John Feinstein: A Good Green Spoiled

John Feinstein in his AOL golf column has the best final word on Tiger’s “bitchslapping” of the 9th green at Pinehurst last week. I don’t want to harp on this, because it was not THAT big a deal in and of itself, but I had yet to read about how USGA course set-up guy Tom Meeks actually DID speak to Tiger afterward. Here’s Feinstein…..

(There) is no excuse for what he did during Friday's second round, when he missed a putt on the ninth green and proceeded to drag his putter across the grass, digging up the surface so noticeably that even the NBC commentators, who, like most in golf normally do everything but wear cheerleader outfits when Tiger's on the course, felt the need to chide him.

Woods made a half-hearted attempt to repair the damage, but it was still so noticeable when he left the green that USGA executive director David Fay got on his walkie-talkie and ordered the rules official walking with Woods' group to get someone to go back and repair the green before the next group arrived and someone threw a fit over its condition.

Fay then sent Tom Meeks, his senior executive on site, to have a "talk" with Woods when he finished his round. There was nothing the USGA could do to penalize Woods - he violated no rule - unless it wanted to disqualify him for his behavior, which it had the right to do. That would have been extreme. But the half-hearted statement Meeks put out wasn't even a wrist slap and Woods deserved a stern talking to from someone. There's simply no excuse for damaging the golf course. Wood said later, without apologizing, that he was, "frustrated." There were 156 frustrated golfers playing that day. Only one damaged a green.

This makes two years in a row Woods has been un-apologetic after an embarrassing Friday incident at the Open. A year ago, Williams, his vigilante caddie, kicked a camera from the hands of a photographer who was taking shots of Woods warming up - which he had an absolute right to do. Williams didn't apologize and neither did Woods. The USGA did nothing. Same deal this time. Here-in lies the problem: as long as Woods is treated as if he's above the law, he will continue to act this way. Only when someone tells him he needs to behave like a grownup -- he's 29 now, a nine-year tour veteran -- will he do so.

And…. As Forrest Gump once said…. “and that’s all I have to say.. about that.”