Mike T. Limpag
Fair Play
TIGER Woods ended his silence and did a PGMA the other day, saying he “was deeply sorry” for his indiscretions.
Everybody, it seems, already knows what he did—even how he did it and with whom.
Interestingly enough, as one report said, the reaction was divided along gender lines—the women tended to be unforgiving, unlike the guys.
One interesting sidelight though was the boycott of the golf writers group of the event.
It wasn’t a press conference since only a few were invited and none were allowed to ask any questions—prodding the boycott.
The timing of the event was questioned, too.
It was made on the second day of the Accenture Match Play Championships, and as expected, it grabbed the limelight and the world’s best players were reduced to being sidebars of the day’s biggest story.
Accenture is the one who tailor-made their marketing campaign with the phrase, “Go on, be a Tiger” and was the first to drop Woods like a hot potato.
That catch-phrase, of course, doesn’t seem right, now.
Experts lambasted Woods for being too arrogant on the course and over his career, but I thought he made the right move in admitting that he was arrogant.
“I knew my actions were wrong, but I convinced myself that normal rules didn’t apply…I thought I could get away with whatever I wanted to…I felt I was entitled.”
He did get away with it because he was Tiger Woods for quite some time, but right now, he’s paying the price.
As for me? Well, Tiger shot to fame with what he did on the course, and there’s no question that he’s the best ever, so let’s leave those other stuff where they belong.
I hope he does well in his therapy and goes back to golf—like I said, it’s a gender divide thing.
And when he does finally get back, the first event he’d be playing, I’m sure, will have ratings that golf execs didn’t even dream of.
BACK TO BACOLOD. By the time you read this, I should be safely in Bacolod City, covering the PAL Interclub for the fourth time.
I should also either learn why people love golf so much or why they don’t call it any other four-letter stuff.
It’s off to the PAL Interclub for me—the country’s biggest tournament—but this time, I’m not just going to cover it. I’m going to play in it.
Last year, I got to the event a bit late, so I missed the media division, and all the fun.
While some mediamen who had golfing experience were criticizing their shots, the newbies were poking fun at each other, “Lingaw kaayo, gaproblema si ____ pangita sa iyang bola.”
That gave me the courage to finally try this game, this time around.
The PAL scoring system awards a point for a double bogey, two for bogey and so on…so my target will be to score at least two—one for each day. It may sound modest for some, but considering I haven’t even teed off once, it’s probably near impossible to get that.
And it makes writing the phrase “only managed to score 36,” a whole lot more difficult.
I love Bacolod City, since I get to practice speaking Ilonggo again. I also have lots of memories—both good and not so good—in the City.
I almost got ran over twice by a lady driver in Bacolod while I was just walking in the sidewalk. She was on the opposite lane, and she turned so suddenly to beat an incoming flow, and while I cursed her silently and walked behind her car, she backed up for attempt No. 2.
I remember cursing her loudly and giving her the one-finger salute.
And I wasn’t sorry.
(mikelimpag@gmail.com)