Tiger Woods Swears During British Open, May Face Fine

Here’s one we hadn’t heard before -- the head of the oh-so-proper Royal & Ancients laughing off an off-color remark from Tiger Woods, after the golfer hit a shot he was less than pleased with during Friday’s second round of the British Open.
“This is the first I have heard of it but our method is to... refer these [disciplinary matters] to the [PGA] Tour,” R&A chief executive Peter Dawson told reporters on Monday. “I can certainly get hold of recordings. We shall have a look at it and see.”

Apparently no stranger to the frustrations of golf, Dawson sounded more entertained than riled by Woods’ reported obscenity, which, any follower of Tiger (as well as almost any other professional golfer]) knows was far from the first -- and surely won’t be the last -- naughty word uttered during a heated tourney.

“Glass houses come to mind,” Dawson said. “I’ve been known to swear on the golf course once or twice.”

We’re betting PGA honcho Tim Finchem won’t look quite so benignly on Woods’ word choice, but we’ll never know since the U.S. tour never divulges fines or other punishments it slaps on players.

Another contestant in last week’s Open Championship may not escape the wrath of the R&A quite so easily. Jim McArthur, chair of the R&A Championship Committee was apparently shocked! shocked! that Andres Romero should dis the Brits’ national tournament by employing his Argentinian countryman Carlos Tevez, a popular footballer with Manchester City, as his caddy in Sunday’s final round at Royal Lytham.

With a 12-over 82 on Sunday and at 18-over for the week, Romero finished DFL among golfers who made the cut, but the huge crowds following him and his famous bagman did not seem to care. Tevez may have beguiled the masses but McArthur was not amused -- enormous galleries be damned.

“The one thing we couldn’t quite understand is why such a big crowd was following a match at the end of the field -- until we realized actually who was doing the caddying. We may have to look at this particular case,” McArthur said. “The strange thing for me was [Tevez] never put the bag down, so when he was standing on the green he was carrying the bag all over the place.”

Clearly unclear on the concept of true insanity, McArthur termed the Romero-Tevez partnership “absolute madness. I suppose he’ll learn from that if he does that for the rest of the season.”

We sure hope so. Can’t have such madcap hijinks in golf, that’s for [expletive deleted] sure.

Dawson, again, seemed to shrug his shoulders.

“It’s not for me to say anything about players’ choice of caddie, as long as they behave in the best traditions of the Championship and within the rules. I can’t really comment,” Dawson said. “Mr.Tevez may be a very experienced caddie. I’ve got no information as to his background. But whether it’s the player’s fault or the caddie’s fault that the score was so high, I couldn’t possibly comment.”

Dawson noted that there seemed to be more of an overlap between the fans of golf and football than he realized, adding what everyone but McArthur seemed to grasp.

“It’s not a bad thing, perhaps,” said Dawson.