Tiger drops out for now; The Cliffs dilemma
Tiger Woods announced yesterday that he will take an "indefinite" leave from competitive golf and work to repair his skills as a husband and father. In characteristic Tiger fashion, he made the announcement at his web site, TigerWoods.com, where the messages since word leaked about his car accident and dalliances have been short and predictable. Okay, fine; focusing on improving his life beyond golf is the right thing to do now.
But in a separate statement made through the Tiger Woods Foundation, Woods announced he also would take a break from his foundation work. Say it ain't so, Tiger. Not the foundation. How many bad moves in the name of "privacy" are you and your handlers going to make?
The road to recovery is paved with actions, not words. The quickest way to becoming a "better person," as Woods characterized the purpose of his time out of the public eye, is to do something positive for others. Consider Ted Kennedy after Chappaquiddick and Bill Clinton post-Lewinsky. They repaired their reputations by doing something for others, by going public, as well as private, after their own transgressions.
Tiger should do the same. Yes, the prying media beast will make it tough for him to come and go through the front doors of the foundation, or at fund-raising events. But the public will give him a pass -- actually applaud him, perhaps -- for manning up in behalf of children. "No comment, I'm here to do the work of the foundation" will suffice.
Tiger will emerge from his mansion lair in six months or a year claiming he is a better person and ready to resume his golf career. If we have seen him grow as a person in the meantime, we just might believe it.
***
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the Woods family as they deal with this personal and private family matter. Our relationship with Tiger Woods and our commitment to The Cliffs at High Carolina remains (sic) unchanged." Thus spoke the Cliffs Communities to the Asheville (NC) Citizen Times on Thursday, before Woods announced he will be dropping out of public life indefinitely. The Cliffs has to be second-guessing its relationship with the fallen star; every time they make a move with Woods, it comes back to bite them. They fly him onto the property to make a sales pitch to potential property owners, and he talks about how he looks forward to bringing his wife and children to the mountains. Within a couple of months he becomes the poster boy for bad husband and father. Then, just a couple of weeks ago, The Cliffs replaces it Asheville-area billboards of Woods with new ones, featuring larger photos of the golfer.
To date, The Cliffs has sold just 30 lots at High Carolina. One has to wonder how much patience Cliffs founder Jim Anthony will have with Tiger as The Cliffs poster boy. More important, how much patience can Anthony expect from those holding the paper on High Carolina?
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False idol: Tiger’s fall from grace a lesson for the ages
“From early childhood, I dreamed of being the world’s best golfer. I worked hard and applied my family’s values to everything I did. Integrity, honesty, discipline, responsibility, and fun: I learned these values at home and in school, each one pushing me further toward my dream. – Letter from Tiger Woods posted at the web site for The Tiger Woods Foundation.
Tiger Woods is certainly not the first star athlete whose questionable actions spoke louder than his lofty words. But no star athlete before Woods built such a cocoon of invincibility around himself. Few falls have been as fast or as shocking.
It has been 30 years since the three-year old golf phenom one-upped Johnny Carson at golf on national TV. Woods may have grown physically since then –- has he ever -– but that image of the little kid with the golf club, the incessant stories of the subordinate student/father relationship with Earl Woods and, above all that smile, that galvanizing smile, made it difficult to consider him anything but a kid, albeit a super-achieving one.
“Tiger Woods Out of Control.” A headline similar to that just a few weeks ago would have seemed less believable than “Angelina Jolie gives birth to Martian Love Child.” Woods had been the most controlled athlete, perhaps the most under-control public figure, in the world. His handlers
Where have you gone, Tiger Woods?
Here was the anointed savior of a game whose fortunes, literally, were sagging. They have continued to sag, despite Woods. Yes, we can argue that saving golf is more responsibility than one person should be assessed. But hundreds of millions of dollars in earnings should buy a lot. The golf world turned its lonely eyes to Woods.
What has come back in return is a sharp stick in the eye. It was all a marketing illusion, things being exactly the opposite of what they seemed, the good Tiger coexisting with that other Tiger. The athlete who worked
And while on the subject of children, one wonders how the folks who run The Tiger Woods Foundation are explaining the headlines to the hundreds of Woods’ other kids. In the course of less than two weeks, those children have gone from lucky to confused.
When a celebrity falls from grace, the privacy debate always begins anew, and this time is no different. One side believes that everyone, even high-profile celebrities, is entitled to privacy in family matters. The other side posits that we buy the products a celebrity like Woods endorses as much because of who he is as how he performs and, therefore, we are owed an explanation, if not our money back (lotsa luck). The celebrity, of course, is always for privacy and that, of course, is the card Woods played in the early days of the scandal, about nine women ago.
