The presser for Tiger's Chevron World Challenge is today.  Undoubtedly, he will be inundated with tens (if not a hundred) dumb questions about Steve, Phil, Butch, and himself.  I can see it now:

• Do you hate Phil Mickelson?
• What kind of cup size do you think Phil would fit into?
• Will you use someone else at the President's Cup?
• Do you support the rumored Jim Mackay-Steve Williams charity boxing match?

It's going to be ridiculous.  And you're not going to get anything more from Tiger than what he said in his press release.  He's disappointed and it's been handled.  The end. 

Still, the media keeps saying that Steve Williams is "embattled" and that Tiger Woods is "pissed off" and that George W. Bush had "shoes thrown at him, which is a big insult over there (Iraq)."

No one knows if those adjectives are true or not.

Reporters are throwing around that Williams might get fired, or might be asked to not caddy at the President's Cup since Phil will undoubtedly be on the team.  No.  That won't happen.  This is golf - the gentleman's game, remember?.  Even though gentlemen occasionally call either other pricks and relay untrue stories in private, they are also gracious in public.  A golf tournament is public.  Expect nothing less than class from all involved now that this has happened.

But, this is a perfect time to chastise the media for how they're treating this.  Once again, they've blown it out of proportion.  I've been saying this since the story broke.  The humor in the story has nothing to do with what was said.  Rather, it has something to do with how it all played out before us.

Butch said something outlandish while reminding us that he worked for Tiger for 10 years.  Steve Williams predictably didn't back off of his comments.  Tiger Woods said absolutely nothing and the media turned it into a reaming of the century.  Phil came out the winner in all of this and made people wonder, "Who is Jim Mackay?"  (Response: "Ohhhhh.  Bones.  Gotcha.")

Lorne Rubestein puts this into proper perspective by saying the response in the media is exactly why players and officials try to say as little as possible in public comments.

Sure, there are welcome exceptions such as Ames, Rocco Mediate and John Daly. But PGA Tour rookies are given media training at which they're advised to stick to the party line that all is well in their world and not to say anything remotely intriguing. The unnatural style drains the life out of them.

No wonder news conferences can put you to sleep. They're lame excuses for human conversation. One-on-one, on the record conversations with many players aren't much better. Players can be so controlled, they're barely breathing. What they do and how they do it is far more interesting than what they say.

That's why Williams's candid comments have sparked so much interest. They're all over the blogosphere. The New York Times' fine golf writer, Larry Dorman, had a piece yesterday about the matter on the front page of the sports section. Geoff Shackelford, on his lively website, geoffshackelford.com, has been having a field day with the story. Williams's comments have the folks who post regularly on golfclubatlas.com salivating.

There's something to be said for getting our giggles out of something like this.  But the reason why we do is because something of this magnitude - a real 1.2 on the Richter scale of sports blow ups - is so rare in golf.  2008 was a diamond in the rough in that regard.  Kelly Tilghman, Dave Seanor, those Sky Sports commentators, Carolyn Bivens, and others committed far worse gaffes than Steve Williams. 

Since it is so rare that someone inside the ropes breaks message, though, we go nuts.  Honestly, if you really got a kick out of this and you heard some of the stuff these guys said with professional journalists around off the record, you might go into euphoria.

That said, I am going to pull a PGA Tour player and stop saying anything.