Tiger Woods: the rise and 'fall'...

[max_tranmere]

I just watched this on Channel 4 and I thought it was an interesting documentary.

I didn't realise that young Tiger was brought up by his father to basically be a golfing robot - to learn the skill, largely in isolation, with military style drilling. Tiger's father, who seemed like a kind but strict man, used to be a soldier in Vietnam and had seen soldiers have their minds erased by Army Doctors to make them more efficient in battle. This seemed very brutal and quite savage but it went on. Tiger Woods' dad hired one of these Doctors to hypnotise young Tiger to make him more efficent at playing golf. This was distrubing to see and hear on the programme, and Tiger admitted in an interview, which they showed a clip from, not remembering certain sections of golf courses after he had played on them.

Tiger was drilled and moulded - in a way similar to how Michael Jackson was raised (although there was no violence from his dad) to become this highley achieving golf star. He experienced extreme racism, even getting death threats on the day he played his first major tournament. It said on the programme that at many golf clubs they had never seen black people before, apart from the waiters and the guys who parked the cars, and he and his dad got very negative looks when they entered.

'Brand Tiger' was the next thing they detailed on the programme - about how Tiger basically became a caddy for the major corporations in the huge sponsorship deals he did for them. The corporations earned vast money off of him - although Tiger earned mega-money from doing these aswell.

When it was revealed that he had had affairs behind his wife's back, something described by the media then and by this programme too as being "the downfall of the biggest sports star ever..." and so on, nothing negative actually seemed to happen to Tiger Woods. He kept all his sponsorship deals, something which was done by hiring the former spin-doctor to George W Bush was rebrand Tiger, and his career and his image didn't really suffer in the long run.

It was said at one point on the programme that a deal was done where the National Enquirier tabloid in the USA wouldn't break the story of his first affair if he agreed to appear on the cover of a men's health magazine, which is a sister publication to the National Enquirer, and that prevented the story of his initial affair from becoming public knowledge for three years. In that time Tiger Woods earned $300m dollars in endorsements. The story then broke and there were several other women who came to the fore talking of affairs with Tiger.

What interests me in all of this is that this was never a 'downfall'. His career, and all his big money from all his sponsors, is still flying high. Also there are many rockstars who screw around behind their wives backs and are never treated like this by the press or by anyone else when women come forward and reveal the affairs. Look at Mick Jagger for example. Although maybe the fact Jagger is a white man and Woods is black may have a lot to do with this. I was shocked at the amount of rascism that the programme revealed had come Woods' way, and the death threats too, in what was a very white society (the golfing world). Maybe the media in the USA have elements of this kind of prejudisial thinking in them aswell.

I thought it was an interesting programme, but '...rise and fall' was not an appropriate name for it. He is still a very sucessful, top earning, sportsman
- so he never 'fell' as such.

Did anyone else see this programme and what did you think of it? Also, what do you think about all the things I've outlined here - in general?

[number 6]

Thought it was typical channel 4,empty lightweight nonsense dressed up as documentary.

[one eyed jack]

Golf is a sport?? Thats funny.

[one eyed jack]

Of course there is going to be a torrent of abuse and racism coming Tigers way.

He is fucking white women and is better at the white mans game and earning more than most white folks who live and breathe it. he's a good looking guy and plenty women fancy the pants off him

If I was a white dude I'd be mad too..hell Im black...and I'm mad about it. Fuck Tiger Woods man! Big dick, good looking, suave and rich mah fugger

They got every right to be mad cos they are jealous...ha ha ha!

Ok..so dont laugh then

[crofter]

Max just a couple of things:

Comparing a 60's rockstars infedelity to a top (married) sportsman isn't a great start is it??

Also his top sponsors bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars per year have all dropped him (to protect their own brand identity). With his impending divorce he will lose a large part of his wealth and has very little chance of ever building up anything like those deals again ...

Golf was and to some extent still is a social class game and lots of people have been prejudiced because of their social standing so Tiger being of Asian origin would have been marked out as being different from day one so he wasn't alone on that front either.

[one eyed jack]

Max...Dude! What is your preoccupation with black people?

I can't figure you out but you always have to bring colour into it?

Yeah us black folk might get an uneven hand on somethings but we are big enough to fight our own corners.

So Tiger Woods has had some racism his way...Well being black it comes with the territory but I cant figure you out

Even I dont bang on about being black and Im black...Well ok 50% black but if I didnt say so I might as wel be black

In fact whatever aint white is black!

[crofter]

Hmm not sure about Max's black dude love ... but you seem to do pretty good at mentioning black/white comparisons yourself Tel if your last couple of posts are anything to go by.!wink!

[mrchapel]

His dick ain`t that big. He`s also Asian, it balances out the whole black " tree trunk in your pants" thing.

one eyed jack wrote:

> Of course there is going to be a torrent of abuse and racism
> coming Tigers way.
>
> He is fucking white women and is better at the white mans game
> and earning more than most white folks who live and breathe it.
> he's a good looking guy and plenty women fancy the pants off
> him

Nah he also gets the abuse because he`s a cunt. I`ve been to the open a few times, you go on the practise days and meet the golfers and have a bit of banter with some of the greats. Not Tiger though, he gets up and plays at 5am to avoid the fans.

And how many women was it? 20 and they were all white? Thats like a fucking phobia or something, you can`t tell me he couldn`t find one attractive black woman.

[max_tranmere]

crofter, I think the Jagger and Woods comparisons are reasonable. Mick Jagger is not just a '60s star' - he has been a massive star since the 60s and still is. He was also married (you kind of imply he wasnt) and his wife Jerry Hall got fed up with him banging every woman he met, so much so that she would never leave him alone in their house if an attractive woman came round because she would always find him in bed with her when she came back. The last straw was when Jagger was bonking a well known Brazillian model and got her pregnant, this was about 10 years ago. When the child was born Jerry Hall divorced Mick Jagger. It is fair to say that he never got any of the wrath from the media for doing these things as Tiger Woods did. No one seemed to care.

Lastly, is Tiger Woods of Asian origin?

[max_tranmere]

oej, I dont have a preoccupation with black people. I thought this was an interesting programme and posted about it on here. I was shocked at the racism he received and also the inconsistency in the media over how they treat certain people.

I mentioned Mick Jagger. He has bonked most of the women in the Western world and the media dont slate him for it, yet they have done all this to Tiger Woods for having three affairs. I said that this is possibly down to racism within the media, after all Tiger Woods became very sucessful and very rich in what was previously an area where only white people suceeded and became famous. So there is no preoccopation with black people, the programme was interesting and I think worth discussing and also the reason as to why the media went after him so hard is worth discussing too.