NORTON, Mass. -- Tiger Woods enjoys the sporting aura of the Boston area so much that, while in town this week as a contestant at the Deutsche Bank Championship, the world No. 1 is making the scene at Patriot Place and Fenway Park.
Deutsche Bank Championship 2013: Tiger Woods makes the Boston sports scene
Tiger Woods just loves to talk about the Patriots’ almost-undefeated season.
Jeff Gross
“This is one of my favorite tournaments,” Woods said on Thursday following the pro-am event that preceded the second of four FedExCup playoff tournaments. “The crowds are incredible here, great sporting town.”
Woods, dressed in jeans rather than his more recognizable black and red, was on the sidelines at Gillette Stadium Thursday night for the New England Patriots final pre-season game. At one point during the proceedings, Pats defensive coordinator Matt Patricia reportedly walked past the top-ranked golfer and “did a double take,” according to the Boston Herald.
The crowds are incredible here, great sporting town. -Tiger Woods
Following an opening-round 3-under 68 on Friday at TPC Boston in nearby Norton, Woods, along with two recipients of college scholarships from his foundation, planned to take in the Red Sox-White Sox game. Prior to Friday night’s game, the Sox were slated to recognize Vladimir Cassues, the Tiger Woods Foundation’s first Boston scholar who is pursuing a master’s degree at Tufts University, and Shirley Peng, one of five local students receiving foundation help this year.
Cassues was also scheduled to sing the National Anthem before Friday night’s first pitch at Fenway.
“It’s pretty exciting stuff,” Woods said about Cassues’ Fenway Park debut.
Woods, by the way, for the second year in a row, reminded Pats fans, who count fellow PGA Tour star Keegan Bradley as a card-carrying member, that their beloved football 11 finished their undefeated 2007 season without winning the equivalent of the PGA Tour’s FedExCup.
“Technically, you can win every tournament you play in all year, you win 30 events and lose the last one and lose the FedExCup,” Woods said Thursday. “It’s very similar to what the Patriots went through -- you have an undefeated season, but you don’t win the last game, you don’t win the Super Bowl, you don’t win the FedExCup.”
Woods really seems to enjoy the analogy that sets Tom Brady zealots’ teeth on edge. Here’s how the 14-time major winner explained the rationale of the tour’s season-ending set of four tourneys last year at this time:
“You could win all three of these events and still lose the FedEx Cup. That’s kind of the nature of how it’s set up,” Woods said on Aug. 31, 2012. “The argument would be, unfortunately for you Pats fans, is when you guys win ‑‑ what was it, 18 and 0, and unfortunately lost one -- that’s kind of the argument.”
Yes, Tiger, 18-0. And Robert Kraft still allowed Woods to roam the sidelines on Thursday night? Guess he must have missed Tiger’s pressers -- and the fact that golf’s top guy seems to favor Cowboys QB Tony Romo and, even worse, professes to be a [gasp!] Oakland Raiders fan.
Which, considering the “Tuck Rule” Snow Bowl playoff game in 2001, goes a long way toward explaining Woods’ preference for that particular [choke] Patriots-FedExCup comparison.
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