19 Nov 2014

Woods unhappy with parody interview

2:41 pm on 19 November 2014

The former world No.1 Tiger Woods has hit at a Golf Digest parody interview written by an 84 year old journalist, calling it a nasty attack and character assassination.

The fictional story by veteran journalist Don Jenkins is "My (Fake) Interview with Tiger" with an asterisk and the sub-heading "Or how it plays out in my mind" and included a fake question and answer session between Jenkins and Woods.

Tiger Woods "Journalistically and ethically, can you sink any lower?"

Tiger Woods "Journalistically and ethically, can you sink any lower?" Photo: Photosport

Among the barbs written by Jenkins, as if uttered by Woods, is why Woods has not fired agent Mark Steinberg.

"I'll probably get around to it. I like to fire people. It gives me something to do when I'm not shaping my shots"

Woods took to the Players Tribune website and tweeted a link to the story with the comment: "Most things in the media you let slide, but sometimes you can't and shouldn't."

He went on to say the piece "fails as parody and is really more like a grudge-fuelled piece of character assassination.

"Journalistically and ethically, can you sink any lower?"

The words Jenkins put in Woods' mouth, while clearly marked as fictional, hit close to home in Woods' personal life, poking at the sex scandal that led to his divorce, and his ego.

Citing Woods' late father Earl's comment in his son's youth that Tiger would have a greater world impact than Gandhi, Jenkins had the faux Woods reply: "I looked for Gandy in the record book and couldn't find him."

Asked the moral of his infamous sex scandal, which began one week shy of five years ago and led to his divorce from wife Elin after the revelation of multiple mistresses, Jenkins' phony Woods retorted: "That's easy. Don't get caught."

Woods also said, "Jenkins has no idea how I think or feel about any of the things he claims to know about, which is why he had to make things up. Frustration or resentment because I have not been more available to him should not give him a license for an underhanded attack on me as an athlete, as a professional and as a person."

Get the RNZ app

for ad-free news and current affairs

We have regular online commentary of local and international sport.