Golf Futures: For Tiger, Everything is Under Control

Tiger Woods undoubtedly thought about it a lot. A man who is in a certain state of denial, who didn't think he had done anything particularly wrong, who laid some of the blame for the publicity surrounding his infidelity at the feet of the media, would be made to feel right at home at Augusta National, where they will allow him all the denials he wants and give him plenty of cover in the meantime.

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Tiger Woods – Result at the 2010 Masters

• Make the Cut -1000
• Miss the Cut +450
• WD or DQ +2500
• To have a hole in one +7000
• To be Leader/Joint leader after Round 1 and win +600

I was thinking it might have been a little wiser for Woods to make his 2010 debut at Bay Hill, in the Arnold Palmer Invitational, a tournament he has won six times, including the last two years. Surely as a maestro on that course, it would provide a great "tune-up," not to mention the p[roper springboard for him to vault into an attempt to punctuate his return to glory with his first Masters win since 2005.

But that won't be the case.

Instead, he will miss that tournament for the first time as a pro and plunge head-long into Augusta without any warm-up, hoping he can come cold out of his self-imposed hiatus with the same gusto as Ray Leonard did against Marvin Hagler some 23 years ago.

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"It's a bit disappointing to all of us," said Palmer, who knows that interest in any event on the PGA Tour wanes when Tiger is not involved. At the same time, he also understands something very fundamental, and something that should have occurred to me right way, aside from the fact that the media onslaught would have completely overwhelmed the Bay Hill Club & Lodge.

Woods is going to benefit from an atmosphere that is likely to be controlled from soup to nuts.

At the Masters anything that is anti-Woods or even the slightest bit negative about Woods is going to be very tightly controlled. In case you don't believe that they can control, keep in mind that the people at Augusta National have the power to control the network (CBS) that televises their tournament in a way no major sporting event in America does, with limited commercials and in fact, a limit to coverage.

They have the power to control the way the announcers present their event, and if you don't believe THAT, give Gary McCord a call. McCord was last seen at the Masters making a comment about the 17th green looking like it was "bikini-waxed." That was in 1995, and he has not set foot on the club grounds since.

They have the power to exert iron-fisted control over their image, even in light of protest about the refusal to admit women into the membership, and have not only managed to skate away from any genuine impact from that, in many circles they have been able to successfully vilify the activist, Martha Burk of the National Council of Women's Organizations.

The event and the club have cultivated a mythology that is so embedded in the public consciousness that they have been able to get away with just about everything. Understand also that Woods has been of aid in that pursuit. He's been a good boy and shut up over the issue of the dearth of African-Americans admitted as members to Augusta National, not to mention the dearth of women.