If you don't play golf then you will rarely if ever watch it. Unlike other games, probably 80% of golf is played in your head.....at least that's what my Ol Man said. My Dad loved the game and was a superb golfer. There are courses around Ohio where the course record is 60 years old and they are held by W.J. Patterson. Many wanted him to turn pro but you didn't give up a good job back in the forties to go play golf. I started playying at age seven with a few cutdown clubs and in high school was 5-8 handicap. Dad had quit playing regularly because of back problems but he still shot par almost every round. I played very little after high school with the exception of a few periods of time, but I still enjoy watching a pro play the game.

I preface here with those remarks because what made this such a huge story was of course related to sex and an out of control media coupled with our voyeur-like interest and other things you have all mentioned. Many other stories like this one have been out there before but this one really went to overkill. Why?

I submit that had the guy played something else it would have been yet another Kobe Bryant story taking up too much space but about the same as many others. No, what made this one different is Golf. Nobody talks much about it, but the real hook here is golf. From football to tennis, all of the major televised sports has been involved in some kind of huge scandal about drugs or sex or both. Golf has had some minor things over the years that barely registered on the radar.

Jack Nicklaus was the All-American boy and Arnie was the greenskeeper's kid from Pennsylvania. Ben Hogan was probably one helluva prick but his comeback after the car accident made him a legend. Sam Snead, Ken Venturi, Byron Nelson, and on back to Bobby Jones, none of these guys had much negative press let alone a scandal. Tony Lema could have been close but it didn't happen.

Tiger made it happen. And when the press heard about it, they licked their chops and dove right in for a seven course meal......with a "seconds" buffet. This one had all the reqisite sports star goes wrong elements but it was in a sport where this kind of thing never happened. How would it affect golf?

Almost every report on this always alludes somewhere in it to how golf will be affected. Tiger did bring large numbers of new folks, often kids and their parents, into the game and I know the question is legitimate. On the other hand, I'm sick of hearing about it and so it seems are quite a few pro golfers. They're tired of talking about Tiger the jackass and very little else. They'd like to have him back simply to get back to the game as opposed to where Tiger left his dick last night.

So if Tiger's apology hastens the process of returning some normalcy to golf for them, I am all for it times ten.   I like golf and I don't give a particular shit about Woods.....except when I'm in them or they have a number on the bottom.

Spaw