Neither are golfing saints. Sergio: Spitting in a cup, blaming the gods for bad breaks, throwing clubs in the water; Tiger: Spitting on the green, swearing and throwing clubs.
The incident that occurred early in the second round of the weather-delayed 2013 Players Championship was just one of many examples over the last 14-15 years that prove Tiger and Sergio do not have a lot of time for each other.
Sergio was about to hit his second shot on the second hole, a par 5, when he heard some crowd noise, or to use his words, "everybody was screaming", from the area where Tiger was waiting to hit his second shot - some 50 yards away, in the pine straw, to Sergio's left.
Sergio claims the crowd noise was due to the excitement of Tiger pulling a 5-wood or 3-wood out of his bag - signalling he was going to go for the green in two as opposed to playing safe.
The crowd noise did begin before Sergio started his backswing, so there is the possibility he could have pulled out and gone through his pre-shot routine again. However, we will never know when Sergio first heard this noise - maybe it was during his swing as he said, or maybe Sergio was just looking for a quick and easy excuse for a bad shot. And who easier to blame than his arch-nemesis?
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| Awkward: Sergio and Tiger on the first tee (ESPN) |
Still, what Tiger did and said does not add up. The video of the incident clearly showed Tiger putting his finger to his mouth and point in the direction where Sergio is about to play his second shot from, or in simple terms a gesture to hush the crowd - a good piece of etiquette from Tiger. But why would Tiger gesture to the crowd, wanting it to be quiet when, as he said afterwards in an interview, a marshal had told him Sergio had already hit and that was why he took the club out of the bag?
Let me break this down into sequential order according to Tiger's actions and his post-round comments about the marshal...
(1) The marshal signalled to Tiger that Sergio had played his shot.
(2) Tiger took a wood out of his bag and began to plan his shot.
(3) Tiger gestured to crowd (puts his finger to his mouth) and pointed in Sergio's direction, presumably asking it to be quiet while Sergio was hitting.
As you can see (1) cannot possibly occur before (3). There is no reason for Tiger to ask the crowd to be quiet for Sergio if a course official had already told him to play his shot.
Why would the marshal lie to Tiger? He wouldn't.
Of course, Tiger did not purposely pull a club out his bag in the hope the crowd would cheer and put Sergio off. No one is that cold-hearted.
Still, the mistake falls on Tiger for not waiting for Sergio to play and not seeing with his own eyes Sergio complete his swing. It is the responsibility of the player who does not have the first shot to make sure that they do not put the other player off until that player has completed their swing.
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| Watching on: Sergio and Tiger (Daily Telegraph) |
It certainly makes for great viewing when these two complete the final few holes of their third rounds on Sunday. Here is some dialogue from separate interviews during and after the third round...
Sergio (during the weather delay and after the incident) - "...you do have a feel when the other guy is going to hit and right as I was in the top of the backswing, I think he must have pulled like a 5-wood or a 3-wood and obviously everybody started screaming. So that didn't help very much."
Tiger (at the end of the third day's play)- "The marshals, they told me he already hit, so I pulled a club and was getting ready to play my shot...Not real surprising that he's complaining about something."
Sergio (when told by a reporter what Tiger's response was to his initial comments) - "That's fine. At least I'm true to myself. I know what I'm doing, and he can do whatever he wants.''
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