Something was always going to happen one day, wasn’t it? After all, the career of a golfer is too long for their professional and private lives not to transcend at least once, even more so when the golfer in question just so happens to be, arguably, the best player ever to grace the game.

In that respect, Tiger Woods making the front page of the newspapers and gossip mags at some point before his career was out was an inevitability.

However, just as foreseeable was his reaction to the fall-out from his frankly bizarre car accident last weekend – and the wounds from his handling of the whole sorry, peculiar mess may take longer to heal than his “facial lacerations”. Read more…

Are you watching the Omega Mission Hills World Cup this week? Thought not. I’m tempted not to, either.

Nothing against the venue, which is quite spectacular, nor the sponsors, organisers or those who do, indeed, enjoy the tournament, but it does nothing for me.

Why? Well, it’s hard for me as a spectator to get excited about an event than most of the world’s top players cannot even move themselves to play in.

With the exception of a handful of teams – Ireland and Sweden, most notably – the majority of the countries taking part in the event are being represented by their third, fourth or fifth-choice players. Read more…

As the fallout ensues surrounding Doug Barron’s suspension from the PGA Tour, we are, again, being treated to the well-versed dispute as to whether golf, like athletics and cycling, will see the benefit of drug testing.

Tiger Woods is in no doubt.

“I heard about it [Barron's ban]. It’s unfortunate, but that is one of the reasons why we have the policy to make sure no-one does anything that’s improper for the game of golf and I think that it is great that we have the policy in place,” said the world No.1.

“I don’t know if he tested for performance-enhancing or recreational, but the whole idea is to keep our sport clean and that is why we created the policy and it has been executed and unfortunately one player didn’t obey the policy.”

Supportive as he may be of golf’s foray into the prevention of substance misuse, he alludes to one fact that throws into perspective the credibility of what is a damning indictment of journeyman Barron. Read more…