Nike To Pull Tapes Of Tiger Woods British Open

Posted July 20th, 2009 at 10:32 pm in Golf Legends

July 2009 – There is a rumor going around on the Internet that Nike will pull the tapes of their star player representative after a dismal showing at this year's British Open in order to save Tiger from further embarrassment. Tiger was mad at himself and disgusted with his performance, but embarrassed? The great Bobby Jones was the guy that said golf is played on a field 6" wide, that area between the ears that we call a brain, meaning golf is just as much mental than it is physical. We all know that Tiger has the talent to win every time he tees it up. The fact that he doesn't is appreciated by every real golf enthusiast out there.

I find it hard to believe that Nike would be this stupid, even after the Lebron James "dunking" incident. It was James himself and his monster ego that demanded the evidence be sensored. Believe me, Tiger Woods is no Lebron James. I know Tiger Woods personally and he is one of the most humble of people off the course.

The sportswriters are already second guessing him about his swing even though he has won multiple times since his comeback from knee surgery, they are hinting that he should drop Hank Haney as his swing coach. Sure, by Tiger's standards he has had a rough stretch of majors since the Masters Tournament but so what?

Tiger is very much a human being with human frailties. If you wish to think him super-human for what he has done in the game of golf go ahead and believe that. But don't join the legions of armchair quarterbacks that take joy in his failures. A guy like Tiger has a target on his back each time he doesn't win a tournament he is entered in, there is useless speculation and mean-spirited rumor mongering out there that has Tiger ready to fire his swing coach, his knee hasn't healed right, Hank Haney is messing up his swing, even that he is having difficulties with his marriage and is depressed. Simply not true.

One comment about the Nike thing, if it is true that they want tapes pulled of Tiger's British Open performance they have a lot of work to do. They may be able to intimidate TV networks where Nike's ad dollars are at stake because money overrules common sense but Tiger was out there for all the world to see and non-Nike advertisers will tell them to go fish.

Tiger had one stretch of bad holes that cost him a cut in a major, all that means is he had a bad day, stuff happens even at his level. Believe me, no one feels more badly about that missed cut than Tiger Woods. Mark O'Meara, Tiger's good friend pointed out that he had played with Tiger before the Open and his ball striking was great and that "it only shows that Tiger is human like the rest of us."

I agree, and if Nike tries to erase the evidence of a one bad day for publicity reasons it will cost them a heck of a lot more in lost sales than it did because Tiger didn't win. It will backfire on them big time, already I am hearing whispers of a Nike boycott. Be careful Nike, you are huge but so was General Motors.