But by using only his own web site to communicate his limp apologies (“I have let my family down”), he not only thumbed his nose at the media beast, which is never a good strategy, but he made it seem as
Sptizer, Clinton redemption playbooks won't work
On so many levels, Woods has failed, and the path to any kind of public redemption will be steep. We know the customary script from this point on: His handlers -– he still has plenty of money so he still has plenty of handlers -– are huddling to figure out the best approach, talking to the VPs of Marketing at Woods’ sponsor companies, maybe even quietly
Woods’ people may consider the example of the ultimate comeback kid, Bill Clinton, who after all lied about what he did before the truth hit the fan. And isn’t lying worse than Woods’ “leave us to our privacy?” But the artful way in which the former President has blazed his trail back doesn’t apply here because his wife stood by his side, albeit silently, and never took up arms -– such as a golf club -– against him. With two young kids and a world of embarrassment laid at her feet, not to mention the millions of dollars awaiting her, Elin will likely take a much different tack
At some point, Woods will assess himself a public penalty, look straight into the cameras and confess his humanity, blaming it all on some sort of sex addiction. The public will insist that he expose himself as human, flawed and deeply apologetic, and then the media will back off; they get tired when the rest of us get tired, and what more will there be to say once Woods throws enough red meat back at us?
First stop, the Mickelson home?
But if Tiger pulls a Mark McGwire and continues to remain silent or testifies that no explanation is owed to all those Nike equipment owners, Tag Hauer watch-wearing executives and parents of kids who adore him, let alone the kids themselves, he will be hounded inside and outside the ropes next year. He won’t be able to give a post-round interview without the personal issues coming up. He may decide to stop playing competitive golf; he will certainly have enough money to finance a dropout, even after the possible uber-settlement with his wife and loss of endorsement revenue.
How ironic that Phil Mickelson, who has had the bad luck to be an excellent and exciting golfer during the Woods era, is considered unpopular on tour and a phony by Woods’ acolytes. Woods himself has never had much use for Mickelson. Yet in this fateful year for both, it has been Mickelson who has shown true grit and character off the golf course, where he handled his wife Amy’s cancer diagnosis with grace and dignity while Woods treated his family disgracefully. If Woods is looking for advice, forgiveness and the mantle of true humility, the Mickelson household would not be a bad place to start.
TigerWoods.com says it all
The following Q&A between a fan and Tiger Woods (or whoever ghostwrites for him) was posted at TigerWoods.com on November 20:
[Tiger] Do you enjoy playing so far away from home? I can imagine that, now that you have children, it's got to be hard to be so far away from them. — Rupert from Houston
You're exactly right, Rupert. Now, it's very difficult to leave Elin and the children, and I'm sure it's only going to get tougher. Once Sam and Charlie start school, it won't be easy to take them out of class for a week-long trip. A veteran pro once told them it's tough to leave them as babies, but once they ask you not to go, it breaks your heart. That's something I'll always remember.
And this, from another fan, posted at Tiger's web site earlier today (December 9):
Tiger this website is a joke – we now know that the image you put forward here is not who you really are. You should take this site down and hide yourself in shame. One affair can be explained but if what we’re hearing now in the press is even close to the truth, your actions are inexcusable. You deserve to lose your beautiful wife and suffer the scorn of the public and your fans, however many of those that are left. One thing is for sure, you will be tainted by this forever. I, for one, won’t be visiting this site again. Good luck making this right.
So ugly on so many levels.
Bitter first course: Woods scandal a case of indigestion for Cliffs and its founder
The Tiger Woods mess must be tearing up Cliffs Communities founder Jim Anthony in both a commercial and personal sense. CNBC reported yesterday it was not able to reach Cliffs spokespersons for comment about the community’s marketing video that features Woods pitching the course and community at High Carolina.
“With a wife and two kids,” Woods says in the video, “your perspective in life changes. I want to have my kids experience something like this…because your priorities start changing and evolving once you have a family and I want to come up here as often as I possibly can.”
Anthony hired Woods, a great golfer but unproven designer, for a
No one but Tiger, Anthony and a select other few know the details of the contract, but we have to assume payments were not all front loaded for a project that will take years. And it is unreasonable to assume that Anthony and his lawyers might have suggested a “moral turpitude” clause in the contract with the (then) squeaky-clean golf star, or that Tiger’s lawyers would have let him consider one. The moral turpitude clause, of course, is pretty standard in contracts between athletes and team owners; it protects the owner in the event one of his players embarrasses the organization through some ugly transgression. Serial adultery fits the standard definition of “moral turpitude.”
