Tiger Woods won his fourth tournament of the year when he captured The Players Championship on Sunday — the fastest in his brilliant career he has gotten to four wins in a calendar year and his seventh win in his last 22 tournaments.
Four days later, the conversation relating to Woods is not about how he conquered the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass that was his nemesis or about his masterful navigation of the treacherous track and how it provided a preview of how he will attack Merion at next month’s U.S. Open in pursuit of his first major championship in five years.
No. The conversation about Woods four days later has been about everything but what he did with his golf clubs, everything but things like the remarkable up-and-down for par he made on No. 15 to save himself from collapsing after a double bogey on 14 nearly derailed him.
During the last two days, the talk about Tiger has devolved into a he-said/she-said cat fight about his Saturday spat with Sergio Garcia on the second hole, where Garcia accused Woods of deliberately distracting him.
You know the story by now. Woods, in the trees after hitting an errant tee shot and some 50 yards away from Garcia, pulled a five wood from his bag, drawing a cheer from the gallery around him as Garcia was addressing his shot, which he sliced into the woods.
Garcia accused Woods of negligence. Woods, scoffing at Garcia’s claim, said marshals told him Garcia already had hit. One report emerged on Tuesday quoting two marshals who called Woods a liar, saying they said nothing to him. And yesterday, the Florida Times-Union quoted two more marshals who were on the scene who said they were the ones who told him Garcia had hit already.
“It is not true and definitely unfair to Tiger,’’ Brian Nedrich told the Times-Union. “That’s because I was the one Tiger heard say that Sergio had hit.’’
Nedrich and fellow marshal Lance Paczkowski, who also was on the hole with Woods and Garcia, said they were within 10 yards of Woods at the time of the incident. Nedrich called it “disingenuous to suggest that Tiger is a liar,’’ adding, “He told the truth.”
The problem for Woods is that, post scandal, it is difficult to trust him because of how badly he duped not only his then-wife, but the world. So when incidents like what occurred Saturday occur, there is more scrutiny than before.
Fair or not, this is the new reality for Woods. He’s likely to pay for those scandalous indiscretions for the rest of his public life, because we never will view him the same as we did before. The conversation as it pertained to Woods always was about only golf and the remarkable things he was able to do inside the ropes so much better than his competitors.
But because of his transgressions outside the ropes, his story now seemingly always comes with more than a dash of soap-opera sauce.
Look at his 2013 already. Mixed in with his four victories are:
* The two-shot penalty for an illegal drop that caused him to miss the cut in Abu Dhabi.
* His in-your-face to the paparazzi, coming out publicly about his relationship with skier girlfriend Lindsey Vonn.
* His controversial illegal drop incident at Augusta, a gaffe for which he should have been disqualified but wasn’t.
* Reports of him being drunk with Vonn last week at a Manhattan gala on the eve of The Players Championship.
* A mildly controversial drop issue Sunday at Sawgrass on the 14th hole after he hit his tee shot into the water.
* And L’Affair Garcia, which as of yesterday, still had legs in the news cycle.
Woods surely must yearn for the quieter days when the only news he was making was about what he did with his golf clubs.