Tiger Woods Spitting: 7 Worse Things We've Already Witnessed from Tiger
Tiger Woods had quite the weekend at the Dubai Desert Classic. He started the weekend by shooting a 6-under 66 on Friday to get into contention. He ended the weekend in less than stellar fashion by shooting a 75 on Sunday to finish seven shots behind the winner, and he was fined for spitting on the course. Maybe not the most egregious act in the world, but golf is a gentleman's game and that's not acceptable.
By comparison, the spitting is far from the worst thing that Tiger has done on the course in his career. He's a fiery, passionate person on the course, and he lets that aggression come out when he is playing. There are a lot of people who are put off by Woods' on-course antics.
That doesn't even take into account his off-course exploits. We all know the problems that Woods has faced off the course, and those are much more spicy than the things that he has done on the course.
Woods has always been a controversial figure, even when he was the most dominant golfer in the world, because of his quick temper. We are going to take a look through all the worst exploits in his career thus far.
Here are seven things that we have witnessed that are worse than the spitting incident.
7. The Fist Pump
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There's nothing wrong with a little showmanship in sports. In fact, aside from the NFL, most sports encourage their athletes to be more showman-like.
However, the Tiger Woods fist pump has always been more annoying than anything else. It's like his own little way of giving the finger to his competition. Perhaps it's not worse than him spitting on the course, but it does rank right up there with all of his antics.
This could sound like me just being negative on Tiger, but the fist pump is really not necessary and is almost as bad as throwing a club or yelling at photographers.
6. Throwing Clubs on the Course
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Tiger Woods' temper strikes again. We have all seen it, when he fires a bad shot, he will throw his club or drop his club in his back swing or smash his club into the ground.
There are so many antics that come with Tiger on the golf course that he is almost like an angry caricature of a golfer.
Don't get me wrong, I like the fact that he does show some personality on the course, but there is a limit to how much you should show. Especially with golf, which is such an accessible sport for fans. The fans are so close to the players that there could be a time when he loses his cool and someone gets hit with an errant club throw.
5. Confrontations with Photographers on the Course
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Despite the PGA Tour's constant attempt to hush all noise before a player takes a swing, sometimes some of the noise doesn't stop. It's understandable why a golfer would need all of their attention focused on a shot, because the slightest misstep in the swing will ruin the entire shot.
However, Tiger's reactions to these photographers can get very heated. He will stop mid-swing and just unload on these people who are taking pictures. It's like watching Ron Artest get involved in a shouting match with someone who doesn't think that his R&B group is very good.
This is probably the most forgivable of all the incidents in Tiger's career because it can hinder his performance on the course. Still, there has to be a better way to handle these situations than he has in his career.
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4. His First Press Conference After the Thanksgiving Car Accident
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In Tiger's first public appearance after the car crash that would change his life, he did not come off as a humbled, changed person. He tried, he really did. He had a speech prepared and his mom was sitting in the front row ready to give him a hug when he was done.
The problem with the speech was that he said a few things that didn't really make any sense. Specifically, there was one point where he talked about his ex-wife, Elin Nordegren. "Elin deserves praise, not blame," Tiger said. That was confusing because no one that I know of was blaming her for anything.
He brought up his sponsors and people that work for him, which didn't make any sense, given the circumstances. He tried to turn it into a public forum to discuss all of the good things that he has done for charity and kids throughout the world.
3. The Thanksgiving Night Car Accident
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The incident that started the downfall of Tiger Woods occurred on Thanksgiving night, 2009. There was a lot of speculation about what exactly happened that night, if Tiger was drunk, if Elin had hit him because she was seen carrying a golf club, etc.
It turns out that everything had hit the fan and Elin had found out about Tiger's extramarital affairs. The public wouldn't find out exactly what was going on for a little while longer, but this was the night that everything went downhill for Tiger.
2. The Cursing on the Course
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Tiger Woods is very liberal with his language on the golf course. In fact, Las Vegas could probably make a lot of money for every tournament that Tiger is in if they had an over/under on the number of "F-bombs" that he dropped over the course of all four rounds.
He is a hothead and he will let his emotions come gushing out of his mouth if a shot does not go his way. He said it was something that he was going to work on, but it's been over a year and there's been no sign that he is changing.
1. The Extramarital Affairs
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We have talked about the car crash and the press conference, but we didn't mention the affairs themselves. Reportedly, around 12 women made claims stating that they had an affair with Tiger while he was still married to Elin Nordegren.
For someone who used to pride himself on being such a dedicated family man, 12 women is a lot to handle while you are already married. Whether that number is true or not, we will never know, but we do know there was at least one affair.
We often put our athletes up on a pedestal, like they can do no wrong. But this is just one more instance of a great athlete making a HUGE mistake. Woods has been paying for it ever since.
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