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Wednesday May 23, 2012
Michael Rand started RandBall with hopes that he could keep lies from conquering the minds of the weak. So far, he's only succeeded in using the word "redacted" a lot. He welcomes suggestions, news tips, links of pure genius, and pictures of pets in Halloween costumes here, though he already knows he will regret that last part.
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Monday (Phil and Tiger) edition: Wha' Happened?
Posted by: Michael Rand under Golf Updated: April 12, 2010 - 9:03 AM
We learned a lot of things from The Masters this year, but the overriding sentiment is this: It couldn't have gone much better for Phil Mickelson or much worse for Tiger Woods (file photo).
Tiger could have shot a pair of 80s and missed the cut? That would have been bad, but this was worse: watching the man he used to dominate in majors, the man who appears to be everything he isn't off the course (and we say "appears" because you just never know) ... that man slipped on the green jacket while Tiger played and sounded a lot like the Tiger of the past -- except he didn't win, and the act is framed differently now.
At least to us, Tiger's on-course demeanor and post-tournament defiance / self-critique of his own play, which has always had a bouquet of "Had I been on my game, I would have kicked everyone's [redacted]" to it, seemed less palatable than ever Sunday. The conflicting forces are these: to be a true comeback story and win back the maximum amount of public support, Tiger has to present a vulnerability and really mean it. But in order to try to maintain the hold he has over other golfers, he can't allow that to happen. To quote the movie Dirty Pretty Things, "Good at chess usually means bad at life." We've always taken that to mean that to become so good at something so involved as chess (or golf), you often do so at the expense of other parts of yourself. Not sure if that applies to Tiger, but we were reminded of it while thinking about the weekend.
He seems to have chosen to try to remain the bully and ultimate calculating competitor, which is probably the best golf move and might win a lot of fans a decent part of the way back. But while it was clear over the past four days that majors are still more fun with Tiger in contention, it was also clear that -- again, at least for us -- we can't watch him play golf or listen to him speak in nearly the same way because of all that has happened. Even when he was asked afterwards about controlling his emotions on the course (in a wonderfully aggressive two-minute interview by CBS) and said, "I think people are making way too much of a big deal of this thing," two sets of eyebrows were raised in our household.
It stood in stark contrast to the scene not too long after when Mickelson was sharing what absolutely looked like a genuine moment with his ailing wife. The RandBall Better Half, no fan of Tiger, was almost in tears watching Phil and Amy. If there was a knock on Phil in his second-fiddle days -- other than overly aggressive shot selections at poor times -- it was that he was perceived to lack the drive or killer instinct Woods had. Maybe if he worked a little harder, spent a few more hours away from the family, he could get over the top? Phil probably does work harder now than he used to, but he still appears to have the right balance in his life -- the type of balance Tiger might be looking for or at least say he's looking for, even as old instincts die hard.
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