The Chapel at Cliffs at Glassy
If Tiger’s reputation does not recover fully, you have to wonder if Anthony will cut his losses and save $10 million or however much he hasn’t paid yet if High Carolina is tarnished. Who owns the blueprints, we wonder, in the event that the tabloid spectacle proves too much for Woods or Anthony to go ahead with the project? Woods certainly doesn’t need the money and may not want more exposure outside the well-guarded and friendly confines of the ropes at Augusta or wherever he chooses to play.
With only about 30 lots spoken for at High Carolina, The Cliffs has made back a mere $40 million of the reported $160 million it paid for the
Tiger’s mortal failings must be at least as big a burden for Anthony as the financial hit he faces. The developer has a reputation in the western Carolinas for high moral principles. Look no farther than The Cliffs at Glassy to understand that he puts his faith where his money is. At Glassy, he commissioned the building of a chapel on a perfect piece of property at the highest point in the community, with a commanding 50-mile view of mountains and valley, perhaps the best mountain views in the entire state. Anthony probably could have sold the lot for $3 million or more. That is how good the view is and, one assumes, how strong the developer’s religious convictions are.
With the construction of the chapel, Anthony chose between his religious and moral convictions and his commercial interests. He faces a similar choice in deciding what to do about Tiger’s relationship with High Carolina. The advice here is for him to look to those 30 High Carolina property owners for guidance. They are a small enough group that he can call them all in a couple of days. He should share his feelings about Tiger as a way to draw them out about their own. He will learn after 30 conversations what options he has with them, and their collective voice will imply how potential buyers will feel.
The customer, after all, is always right.
Tom Jackson's design for The Cliffs at Glassy Golf Club is one of six courses in the Cliffs Communities.
I need a golf ruling
I wonder if anyone was watching the Chevron World Challenge yesterday when Lee Westwood had a putt to tie Jim Furyk and force a playoff. Westwood had made a mediocre approach shot to the 18th green, and his ball nestled up against the thick grass just beyond the fringe. He selected a wedge in order to belly the ball toward the hole, but when he took his chipping stance, the very edge of his right heel was above the very edge of a sprinkler head. He claimed successfully to the attending official that the sprinkler affected his normal stance and that he was entitled to relief. He was permitted to drop the ball within a club length. When he did so, the ball bounced a little back toward the edge of the fringe, and he wound up with essentially the same lie he had previously, but within a club length. The ball was in play.
But what happened next is the source of some confusion (for me, at least). Westwood selected another club, his putter, for the following stroke. It was my understanding that the USGA rules that permit a drop in that situation also require that the stance and club be the same as assumed with the previous lie lest a player "unfairly" improve his condition. I've searched throughout the Internet and can't find any mention of this requirement, so maybe I am dreaming (although I did see an unofficial reference to the ruling: "The player should determine the nearest point of relief using the club she expects to play her next stroke. Then she may use any club to measure the one club length area in which to drop the ball." Not exactly conclusive of my recollection of the rules, but it implies that the club and stance that provided the relief should be the club and stance that is used for the next shot.
I have a call into the USGA for an opinion and will report back here. However, if one of our readers has access to a rule book or knows the ruling, I would appreciate hearing about it in the meantime.
UPDATE: WITHIN A HALF HOUR OF POSTING THE ABOVE DISCUSSION, I RECEIVED A CALL FROM A RULES OFFICIAL AT THE USGA. (HOW'S THAT FOR SERVICE?) HE SAID THAT WESTWOOD WAS ENTITLED TO CHANGE CLUBS AND HIS STANCE AFTER THE DROP. HE USED ANOTHER EXAMPLE TO EXPLAIN. IF A RIGHT-HANDED PLAYER ASSUMES A LEFT-HANDED STANCE IN ORDER TO STAND ON A CART PATH FOR THE PURPOSE OF GAINING RELIEF, THE PLAYER MAY MAKE HIS NEXT SWING RIGHT-HANDED AFTER RELIEF IS GRANTED. CASE CLOSED.
No respect: The joke’s on the user at some of the most popular tee-time booking sites
I am not playing golf this week, but if I were, I’d waste a lot of time trying to book a round at one of the online tee time booking sites that rank highest in Google searches.
