Tiger - could it be about to get worse?

[MikeH]

morning all
I know the performance enhancing drugs angle was alluded to in the 'Cheetah Woods' thread but two US websites have actually published something on the subject

As I've said before, as a golf magazine, Golf Monthly wouldn't really want to get into the what's happened away from the game debate but this is very much on course.

One would hope for the repuation of the wider game these stories didn't prove to be true

http://www.latimes.com/sports/columnists/la-columnist-bplaschke,0,5883852.columnist

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article...cat=14#comments

 

[MikeH]

The LA Times link wont paste in for some reason so to read the story go the LA Times site http://www.latimes.com
and type in the writers name
BILL PLASCHKE in the search box and its the top story

 

[Snelly]

Yes it can get worse. The alleged bimbo quotient alone is said to have gone past 30 now with several of them looking at what deals they can do with publicists and magazines etc.

This allied to the performance enhancing angle can only mean more bad news for the cat faced one and his team.

 

[Macster]

http://www.latimes.com/sports/columnists/

Top article.

I tell you, when all comes out, this is going to be MAHOOOOOOSIVE

 

[birdieman]

It would be interesting to know, if found guilty of substance abuse, whether or not TW would be stripped of his Major titles, at least the ones won since he started seeing this steroid supplying doctor.

By my reckoning that would make Monty Open Champion 2005! Oh crivvens no!

Duval and Mickelson would likely pick up a major or 2 as well!

 

[stevelockie]

Obviously I've been following the Tiger tale of the last few weeks. I do think that certain quarters of the media and other forums are getting a bit giddy from being so far up the moral high ground. I didn't realise how many puritanical people live such perfect lives!
So he was a mad sh**ger, big deal, it's a shame for his kids, but I can't believe his wife didn't know what she was getting into. He couldn't have been with all those women, for all those times, still practiced, trained, competed AND lived a reasonably normal home life!

That aside. I cannot believe that Tiger would ever, ever take steroids. As was stated in the second article. That is worse than commiting adultery!

 

[USER1999]

Tiger did go from being a stick thin bean pole to being ripped, and that may not be all gym work. I am stick thin, and no amount of exercise will make me look like Tiger.

On the other hand, if I was seeing 30 odd ladies, I would need performance enhancing drugs too. May be he wasn't taking them for golf.

 

[Dodger]

I have to say Mike as an editor of a reputable Golf Mag I am very very suprised you have posted regarding what are at the moment and still may be nothing more than rumours.

If he was to be found to have used performance enhancing substances (and I doubt it will be)it would certainly tarnish what I think of the King though.

 

[haplesshacker]

I think all golf mags are in a very difficult position.

Tiger is perhaps the best known golfer worldwide, what happens in is life, on or off the course, is golf related news. The problem with monthly mags is that they're often so out of date by the time they hit the shelves, and with such a fast changing story line as Tigers, just what do the mags write about?

What with the recent IOC decision recently, this is not what the sport needs right now.

I recall a recent thread earlier this year about the Tour De France and it's 'problem'. I seem to remember that it turned a lot of folks off of watching the race. The consequences, even if not true, will effect golf badly.

It really does make Dalys past issues pale into insignificence.

The words 'game and disrepute' spring to mind. As I say, it now doesn't matter if it's true or not. The damage has and is being done.

 

[viscount17]

so far more smoke, a lot of it and some evidence of irresponsibly poor judgment.

more and more bimbos coming out of the woods (groan) but how many can you believe? all we are awaiting are the paternity claims and 'bobby of boston' to complete the set.

 

[Fore]

I have to say Mike as an editor of a reputable Golf Mag I am very very suprised you have posted regarding what are at the moment and still may be nothing more than rumours.

If he was to be found to have used performance enghancing substances it would certainly tarnish what I think of the King though.

Well said Dodger. My original thought when reading the OP was 'and Neil Armstrong never went to the moon'. Yet another conspiracy theory.

If it does turn out to be true and provable then he deserves all he gets. But until then he's still the worlds No.1 golfer and needs to get his back side off to the next tournament asap and put all this rubbish behind him.

 

[USER1999]

It is news, whether we like it or not, and the media (golf mags included) will report on it. Stories about drug abuse in sport (or potential ones) are news. The smut, fair enough, not really relevant to golf, but any hint of cheating and it will get reported, and discussed, and rightly so.

