RE: Tiger’s Coming Out Party

Colleen, did you happen to catch Tiger’s post-match interview off the 18th green? It was classic Tiger — and not in a good way.

Now that the Master is/was behind him, he went right back to being the aloof, curt, seemingly annoyed interview he always was. The contrition he was forcing (I believe, faking) in the days and weeks leading up to the tournament was but a distant memory. He was again providing non-answers to questions he demonstrably viewed as non-starters or annoying, scoffingly rejecting the very premise of the question. That was fine when Tiger was merely the best athlete in the world; not so much now that he’s under the media microscope and supposedly trying to win back the hearts and minds of the average fan.

Now, he takes some more undefined “time off.” The message I heard from this short, impromptu interview was, “Now that I played nice with you people, and now that the tournament is behind me, and now that I no longer have immediate use for you (the press), I’m going back into my shell…and I can go back to being myself and stop coddling the press. Like it or lump it.”

It was only a two-minute segment, but it spoke volumes to me about how Tiger, despite his mastery as an athlete, still has a long way to go when it comes to PR and media relations.

UPDATE: Video here.

UPDATE II: Guy who agrees with me, at Golf.com, here.