What Tiger Doesn't Seem to Understand
by Adam Fonseca on Jan 19, 2012 2:55 PM EST
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PrintESPN's Bob Harig wrote a short piece today detailing Tiger Woods' reaction (via phone interview) to Hank Haney's new book - The Big Miss - set to hit stores in March 2012. In the article Woods is quoted as calling Haney's work "unprofessional and very disappointing", followed by accusing Haney of simply writing the book "for money" and that Woods "won't waste [his] time reading it".
Tiger, you are missing the point.
As with any personal relationship, there are always two sides to the story when things go sour. That is probably one of the easiest concepts to grasp for us "lay people", but once again Tiger shows he is completely unable to accept this as fact.
The fact of the matter is this, Tiger: your actions on and off the golf course impact others around you. This is especially true for those people who are paid because of your performance on the fairways, including your coaches, caddies, and other golf journalists assigned to cover you. While you may not care much about this concept, it still holds true.
Sometimes saying "I'm sorry" in front of a news camera doesn't quite cut it. Sometimes you have to actually change your behavior, and sometimes the choices you make following a personal trial are just as important as those made prior to any scandal. You basically had two options following November 2009: change the way you behave and become a better person to those around you, or do the opposite.
Hank Haney may make a good amount of money off of his book. People - like myself - are going to be curious as to what Tiger Woods' coach during the "scandal years" has to say about his most prized pupil. Haney would be stupid to not tell his side of the story, and not just because he has every right to tell it.
Unlike Woods, not everyone involved or associated with the public figure has to choose to live in a protective bubble. That faster that you learn that, Tiger, the better.
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Correct me if I am wrong, but it seems as if you are saying Haney has every right to write this book considering how poorly Tiger Woods treated him. If that is the case, I find it ridiculous.
A golfer terminated his relationship with a coach. This seems to happen all the time (& in reverse as well with Rick Smith/Gary Woodland as a recent example). The fact it happened around the time Tiger was a de facto Kardashian seems almost coincidental.
In my opinion, Tiger doesn’t demand everyone attached to him to live in a protective bubble. He, to a fault, doesn’t like people making money off his name if he isn’t in on it (his habit of not committing to tournaments until the last minute is an example of this manifesting negatively). Tiger didn’t seem to have any problem with ‘The Haney Project’, a program Haney doesn’t get for being Mark O’Mera’s coach.
Haney has every right to write about his experiences with an all time great. And Tiger has every right not to like it.
by TwoNuse on Jan 19, 2012 6:02 PM EST via mobile reply actions
Correct me if I am wrong, but it seems as if you are saying Haney has every right to write this book considering how poorly Tiger Woods treated him. If that is the case, I find it ridiculous.
That’s not what I’m saying at all. Just like anyone else, I haven’t read the book as of this post; however, that doesn’t change the fact that Haney has every right to share his experiences working with Tiger.
I just think Tiger’s comments might be a bit premature, unless he has already read his own copy (which would be a complete contradiction to what he said above).
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by Adam Fonseca on Jan 19, 2012 8:02 PM EST up reply actions
Looks like Butch
has the “class” war won in this instance. There is an unwritten code of ethics amongst teaching pros – “thou shalt not bite the hand that fed you”. The content of the book remains to be seen, so I will hold off on an opinion about it until then.
If Haney has the “right” to write a book about Woods and whatever that will entail, then surely Woods has the right to be pissed about it? Or does the hypocrisy cut only one way?
Milk it Hank, your ten minutes are nearly up.
So the place to start in this whole thing is Harig. There is no point to calling Tiger for an interview about a book that NEITHER of them have read. Typical of an irresponsible tabloid “journalist”, though.
However, Adam, you have a pretty big piece of this wrong. Tiger hasn’t been the one talking about the split between he and Haney. Haney made the announcement. Haney talked in interviews. And now Haney is writing the book. Your diatribe has nothing to do with what Haney says is in the book Flailing at Woods and how he handled things is pretty much irrelevent to the book according to Haney.
So far, the only things we know about the book are (1) it has a really dumb title, and (2) Haney is on record saying that this is not a kiss and tell book.
I sort of agree with you about TIger’s reaction to this ridiculous interview. It’s a little surprising that he would overreact on a subject he doesn’t know anything about – but disagree with you on the resaon. I’m surprised that he didn’t just say “I haven’t read the book, so I can’t comment.”
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