champion of inclusion. He was just one more old guy on the tour, protecting the status quo.

Where was the man that Earl Woods promised to be golf's Gandhi, an athlete who would use the power of his persona to dismiss discrimination? He had sold out to his corporate endorsements, to the path of least resistance. All Woods had to do was stand with Martin and PGA commissioner Tim Finchem would've had a public relations war he wouldn't wanted to wage. When we needed Woods to be a Jackie Robinson, an Arthur Ashe, he stayed true to the causeless legacy of the man his mission most mirrors: Michael Jordan.

Golf tradition had to be honored, Woods warned. Golf had to set its own rules, he said. Had the sport done this, of course, Woods could go to Augusta National every spring with two options: Washing or drying.

When asked about Woods a year ago, Martin said: "It would've been great for him to take a greater stand, but I wanted to do this without pulling any strings. ... I was going through a lot, but if it wasn't meant to be, it wasn't meant to be. God is a lot bigger than Tiger. He provided in this ordeal."

"He didn't need Tiger Woods."

Maybe He didn't, but Martin did. Perhaps Woods silence could've been slightly understandable had Martin been a faceless stranger, but this was the most disturbing part of it: This was one of his old college roommates, a teammate on Stanford's 1994 national championship team.

"They were so close," the old Cardinal coach, Wally Goodwin, told me at the time. "But I guess Tiger is at the stage where he has to watch every word he says for all kinds of reasons."

Now, there won't be much out of him until the British Open. Beautiful. Who can take this nonsense? Who wants to hear it? As the world grows breathless over his Grand Slam possibilities, nobody wants to hear him diminishing it as a done deal in his life. Palmer's odds on Woods sound about right--- indeed, 60-40, Woods does deliver the Grand Slam.

Only then will he impress everyone if he acts like it's no big deal, like he's done it before. Tiger Woods won't, of course. He'll never make a righteous stand. After all, this isn't a stage. This is Tiger Woods. He'll come running back into the arms of golf tradition, back to Arnie and Jack, telling them that they were right all along, that yes, this is the true Grand Slam now.

All because it belongs to him. All because he says so.


Adrian Wojnarowski is a sports columnist for The Record (N.J.) and a regular contributor to ESPN.com.

[Dooby]

From Golf Today:

Tiger Woods happy for Casey Martin

Tiger Woods knows better than most what Casey Martin feels as he struggles to walk a golf course. He watched as Martin dealt with his pain while the two were playing at Stanford.

So it's little surprise that Woods consistently supported Martin in his fight with the PGA Tour, even as his fellow pros took the other side.

That didn't change Wednesday after Woods completed a practice round at the Memorial, where he is the two-time defending champion.

``I'm extremely happy for Casey,'' Woods said. ``To see Casey now go out there and play with peace and quiet and not having this over his head will be beneficial for him.''

[Murphy3]

some people just need any excuse to tear the guy down. no matter what he does, it won't be enough for some.

[Drbio]

I vividly remember Tiger supporting Martin. Some of the older guys like Jack Nicholas actually got onto Tiger for doing it. Tiger deserves an apology and a retraction.