Tiger Woods is old, bad, and for all intents and purposes, done. He cannot hit range balls without pain, let alone play golf well enough to compete week in and week out on a PGA Tour that is stronger than ever before.
Pat Perez says Tiger Woods ‘can’t beat anybody’ as he tries to stay ‘relevant’
Golf, perhaps more than any other sport, tends to produce carefully agent-crafted automatons. When they divert from that path, they get shamed. This is stupid.
Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images
I know this, you know this, we all know this. The PGA Tour knows this. It seems Rory McIlroy knows this. Sky blue. Grass green. If I write a piece proclaiming TIGER WOODS DONE, you will not read it, you will not care. It’s been written 9,000 times to date, maybe more. His body is broken, his best years are far, far behind him. These are facts more readily accepted in 2017 than, say, climate change.
Just, of course, don’t actually acknowledge that if you’re a tour player or hell hath rain down upon you from golf’s stuffy, hypocritical bad-take bourgeoisie.
Yesterday, Pat Perez — who is ranked 637 spots higher than Tiger Woods in the current Official World Golf Ranking — spit these words about the extremely hurt and bad Big Cat on his SiriusXM Radio show with ESPN’s Michael Collins.
“(Tiger) knows he can’t beat anybody. But what he does he’s got this new corporation that he’s started so he’s got to keep his name relevant to keep the corporation going. So he’s going to show up to a few events, he’s going to try to play, he’s going to show … the Monster bag, he’s going to show the TaylorMade driver, he’s going get on TV. He’s got the Nike clothes, he’s got to keep that stuff relevant.”
Today, Perez walked this comment back because Golf People got mad at him. Because this is golf — a very dumb sport that I love dearly that also loves moralization and order and the like.
This is very, very, very stupid for two simple reasons.
Reason No. 1: Tiger Woods is old and bad.
This is a good and fine opinion to have, based in some fact! Tiger Woods is, assuredly, old and bad. There’s nothing wrong with saying this, and you shouldn’t expect every single PGA Tour player to bow at the altar of a guy that didn’t seem to ever really relate to the the majority of them. The financial critiques are more debatable, but at least fair from an outside perspective, too! When you unnecessarily ship your breaking-down body halfway across the world to play one round at an event where an appearance fee is available, these are the criticisms you open yourself up to, Big Cat.
Reason No. 2: Everyone always complains about golfers not opening up.
Even if Perez had been perfectly spot on or not, golf needs open, honest communication from its players. Media members like myself lament cookie-cutter Dustin Johnson and Tiger pressers all the time. They suck, and they’re most often a total waste of your time. An open, honest quote from Perez like this about Woods is rare. It’s compelling, it’s fresh, it’s honest. This is a game that has long suffered at the hands of agents and handlers and a tour office that has pasteurized their players to be palatable to brands that sell HR Services, financial products, and heart medication to old white men. Golf needs a younger audience. It needs diversity. More honest perspectives are good for the game.
Golf needs more dudes calling old and bad Tiger Woods old and bad. What golf assuredly doesn’t need is a reason for players to expose themselves even less.
Continued criticism of Pat Perez’s comments will do exactly that.
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