Tiger Woods isn't open to a whole lot of scrutiny, he generally carries himself as perfect as you could hope for a person of his caliber. However, if there's a dent in the armor it's his continued verbal assaults towards professional cameramen taking flash pictures during his down swing.
This happened again this weekend at the Doral Open on the 9th hole. After a birdie on the 8th, Woods was poised for a classic run at leader Geoff Ogilvy, but he flinched at the flash and nearly hit his drive on the short Par 3 into the water. Woods bogeyed and wasn't able to get back on track.
It's been reported that Woods called the man a "jackass" and threatened to break the neck of the next photographer to do so.
This morning on ESPN's First Take, Tiger went with the "heat of the moment" reasoning:
"It's been frustrating because that's what been happening lately. It's one of the things that comes with playing in the last group, one of the distractions we have to deal with. Each time it's happened, well three out of four times, I made bogey. At the time I needed to make birdie, I flinched on it. [The photographer] got me in transition on my downswing. You have no idea what's been said on the golf course all the time, in any sport really. It was the heat of the moment. That one shot took the momentum that I had built on No. 8."Are these outbursts excusable? It's an unwritten code of conduct that pictures should not be taken on the downswing and can justifiably mess up one's swing, but I'm not sure Woods is receiving proper criticism for the level of his outbursts. We can't be sure he threatened a photographer with physical harm, but that's obviously taking it a little far. If this were Sergio Garcia or Vijah Singh we'd be all over them demanding an absurd penalty.
Here's the swing of interest on the 9th hole of the Doral Open on Sunday:
more
