I'm Sorry, Jim Furyk, For Missing Your First Win Since '07
by Ryan Ballengee on Mar 22, 2010 11:29 AM EDT
in Pro Golf
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PrintThe deadline for my attention was fast closing in on 7:30 pm and moving over to either Golf Channel or ESPN to watch the Tiger interviews. (Which would I choose?! Went with Golf Channel first since I had read the transcript from ESPN before it aired.) Meanwhile, Jim Furyk was standing off of the 18th fairway at Innisbrook with a nasty lie for his approach home.
For some reason, I wanted to see Furyk extricate himself from that situation. I stayed around to watch the shot. It was a dead shank that nearly killed Roger Maltbie of NBC and was beautifully captured by SI on film. As soon as the ball came to rest, I changed over to Tiger's interview.
It didn't matter that Furyk only had a two shot lead and was another dead shank away from going to overtime with KJ Choi. Nevermind that each had gone winless for quite some time in an official event - Furyk since '07 in Canadia, Choi since the '08 Sony Open in Hawaii. All that mattered were the non-answers that Tiger would give to Tom Rinaldi and Kelly Tilghman.
The people at Transitions knew that was the case, too. They told Bob Harig of ESPN that they were none too pleased with how the final ten minutes of their multimillion dollar investment were allocated.
"I would say that given our partnership with the Golf Channel, we are a little bit disappointed that they chose to air that story at the conclusion of a very exciting tournament," said David Cole, managing director for Transitions. "We invest a lot of money in the Transitions Championship as a title sponsor."
For the end of a thrilling tournament, all Tiger did was remove a lot of the public intrigue. Not even the health care reform vote last night could have done that, despite all of the Republicans on Tour and that watch golf on TV. (Thanks, Comrad Obama.)
Fortunately, Jim Furyk could not have cared less if it was just him and KJ Choi watching each other play. He told the press after winning and being notified of Tiger's interviews, "I don't really care if it's a three-page spread or a little blurb in the corner of the paper because the article is about him. I won the damn thing and it really doesn't matter to me. I've never been someone that's craved the notoriety or the limelight."
The funny thing is that Tiger Woods stole the limelight from Furyk's last win, four months ago. Albeit unofficial, Furyk won Tiger's Chevron World Challenge out in California in December. He beat an all-star field that was largely overshadowed then by Tiger's absence from the event. This time, Furyk was overshadowed by Tiger appearing in public.
I should have watched Furyk play. Winning on the PGA Tour - much less doing so for the 14th time - is a pretty rare achievement. Nearly killing a reporter and a photog in the process is even more thrilling. Instead, I settled for two parallel interviews that revealed little information.
I'm sorry, Jim.
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Ryan......I must confess
that I too missed Furyk’s last shot (and he was on my fantasy team!!). I saw the shank, but that’s when I tried to set up my DVR to record the interviews and missed Furyk. I agree with you on the non-answers thing….“Private matter”, “Police Report”, “That’s between Us” etc., but the one that spoke volumes was the non answer to the “What are you in Therapy for”….that’s private…HUH??? When everyone thinks he was there for “sex addiction” why was it so hard just to admit what everyone believes? Was it because he was there for a “different” kind of addiction? A big red flag for me. Also, if I hear “peel back the layers” again I’ll scream. All in all, 10 minutes of nothing.
The Saints ARE the SUPER BOWL CHAMPS....WHO DAT!
I watched the entire tournament on the weekend.
I was in the Clubhouse at Sawgrass on Sunday along with 60 plus other members and “golf fans” watching. When the TW interview was coming on, only three people opted out to go watch it. When the tournament ended, many of us went out for our usual Sunday night post tournament putting contest on the practice green. I for one am looking forward to Arnies tournament this week. I wonder what the Overshadowing TV plan for this week will be. Won’t bother me much as I will be at Bay Hill working.
"pain is only weakness leaving the body"
I just answered my own Overshadowing question.
