Touchy Tiger Woods fires back as parody piece gets under his skin

Tiger Woods’s scheduled comeback in a fortnight has taken on a vivid new dimension following his reaction to a journalist who dared to lampoon him.

The issue is not only the health of his game after four months rehabilitating a fragile back but his judgement in confronting a critic so publicly and with such vehemence.

As a rule of thumb, when a global figure reacts so strongly to ridicule it is a measure of how far removed he has become from the rank and file, and how little he understands the relationship with the media via which his subjects come to know him.

Woods was put out by a spoof interview written by veteran Golf Digest columnist Dan Jenkins, the scourge of any who set themselves above the game and its values.

Like many over the years, 84-year-old Jenkins has migrated from a position of devout admiration for arguably the greatest talent the game has seen to apostasy, all love and respect drained by the excess and indulgence that have warped the Woods story.

Among a number of targets, Jenkins pointed his pen at Woods’s manipulation of the media, his marital problems, his attitude to close friends, his propensity for sacking people and his tipping habits, or lack of them.

You might argue about the propriety of the stunt, apparently prompted by the refusal of Woods to meet numerous interview requests down the years. The issues raised by Jenkins were not new, his assault unprovoked and gratuitous.

The piece no doubt raised a few laughs in the bar, but did not reveal anything essential about Woods’s character or proclivities that we did not know. As such it ranks as low satire.

Under the guise of “guest contributor”, Golf Digest printed Woods’s response, the overly familiar construction of which was worthy of parody. “Jenkins faked an interview, which fails as parody, and is really more like a grudge-fuelled piece of character assassination,” Woods said.

“Journalistically and ethically, can you sink any lower? Whether it’s misreported information or opinions I think are way off base, I let plenty of things slide. But this time I can’t do that. The sheer nastiness of this attack, the photos and how it put false words in my mouth just had to be confronted.”

In the calmer waters of Dubai, Ian Poulter has targeted the runners-up spot behind Rory McIlroy in the Race to Dubai.

Poulter has jumped from 64th to 14th in the European Tour money list in the space of a fortnight. To claim second he must go one better than he managed in Turkey last week and win the European Tour season finale, the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai, which tees off today.

“I was 64th two weeks ago so it’s nice to come into this stretch and feel like you can salvage something of 2014. It would be nice to win this week and move nicely up that board,” said Poulter, who was sixth at the final World Golf Championship event of the season, the WGC-HSBC Champions, in China a fortnight ago.

A first win in two years would gloss what has been a disappointing campaign for Poulter. Injuries to wrist and shoulder destroyed the rhythm of his year, but the form he has shown in the European Tour season climax at least augers well for 2015.

Armed with new Titleist sticks, Poulter has reinforced his credentials as a robust competitor, and reminded a few that he is a golfer to be taken seriously when on form. “Obviously last week was a good week, but slightly disappointing not to finish the job off,” he said.

“The pleasing thing is the new equipment has gone in and I’ve settled into it very quickly, which potentially might have been a concern to a few people.

“If I analyse the last three weeks, overall, I’m very happy, but just slightly disappointed that I haven’t managed to get across the line at HSBC and obviously last week.

“But coming into a golf course that I like and I’ve had good success here, being pipped by Robert Karlsson in the play-off [in 2010] and obviously Henrik [Stenson] last year. I like the golf course, I like the set-up, and hopefully we can go one better.”