Tiger Woods Should Ignore Rick Reilly's Criticism

(Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)

In case you haven’t heard, Rick Reilly recently criticized Tiger Woods for his temper tantrums in an article entitled “Woods needs to clean up his act.”

To sum it up, Reilly basically states that Woods’ frequent curses and club slams after bad shots or poor putts are an insult to the sport and past golfers as well as his current competitors, while also serving as a bad example for kids.

I tend to disagree with the majority of Reilly’s opinions due to the fact that they are usually anti-athlete—I find that the majority of his articles portray athletes as spoiled brats who make too much money, and he’s happy to point out that Woods makes $100 million a year in endorsements in this article, which serves little purpose.

But regardless of how you feel about him, you have to respect Reilly as a powerful name in the sports world.

However, like in most cases, I disagree with Reilly feeling as if Tiger needs to be a poster boy of good sportsmanship in golf, as the sport already has enough of those characters.

How many times do you see Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, and other guys on the PGA Tour so much as merely shake their heads or shrug their shoulders after hitting a ball into the tree line or narrowly missing a birdie putt, or, as a worst case scenario, throw their sand wedge towards their bag after a tough time in the bunker?

And after they nail a shot right next to the pin from 200 yards out or sink an eagle putt, you usually just see a short flash of emotion with a weak fist pump and a high-five from their caddie.

In any golf tournament, you will see players hit amazing shots, regardless of whether Tiger is in it or not.

But aside from the reason that he’s the best golfer in the history of mankind, the reason why we like to watch Woods play so much is because of the fact that he is so willing to publicly display his emotions like a stripper displays her assets at the Body Shop in Hollywood.

He’ll pump his fists in exhilaration after making a crucial putt and curse all over Amen corner when his ball goes astray.  

And golf fans like that.

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