For kicks, I entered the search term “tee times online” into the Google search engine to see what I would get. Google returned, gulp, 2.1 million results. I decided to work my way down from the very top of the Google results to find one I liked. It took longer than I expected. GolfNow.com, an invention of the folks who run the Golf Channel, was listed at the top. The site’s interactive map of the U.S. is attractive and, on the face of it, easy to use. I clicked on my home state of Connecticut, and the
Well, of course they aren’t; the course is closed for the season; if GolfNow communicated that up front, the user would not have to waste his time. Wait, it gets even better. I checked out GolfNow’s courses in Ohio and chose Bridgeview Golf Club in Columbus. Wow, green fees were just $7 -– but the starting time was 5:40 p.m., a full half-hour after sunset. The highest-ranking tee time site in the Google search may be the biggest joke as well.
Teemaster.com ranked second in the search. I liked that its tagline is “The Future of Tee Times.” Smug, yes, but that’s advertising. What I didn’t like about the site is that it picked up driving ranges (at $6, it confused green
TheGolfCourses.net site showed up as third-ranked for tee times. It provided a long alphabetical list by state and city within state that I found easy to maneuver through. I clicked on Connecticut, which listed only Hartford, and it appeared that the site used the same reservation software and service as GolfNow. It searched unsuccessfully for a course and finally suggested I search somewhere else. (I presumed that meant another state rather than another service’s web site.) So I did; I clicked on San Francisco East Bay and, lo and behold, I received a list of starting times and green fee rates at Alpine Bay Golf Club. Just one small problem; Alpine Bay is in Mobile, AL, about 2,400 miles from San Francisco Bay.
LastMinuteGolfer.com, the next in line, proudly announces on its home page that members of its service “can now book their tee times at GolfNow.com.” Been there, done that, no thank you.
Don't bother trying to set up a tee time at Wintonbury Hills in Connecticut. The course is closed for the season, but you wouldn't know it at most online tee time booking sites.
EZLinks.com may be EZer to use than the others, but I am not going to find out. The site requires that you register, with name, address, telephone number and email address, in order to access its service. I didn’t get far enough for them to ask me for credit card information, but their privacy statement -– which indicates they only share such information with the company that processes the tee times -– implied that would be the next step. In essence, they force you to pony up your credit card info before you can even check if the site is worth your time, let alone your Amex card.
At TeeItUp.com, I finally found a service that was easy to use and only asked for personal information after you selected your course and tee time. When you first click on a state, an attractive Google map appears with flags stuck where available golf courses are located. To the left of the map, you select from a list of courses. Click on one of them, and an information “balloon” pops up on the map, showing the exact location of the course and inviting you to click for tee times.
Connecticut National Golf Club, for example, was showing 15 times available between 7:06 and 8:56 a.m. the following day (rain and snow was in the forecast). I selected a tee time and number of players, at which point TeeItUp asked me for personal information, including a credit card number to hold the reservation. Helpfully, they note your card is not being charged at that time, and they provide the phone number of the club if you have questions about when your credit card will be charged. (Note: I suggest calling the golf club before you enter your card number to inquire about their relationship with TeeItUp.)
Ultimately, I had to go six sites deep on the Google search results to find one that was easy to use, accurate and only mildly invasive. Thank you TeeItUp; it would have been a long night if I had to search all two million results.
Editor’s Note: The purpose of online tee time booking sites should be for convenience and lower prices than the golf courses’ walk-in rates. If you have the time to search, you will find that prices vary from site to site for the same courses. GolfNow, for example, lists a $25 price per player for Quail Chase in Louisville, KY. TeeTimeSavings, which provides simple navigation tools and clear pricing per course, lists a $44 price at Quail Chase for a twosome, or a 12% discount on the GolfNow discount. Interestingly, the Quail Chase web site takes online tee times but is powered by GolfNow and offers the GolfNow rates. I am sure there are some tee time consolidators that might offer lower prices. The question of whether your time is worth all the effort to squeeze out every last dollar is not within my editorial purview. -- Larry
The Cliffs debuts its own destination club
If you couldn't afford The Cliffs Communities at $2 million and more, you may love them at $195,000. That's what a small piece of the high-minded, high-end group of golf communities is selling for, according to a package of materials I received last week announcing the new Cliffs Residence Club at Keowee Springs.
The accompanying form letter from Cliffs founder Jim Anthony indicates that mountain-lake ownership at Keowee Springs, which is located in rural upstate South Carolina near Lake Keowee, includes access to a Tom Fazio golf course, huge wellness center and spa, the International Institute of Golf, a beach club, hiking trails and concierge service. Prices for the deeded fractional ownership starts at $195,000.
