Although Tiger Woods pulled out of the Chevron World Challenge golf tournament this week, he remained the major topic of discussion yesterday as players competing in the event began arriving at the Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, Calif.
Padraig Harrington, the 2008 PGA Tour Player of the Year and one of Woods’ chief rivals on tour, said he has been reading about the car accident Woods had outside his Florida home early Friday morning and heard about Woods’ rumored infidelity and marital problems.
“It’s amazing how the rumors can build up,” said Harrington, who is among the 17 players in the field. “I’ve been on the other end of that stick, and it’s amazing how things can generate and build up. We’re all inquisitive. We all pick up the newspapers every day and read about stories. There’s sometimes only 25 percent of the fact and the rest are 75 percent made up. It’s just part of life.”
Woods pulled out of the tournament on Monday citing the injuries he suffered during the accident. His absence is an unexpected blow to the tournament, which serves as a fundraiser for his Tiger Woods Foundation.
Harrington didn’t question Woods’ motives for withdrawing from the tournament he has won four times.
“With him unconscious for six minutes, I hardly think he’s fit to play golf,” Harrington said. “So I think it’s reasonable for him not to be competing. We do miss him. We’d all like to be out there beating him this week, but we don’t get that chance.”
Stewart Cink, the British Open champion, added: “I’m disappointed not to be able to play against him. I’m a player, but also a big chunk of me is a golf fan, and I love seeing the stuff he does on the golf course.”
Harrington didn’t want to speculate on the cause of Woods’ car accident or whether he was having domestic problems.
“He was in a car crash and was injured,” Harrington said. “That’s the fact as much fact as we know and that’s causing him to not come here and play. That’s as far as I’m going with it at the moment. The rest is all interest and speculation and, as I said, it is natural for somebody of his profile for speculation and things for everybody to be talking about it.”
Later he added, “If Tiger Woods was not the No.1 sports star in the world, there wouldn’t be a story. It is what it is because of how good he is, and he’ll have to deal with it.”
Harrington was hopeful that as the event progresses there would be more discussion about the golf than Woods.
“I think it’s going to take away from the tournament the first couple of days,” he said. “Now we’re talking about Tiger not being here. But I think as the tournament starts and progresses through the rounds, I think it’ll be more about who’s playing well and who’s trying to win the tournament. I think the tournament itself will evolve very nicely once the play starts.”
Meanwhile, John Daly, who is playing this week in the Australian Open, said Woods should go public with his side of the story behind the accident and make an appearance at the Chevron tournament.
“The thing that Tiger needs to look at is, whatever happened, just tell the truth,” said Daly, who is no stranger to controversy. “Hopefully, he’ll go out there with his wife and his kids and support the sponsor of his tournament. The most important thing right now is for them to be together. He’ll get over this. The family will get over it. They’ll move on. Golf needs him.”