* Mike Vaccaro’s column that basically excused Tiger Woods for skipping last weekend’s The Barclays tournament [Open Mike: “Thanks, Tiger,” The Post and nypost.com, Aug. 26] is way off the mark. Woods’ passing on The Barclays flies in the face of protocol and sportsmanship. The PGA Tour last year gave Woods what he wanted in the form of a shorter season: The season-ending Tour Championship is now in mid-September instead of its previous early November date. Apparently that wasn’t enough, as Woods sat out the first event in the PGA Tour’s playoffs, for which he is the No. 1 seed, ostensibly due to exhaustion following his win in the PGA Championship. Exhaustion? Steve Stricker won The Barclays last week after a top-25 finish in the PGA, and Ernie Els finished third in the PGA then tied for fourth in The Barclays. Plenty of other golfers also played in both events, and I hardly think that they were suffering from exhaustion. Apparently Woods didn’t want to tell the truth: He skipped The Barclays due to his lack of previous success at Westchester Country Club. Woods finished as the No. 1 golfer in the regular season based on the FedEx Cup points standings, and barring an injury had an obligation to play The Barclays, lack of wins at its host course be damned.
Woods, for all his talent, is a selfish, spoiled brat who always has excuses for passing on events at which his presence was expected. Hopefully PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem will get a backbone and take action against Woods the next time he pulls a stunt like he did with The Barclays.
KURT NIELSEN
Closter, N.J.