 

[norflandon]

Good article in the LA Times from a well respected journalist.

I lived in SF when Barry Bonds was breaking the home run records in baseball when "juiced". There will always be an asterix next to that record. Major League baseball was happy for guys to get pumped up and hit the long ball to win back fans after a player strike. They were slow to react to cleaning up the sport. When baseball stars started to get associated with "doctors" who prescribed for runners such as Tim Montgomery and Marion Jones they started to look at their own players.

Tiger has obviously the same insecurities and fears that the rest of us have. I think the mounting injuries made him worry about claiming his place in history as the winner of most majors.

The PGA Tour has been slow to bring in drug testing, believing their players to be above this sort of thing. If the allegations are true was Tiger breaking any rule at the time?

 

[toonarmy]

I have to say Mike as an editor of a reputable Golf Mag I am very very suprised you have posted regarding what are at the moment and still may be nothing more than rumours.

If he was to be found to have used performance enhancing substances (and I doubt it will be)it would certainly tarnish what I think of the King though.

"Hi, I'm an ostrich. I've heard all these rumours about dingos and the like but as far as I'm concerned it's just rubbish. All I can see is a load of darkness and if there were dingos, I'd see their teeth so it can't be true so there la la la la la la la la la la la can't hear you..."

 

[Redwood]

That aside. I cannot believe that Tiger would ever, ever take steroids. As was stated in the second article. That is worse than commiting adultery!

Have a word with yourself!!!

 

[toonarmy]

That aside. I cannot believe that Tiger would ever, ever take steroids.

Well, look at him at the 97 Masters. That is an ectomorphic body shape. You can't change this naturally. Yes, he could build up, but he wouldn't end up with the shape he is now through work and nutrition.

I said at the time that 8 months recovery for an ACL repair in a non-contact sport was massively over-long. Throw in an apparently rocket-propelled libido, mood swings, surliness and suddenly mesomorphic body shape and you do have to ask legitimate questions, particularly when he actively seeks the medical care of, at best, a questionable practitioner.

Unless of course you subscribe to 'conspiracy theories' or plain old head-in-the-sand responses, which it would appear some of the TW fan boys are engaging in.

As ChrisMc has suggested in other posts, this could well be a huge, huge story and it is growing in likeliness it seems. We shall see (well, assuming lawyers don't get in the way of the reality of course...)

 

[StuartD]

Think the damage is already done now Mike.

As one poster commented on Barry Bonds record will have an "asterix against it". Many Americans refuse to believe he has beat an all American hero Babe Ruth's' home run record. Since drug testing has been introduced in baseball Barry Bonds has not failed a drugs test but there is doubt attached to him through "doctors" who handed out performance enhancing drugs.

I think now, rightly or wrongly, that there will be doubt cast upon Tigers record against another American sporting hero that is Jack Nicklaus if he does (or does not) go on to beat 18 major

 

[Atticus_Finch]

Here we all thought that Gary Player was a blethering old idiot as well.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/golf/6904576.stm

I would like to hear what he makes of it all now.

 

[Dodger]

It isn't a story though is it? Has it ever been proved that he or any other pro for that matter taken banned steriods (bar that fanny that was caught a month back but I'm not sure that was even steriods?)....it is all just unfounded journalism at the moment and will be until anyone,be it Tiger or someone else,gets caught.

Body changes?? Well from that then there must be a whole host of others on the steriods then eh?!

Toonarmy you really are the word I quote in between that and that earlier in my post.

 

[John_Findlay]

Is this one of those "No smoke without fire" things. I wonder?

A friend is a next door neighbour of a well known European Tour player and apparently it was well known within the fraternity for some time that Tiger was a serial infidel. Case now proven on that one.

More recently the rumours stretched to questioning whether it was just chance that Tiger's absence from tour with that "dodgy" knee coincided with the introduction of drug testing in golf. The question being asked on tour was whether he was cleaning himself out during that period.

Maybe we'll never know for sure but at the end of the day the people who usually know most are those closest to the culprit. Was this jealousy from his fellow pros or was there something more to it? Maybe they knew more than they wanted to advertise. Maybe they didn't want the purest game on the planet to be tainted by it's "golden boy" tarnishing it's undoubted reputation for fairness and integrity.

The jury's out it seems. I'll continue to read with interest but at the end of the day it's not gonna do our own reputation as golfers any good at all.

And, yes, I do think Mike was well within his rights to raise this topic.