Frontpage Features

BY LIZ GORKOWSKI

Tiger Woods returned to the game of golf at the Masters in Augusta and the only thing I care about is can he still crush an opponent?  Can he thunder back from being down and take a tournament by storm?  Can he catch Jack Nicklaus and break his records?  Press members and fans were apparently annoyed that he didn’t answer all questions posed to him during the press conference early in the week.  Really?  What happened to the whole freedom of speech or freedom not to speak in this country?

Fans will argue that with fame, money and sponsorship comes responsibility and accountability.  Perhaps but his responsibility and accountability shouldn’t be to me or any other fan.  The only people Tiger has to be accountable to are his family and those that pay his salary.  If a sponsor doesn’t like his off course activities then drop him, if his wife doesn’t like his stupid, brainless, stupid decision to cheat on her over and over again then divorce him and take him for all he is worth.  Those are the individuals Tiger should have to provide  answers to about his extra curricular activities.  If the rest of the PGA players feel insulted by his actions and his “disrespect” to the game I suggest you keep quiet as Tiger single handedly thrust Golf into the national spotlight thus increasing your salary and opportunity for endorsement and I am pretty sure the game is going to get over this great disappointment.

This morning I was literally laughing out loud as I listened to the remarks made by the chairman of Augusta National Golf Course, Billy Payne concerning Tiger Woods.  This was part of his opening statement during his annual press conference at the Masters and no press member asked him to comment on Tiger Woods.  Try to hear a condescending voice playing God talking to Moses as you read the following remarks made by Payne in reference to Tiger, “It is not simply the degree of his conduct that is so egregious here; it is the fact that he disappointed all of us, and more importantly, our kids and our grandkids.  Our hero did not live up to the expectations of the role model we saw for our children.”   Really Billy?  Might I suggest that you climb off your sanctimonious soap box, shut your mouth and remember that you run a club that doesn’t permit  women membership.   Billy don’t attempt to fool yourself into believing that you are more of a moralistic individual then Tiger since you are teaching your children and grandchildren that it is permissible to discriminate.  Luckily for the PGA they can still keep their head in the sand on this issue since the Tournament is considered an “invitational” and not a PGA event.

Just for the record if my husband wandered down the same path as Tiger he would be running from a lot more than a 9 iron, but I can’t stand to listen to fans  say he let my son down because Tiger  is his role model.  Seriously do you think you are doing your job as a parent if a man you have never interacted with or held a single conversation with is your child’s role model? My children’s role models are and will always be people that make an actual difference in their lives on a daily basis.  Such as my husband who  is constantly trying to figure out how to make peoples lives better in war torn countries and always puts his family first; or my sister who teaches in a low income district in New York and can’t do enough for her nieces and my brother who runs into burning buildings for a living to save people he doesn’t know in one of the worst sections of Brooklyn yet becomes  a little kid when his son and nieces are within 10 feet of him.  Those are the people who are role models for my children and if Bella Joy and Kaitlyn want to grow up and emulate Tiger’s swing I am all for it because someone needs to take care of me in retirement.

FOR NOW I AM TRYING TO FIGURE OUT IF I CAN CHECK INTO  SOME FORM OF A REHAB FACILITY SO I CAN GET OUT OF FT LEAVENWORTH.