Well, it's not not true
Retief Goosen partially accuses Tiger Woods of faking his knee injury during his win at last weekend's U.S. Open, and while I won't completely agree with that I do think that Woods milked that injury for every bit of its PR worth.
Why? Because doing so was a win-win proposition. If he faltered on Sunday, thus becoming the first time he ever lost a major after holding a 54-hole lead, he'd have an easy excuse that would let him off the hook. If he won, as he did, all it does is add to the legend that he continues to build.
Make no mistake, aside from being the world's best golfer, he's also got one of the smartest promotional minds in sports. When he's ill or under the weather or injured, he always seems to be in a worse way than anyone else on the PGA Tour he deals with the same things, and that adds to the already intense media attention on him.
I've got no doubt Woods was hurt (he's having season-ending surgery for crying out loud), but also strikes me as the guy who likes to let you know he's hurt, thus building sympathy, understanding and support. That, in turn, generates a remarkable media buzz, and Woods is the star.
It sounds like Goosen, understandably, was kinda tired of the melodrama and called a spade a spade.
Why? Because doing so was a win-win proposition. If he faltered on Sunday, thus becoming the first time he ever lost a major after holding a 54-hole lead, he'd have an easy excuse that would let him off the hook. If he won, as he did, all it does is add to the legend that he continues to build.
Make no mistake, aside from being the world's best golfer, he's also got one of the smartest promotional minds in sports. When he's ill or under the weather or injured, he always seems to be in a worse way than anyone else on the PGA Tour he deals with the same things, and that adds to the already intense media attention on him.
I've got no doubt Woods was hurt (he's having season-ending surgery for crying out loud), but also strikes me as the guy who likes to let you know he's hurt, thus building sympathy, understanding and support. That, in turn, generates a remarkable media buzz, and Woods is the star.
It sounds like Goosen, understandably, was kinda tired of the melodrama and called a spade a spade.
posted by Jmac at 7:15 AM
7 Comments:
If Tiger was going to milk the injury for all it was worth from a PR perspective, then why didn't he make it public before the Open that he had a partially torn ACL and two stress fractures in his leg?
Dude. 99.9% of people with a torn ACL can barely walk.
That's not true, griftdrift. Many people with partially torn ACL's can walk just fine - it's the torque of a golf swing that puts strain on it and causes pain.
Dave beat me to it. There was so much more drama to be milked if it was all about the PR.
But walk six miles? And swing a golf club. But point taken. I had not read it was only partially torn.
Saudia Roundtree played the second half of her Naismith Award-winning season at Georgia with a partially torn ACL. Full speed? Nobody's speed was fuller than hers that season.
I never once saw an interview where Woods spoke of the injury or the pain on his own. It was always in response to a reporter's question. And as I recall, the first few interviews he gave he didn't even respond verbally to questions about his injury, he just shook his head yes or no. That tells me he didn't wish to talk about it, but eventually he had to give more detailed reponses.
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