Tiger's Moral Hazard

[mgc1961]

“There are so many young boys you influence.”
“That’s right,” said Roy.
“You’ve got to give them your best.”
“I try to do that.”
“I mean as a man too.”
He nodded.
— “The Natural,” by Bernard Malamud

When Tiger Woods tees up his Nike golf ball at the first hole of the Masters next week, will you be wishing him well? Or will you hope he yanks his drive into the pines and spends four days trudging toward the searing defeat that, in your view, he richly deserves?

Be honest. This is a moral litmus test. In fact, it’s a test for all of America — a test of where our moral consciousness is these days.
As befits a pronouncement as grand — even grandiose — as the previous sentence, I’ll illustrate it via literary allusion.

Ten years ago, writing in Slate, I noted with mild alarm an eerie parallel between Woods and Roy Hobbs, the baseball player at the center of Bernard Malamud’s 1952 novel “The Natural.” Woods had just said his goal was to be the greatest who ever played the game, and I observed that in Malamud’s story an utterance very much like this precedes the character’s downfall.


Read the rest of the article at http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/30/tigers-rapid-redemption/?hp

[CBGLuthier]

1. Today I heard the single most disgusting thing about him yet

He chugs Bailey's Irish Cream after eating sub sandwiches.

Ugggh.

[Captain Hilts]

3. At least he doesn't pour it on his Cocoa Krispies while watching Sat. morning cartoons. nt

[Dr.Phool]

7. Everybody knows that you pour vodka on Cocoa Krispies.

Bailey's would just be ridiculous.

[Captain Hilts]

2. I've never been a fan of his temper tantrums on the course. A poor sport. nt

[BolivarianHero]

4. If he's the best, he deserves to win...

He still deserves the shittiest life possible off the golf course.

[saltpoint]

5. I don't especially like Tiger Woods -- before or after revelations of his

extramarital flings -- and I don't like golf at all.

A fat ego and a fat wallet is a recipe for big trouble.

[tularetom]

6. I'm intrigued by the deafening silence

From the heavily republican, "Christian", "family oriented", golf touring pros.

Wonder WTF else is happening after hours at all those tournaments.

[Captain Hilts]

8. He didn't generally do this stuff at tournaments. He did it with college buddies. nt

[tularetom]

9. True, I'm just trying to point out that pro golfers may have something to hide

There is not a group of "athletes" more smug, christian, white, conservative and republican than this bunch of asshats.

At the same time, it's very hard for me to accept that there is not an army of golf groupies that follows this tour around the country and that more than one of these nice polite white republican family men is getting a little on the side. And they are all scared right now that somebody is going to blow the whistle on the whole thing in the wake of the Tiger Woods scandal.

The other thing is that Tiger himself is a ginormous money maker for the tour itself which increases the purse at every tournament which makes more money for every one of them. So, even though they lose to him quite often, they don't want him gone.