TGC has the tournament the first two days. Good luck trying to watch the tournament Thursday and Friday fellas and gals. You will be listening to Kelly Tilghman groveling on about her interview. LOL
"pain is only weakness leaving the body"
Jumpin, I stayed with the TOURNAMENT too,
knowing I would be seeing the interviews ad nauseum…Some damm good golf coming down the stretch…18 was as good as it gets…How much did you lose putting? be upright honest and sincere now…lol hahaha..Ryan, as a GWAA card carrying member it disappoints me that you left the drama on the course….STUB
Ok honestly Stub
I lost , but I can’t say how much as gambling is not allowed at Sawgrass. I did donate 135 wooden golf tee’s to a couple of guys though. wink
"pain is only weakness leaving the body"
Stayed with the tourney, but that might be because I was on the grounds.
Either way, I figured Tiger’s interview would be played about 23490238 times the rest of the night. Turns out my estimate was a bit low.
Johnny Miller
must forget his shank heard around the world at the 1972 Bing Crosby. Whole articles were written about his final round 2nd shot on the 16th hole. No I wasn’t watching but recall Dave Hill mentioning it in his book ‘Teed off’.
Miller’s flawed memory also includes his winning the San Francisco City Championship.
"Tiger Woods stole the limelight" ???
No – Tiger didn’t “steal” anything. Let’s get the facts straight.
Five minute interviews were offered and accepted by ESPN and xxx Golf Channel. (CBS decided it was more important to play the big dog card and refused the offer.
With the offer came a contract stating that the interview would not be aired until 7:30 Sunday night. Why 7:30 ? To give the Transitions tournament plenty of time to finish even if it ran a little past the standard expected finish time of 6:00 eastern. xxx Golf Channel and the tournament would also have a reasonable amount of time to do their interviews and whatever else they might want to do.
Woods and his people were making a reasonable attempt to protect the tournament.
What couldn’t be predicted when the interviews were recorded and the contracts signed was the weather that caused all kinds of delays and pushed the finish later than anyone could have expected.
Buc has it right – it doesn’t take more than half a second’s thought to know that xxx Golf Channel and ESPN would have it on their web sites and would be replaying the interviews again and again and again…if for no other reason than to let Rich Lerner and that bunch of brain dead “analysts” pretend to be all knowing and all seeing in re-runs.
The othre thing we all knew – even if we didn’t know we knew it – was that Tiger wasn’t actually going to say anything we didn’t already know. That’s the way he is.
The big question is this – did anybody manage to keep a straight face through these two “interviews” ? That pitiful excuse for an interview by Tom Rinaldi on ESPN was absolutely hilarious. The guy should never be allowed to do another interview again. Tilghman wasn’t much better, but she tried to get away with the old “60 Minutes” trick of putting in the single shot of Tiger’s bracelet. It was an obvious setup and amazingly lame.
Facts is facts – you’re not allowed to make up your own facts. Tiger didn’t “steal” anything.
"this ball will fit in that fairway"
hmmmm interesting thoughts CG
So if the interview did indeed get taped, why didn’t they wait until the “LIVE GOLF” broadcast was over ? Not that I care as I didn’t watch it until it was repeated on Good Morning America today as part of his team tiger PR damage control.
"pain is only weakness leaving the body"
that's all on the execs.
That’s where network executives show their immaturity. They couldn’t air before 7:30 – they each knew the other had an interview and didn’t want to get scooped by the other, but they didn’t want to be completely obvious that they didn’t care about the ongoing tournament. Tiger is a bigger story than Jim Furyk thanks to 14 years of hype.
It’s all about ratings – not reality.
"this ball will fit in that fairway"
Actually, by announcing that there would be an interview at all, Tiger stole the limelight. It could’ve aired at 10:30 and would’ve stolen the limelight.
Find me! Email: ryan@thegolfnewsnet.com, Twitter: http://twitter.com/waggleroomryan, or Facebook: http://facebook.com/waggleroom.
by Ryan Ballengee on Mar 22, 2010 1:21 PM EDT up reply actions
why is Ryans comment rediculous ?