This is The Cliffs first foray into fractional ownership, and it could be a viable option for those a little wary of plunking down $1 million or more for a home and $150,000 for golf club membership. I'll have more details about The Cliffs' Residence Club, including costs to Residence Club members to play the other Cliffs courses, in the December issue of our Home On The Course newsletter, coming soon. To ensure you receive a copy, sign-up in the box at the upper left of this page. It's fast, it's easy and it's free.
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Current listings in Coastal NC: Golf community homes for sale under $500K
To stay abreast of market conditions, we scan current prices of homes for sale in golf communities we have visited. We have not inspected the homes and make no representation about their quality. We list them for the purposes of comparison and to provide our readers with an idea of prices in comparable golf communities we can recommend. If you would like more information about a particular community listed here, or more information about the coastal North Carolina area, please contact the editor.
Ocean Ridge Plantation, Sunset Ridge, NC, 3 BR, 2 BA "garden home" on the 15th green of Lion's Paw Golf Club. Listed at $439,000
St. James Plantation, Southport, NC, 4 BR, 3 BA brick home on 8th fairway of Founders Club. 4 season porch with golf views. $450,000
Rivers Edge Plantation, Shallotte, NC, 4 BR, 3 ½ BA "gallery town home" with views of 10th green on Arnold Palmer course. $469,900.
Brunswick Forest, Leland, NC, 4 BR, 3 BA, brick home with views of protected forest. New Tim Cate course just opened. $449,500.
Winding River Plantation, Bolivia, NC, 5 BR, 3 + 2 half BA, overlooks 3rd fairway of Ibis course at Carolina National. $469,000
Sea Trail Plantation, Sunset Beach, NC, 3 BR, 3 BA one-story living with swimming pool in backyard and views of Oyster Bay golf course. $449,900
Albemarle Plantation, Hertford, NC, 3 BR, 2 ½ BA with views of Sound Links golf course. $480,000
Taberna, New Bern, NC, 3 BR, 3 BA on private cul de sac with views of lake and golf course. $425,000
Porters Neck Plantation, Wilmington, NC, 3 BR, 3 ½ BA on Tom Fazio Drive with golf course views and 1/3 off golf membership. $487,000.
I have visited all these golf communities. Please contact me for more information and a recommendation of the best-qualified real estate agents in each area. My services are always free to my readers. -- Larry
Cheap thrills: $38 event for seniors on RT Jones Trail
If you and a golfing buddy or spouse are 50 or older and have thought about trying out the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail in Alabama, a mid-December event could be just the encouragement you need. Silver Lakes, home to three excellent nines, is hosting the Senior Tournament Series on December 15, a two-man scramble (Captain's Choice) event that includes green fees, cart fees, range balls, lunch and prizes, all for just $38. Before or after the tournament, 26 other layouts are available along the Trail, which runs from the top of the state near Muscle Shoals to Mobile on the Gulf of Mexico. The Trail is running a special through the winter that includes three days of unlimited golf for $135 (carts, range balls, taxes not included) or lodging packages that start at $154 per day. See the RTJ Trail web site for details.
I played 18 of Silver Lakes' 27 holes a year and a half ago. Conditioning was near perfect and the routing of the holes interesting and diverse. The $65 green fees (cart included) were a bargain (see my review here ). So too is the real estate in the area, but Gadsden, the nearest city, is not exactly San Francisco but has a small city charm that will appeal to many.
Unlike the event on December 15, Silver Lakes did not throw in lunch during my visit in 2008, but my "prize" was a round with enough excellent holes to compel me to try out the rest of The Trail someday.
Two-riffic: Famed Pinehurst #2 course on sale
For those contemplating a home in the Pinehurst area, or just looking for a winter golf vacation, the folks at Pinehurst have just made it a little easier to do both. For just $222 per person now through February 25, you can spend a night in one of the Pinehurst Resort's comfortable rooms, play a round at Donald Ross' famed Pinehurst #2, and dig into the hotel's overflowing breakfast buffet. Additional nights are $255 per person and include room, dinner and breakfast, and one round of golf on a choice of the other Pinehurst courses (or play #2 again for a $175 surcharge).
The Pinehurst area overflows with golf communities of the private and resort variety, with prices generally in the $300,000 to $1 million+ range and with transferable golf memberships included with some properties. I scanned some listings today and found scores of interesting homes across a wide price range. For example, a 4 bedroom, 4 ½ bath custom home with views of water and the fairway at Pinehurst #6, designed by Tom Fazio, is listed at $650,000.
For more information about the special No. 2 for $222 deal, visit Pinehurst.com. For more information about Pinehurst real estate, or any golf communities in the southern or northeastern U.S., please contact me.
Tiger, come out come out wherever you are
Cape Fearless: New course bucks trend
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