Tiger Woods Masters preview on Late Night Show?

A noticeably matured yet whiskerless Tiger Woods allowed himself to be the butt of Jimmy Fallon's jokes last night on 'Late Night' in order to push the latest EA Sports Game, "Tiger Woods PGA 12: The Masters" to a somewhat accepting audience.


Fallon used golf terms with double entendres such as "shaft" and "foursome" to force the seemingly stiff Woods into a smile. Tiger's tired eyes said much to his fans even though he appeared to remain a good sport all the while.


"And we laughed at your pain," needled Fallon. "I mean, not even making jokes. It kind of wrote itself."


It was the following segment, a demonstration of "PGA Tour 12: The Masters" on Wii, that was the real purpose of Woods' appearance. Tiger was there for the money shot, to be a walking billboard for EA Sports and to sell 'Late Night' viewers on the new game, not to talk about his personal life golf instuctor catfights or how his own golf game is coming round (although Woods was truly proud of his recently remodeled Jupiter estate, complete with four golf holes and four different types of sand in the bunkers.)


Amy Poehler, who looked as if this was the first time she ever picked up a golf club, was there to loosen up Woods (which she did when she swung the Wii controller) and to add further comic relief to Fallon's innocuous barbs.


The three played the 12th hole at Augusta National: Golden Bell. The shortest hole on the course and one of the three holes included in Amen Corner, Golden Bell is a deceptive par-3, 155 yard hole in which accuracy is key as winds and a narrow green complicate the shot.

Both Amy and Jimmy were feeding off of each other, trying to take Tiger out of his game while waiting for the big money shot to occur, perhaps for birdie or par? They hoped to see Woods loosen up and boogie down a bit but Tiger remained as stolid as if he were in real competition, game face on, not taking any prisoners.


After what seemed to be a hundred shots from Poehler who was desperately trying to get over Rae's Creek and with Fallon using his putter like a baseball bat, Woods finally got his chance to claim victory.


Standing over a three-foot putt, Tiger Woods confidently holed out...for a bogey.


Preview of things to come?


Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) related his feelings on Twitter:

First win of the year, unfortunately it was against @jimmyfallon.



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Is cat fight over Tiger Woods golf game justified?

Past and present golf instructors of Tiger Woods have been taking trash talk to a whole new level with commentary, tweets and barbs aimed at character defamation and criticism over the former world number-one's golf swing.

Some say that Lee Trevino innocently started the 'battle of the golf coaches' when he suggested that Tiger Woods should "get his mindset straight and quit messing with all these instructors...then his winning ways will return."

Instead of reminding Trevino that every great golfer should have a teacher to guide and assist, and probably worried that Woods would listen and clean house, Sean Foley (Woods' current tutor) pointed the proverbial finger at former coach Hank Haney stating, "There was nothing about what he was doing in his previous swing that made any sense to me," mentioning that Haney built most of his teaching career around Woods.

Isn't making a name for himself using Tiger Woods as a springboard exactly what Foley is attempting to do?

In an effort to defend himself, Hank Haney came out swinging and, since he is getting accustomed to Twitter, answered his accuser with retweets from fans such as:

"Sean Foley=Clueless"

A vocal Butch Harmon has recently chimed into the conversation perhaps standing up for Haney (?) by pointing a finger at Foley with this barb, "it's not a good idea to completely do a redo" of someone's golf swing suggesting Tiger looked a bit like a "Nationwide Tour player trying to get his card."

The harsh roundtable criticism is childish, hateful and unnecessary. Haney was a good influence on Woods, helping him to win six majors "and 45% of the events he played grabbing a top-ten finish 85% of the time during the last three years he was his coach." Sean Foley has been instructing Woods for about a year now waiting to see his influence take effect...perhaps the reason for his war of words.

Tiger Woods is silent on the subject but should he speak up? Should he tweet, "stop the fighting already because it's not good for my game or for the game of golf?"

In my opinion, golf is supposed to be a sport of positive influence, where tipping one's hat and acknowledging good play is expected; in other words, spitting, throwing clubs and harsh words should be kept off camera and/or should be worked out in a constructive way.

With Woods making the talk show circuit on Late Night and on Morning Drive, it could be that the media will help set the record straight. Perhaps Jimmy Fallon will dig in and get answers on March 16th but it's more likely both will be content to allow the feud to propagate hamming it up instead with a few holes of mini golf.

 

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Can devastation in Japan create golf heroes at Doral?

After hearing that his family in Japan was okay, Ryo Ishikawa finished round one of the WGC-Cadillac Championship on Doral Golf Course at 6-under par and only a single stroke off the lead ..."his best round on the PGA Tour by three strokes," as stated by PGATour.com.

Ishikawa, unable to focus completely because of the tragedy in his homeland, still managed to fire off two birdies in his final six holes.

Although misfortune hit closer to home for Yuta Ikeda, he managed to finish his round with a 74. The only other Japanese golfer in the field, Hiroyuki Fujita has advanced into the second round with a 71.

The honor of being able represent Japan as competitive golfers, especially with the devastation of an 8.9 magnitude earthquake looming heavy in their minds, makes aspiring to PGA Tour status all the more appealing. Ishikawa stated that his position (as well as other athletes from Japan) is unique in that, "we can provide encouragement and hope for the people of Japan."



From national heroes to global emissaries, Ishikawa, Ikeda and Fujita are playing for more than just a golf trophy and FedEx points; they are helping to bring their people out of despair by using sport as a unifying agent to help heal a country damaged by the cruel hand of nature.


Golf for Beginners supports these golfers in their positive quest and prays for the safety of the people of Japan and Hawaii and all others devastated by this earthquake.


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