I wish it had been at 10:30 pm as I could have watched the Bobby Jones movie scheduled to air at 8:00 PM est on TGC. It was never aired as promissed as TGC repeated tigers interview like 100 times until 1:00 am in the morning,
"pain is only weakness leaving the body"
Ridiculously accurate, yes
Find me! Email: ryan@thegolfnewsnet.com, Twitter: http://twitter.com/waggleroomryan, or Facebook: http://facebook.com/waggleroom.
by Ryan Ballengee on Mar 22, 2010 1:37 PM EDT up reply actions
By the way
Anyone that had watched Jim Furyks second shot on the 18th would know that it was NOT a shank, but indeed did bounce off the tree that was located just 30 ft or so in front of him and almost hitting Maltbie. Nearly killed ? lmao It never touched him. I’ve always said the reporters and fans are allowed too close to the action as is and because of that there is a nice little disclaimer on the back of the press pass and on the back of patrons tickets.
"pain is only weakness leaving the body"
Pro
this is Ryan’s weekly feature- Blow something out of proportion. Last week it was some woman getting tackled at Doral.
hahahahaha
Thats true Bill, after hearing about the supposed tackling, I watched the B Roll tape afterwards in the hopes to see the tackling first hand. Boy was I disapointed with the lack thereof. She received a Love Tap at best. Today I expected to see a picture of Maltbie with a Srixon Logo and golf dimples on his forehead. Another gastly disapointment.
Also CG is correct it was the networks fault, which goes back to what I have been saying for years now about unfair and unbalanced reporting. The timing of this peticular interview is suspect at best and proves my unbalanced reporting theory quite well.
"pain is only weakness leaving the body"
Haha, seeing as though I spent about 60 seconds on that post, yeah, that was blowing it out of proportion.
I love that your weekly feature is to come here, feel good about yourself by making a terribly unfunny remark, and then running away until next week.
Find me! Email: ryan@thegolfnewsnet.com, Twitter: http://twitter.com/waggleroomryan, or Facebook: http://facebook.com/waggleroom.
by Ryan Ballengee on Mar 22, 2010 4:26 PM EDT up reply actions
BOOM!
Way to go Ryan. You called it like I see it. I quit interacting with Mr. Empty, because I don’t want to cause him to have a heart attack…..lol
The Saints ARE the SUPER BOWL CHAMPS....WHO DAT!
whew,,, for a second there
I thought Ryan meant me LOL.. Well look at the bright side fellas, The multi colored courtesy phones seem to have stopped ringing. ARRRGH, I hope I don’t get screamed at for being a racist having used the colored inference.
"pain is only weakness leaving the body"
Uh-oh......Jumpn....you're in trouble!
The last time I made reference to those freakin “phones”……somebody blew up my garage, cut all my clubs in half, painted my yard blue, and put a semi-dead squirrel in my mailbox……better wear your hard hat…..lol lol
You Hater!
The Saints ARE the SUPER BOWL CHAMPS....WHO DAT!
Tiger who ???
I watched the tournament finish, as I suspected Woods interview will be on TGC for the next month solid. Nice win for Jim, but is there anbody more aggrevating to watch as he sets up to a shot ? Damn he’s SLOW !!! To quote the New York fans,..“hit the freakin’ ball already”. Didnt see anybody with a stop watch and Jimmy certainly takes his time out there. Of course, this time it wasn’t Harrington leadin’. Just sayin’. Way to go Jimbo, one for the old guys, lol………………………………………………..Z.
you're still away,...choke on it !
Hey 3irns...WATCH
that that “old guys” stuff…keep it up and I’ll have Jumpin do a beat down on ya…that is if he can get out from under the Big Wieze and her new contract… I know how much ya loves it, so this is for you 3….GO BIG WIEZE….STUB
I watched the Transition Championship and it
was just downright boring.
TV crew was sub-par, play was overall boring, and I just never got any sort of excitement watching it like I do for most close tournaments.
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