Phillips’s Verdura Resort in Sicily Will Appeal to Ardent Golfers, Moneyed Aristocrats, Beach-loving Girlfriends
PHOTO COURTESY OF VERDURA GOLF AND SPA RESORT
I knew I was in trouble when Britt saw the glossy photos of sun-drenched beaches, fragrant orchards, and Sicilian villas.
“Sicily?” she asked, suddenly interested in the pictures on my writing desk. It was the new 45-hole Kyle Phillips-designed Verdura Golf and Spa Resort. She opened the brochure to a two page spread of cliff-side green sites and an ultra-modern Sir Rocco Forte-owned luxury hotel overlooking a promontory on the Mediterranean. “This looks fantastic. But how are you reviewing a golf course you’ve never played in a country you’ve never visited?”
That’s a good question. I’m not actually reviewing the golf course. I can’t, I haven’t played it. But I can report that Kyle Phillips – still rightfully in highest demand after his brilliant work at Kingsbarns – was recruited by Sir Rocco to build a Kingsbarns for him, this time in a much more hospitable climate, and that – should you find yourself in Sicily – you will be able to get to play great seaside golf at quite a fair price a la carte and, apparently, there’s a hell of a hotel there if you have cash to bleed.
More importantly, while chatting with Phillips about Verdura, I got him to open up about his ideas about golf design, golf travel, and the future of the golf industry in general. By creating a natural looking landscape and incorporating the crucial ground game elements of links golf, Phillips accomplished the impossible at Kingsbarns: he built an indisputable modern masterpiece in the shadow of hallowed St. Andrews. Now he’s continuing to build a solid portfolio of high-end, but rock-solid strategic designs across the globe using the same principles. We can only hope we get to see him bring the same old-school golf design concepts to affordable public designs here in America soon and often.
KYLE PHILLIPS IN HIS OWN WORDS
Apart from deep-pocketed and well-traveled ardent golfers, the rank-and-file American golfer may not have heard of Phillips, let alone played one of his designs. Most of his work is private, foreign, or both.
“I don’t know where I belong in the world, I’ve been so many different places,” laments Phillips. Although he has a mere handful of U.S. designs, Phillips has designed in such unlikely places as Austria, Brazil, China, Czech Republic, Morocco, Sweden, the Netherlands, and United Arab Emirates to name just a few. And, of course, he has his magnum opus thus far in Kingsbarns.
Phillips, who for many years worked with Robert Trent Jones, Jr. and who also has The Grove in England and a celebrated restoration of The California Golf Club of San Francisco on his impressive resume, prefers design strategies and playing conditions like those found in the hallowed courses of the UK. These ideas formed the sturdy backbone of not only Kingsbarns, but Verdura as well.
“What have we done to golf in America?” he asks pointedly, referring to aerial, target-style courses in shoe-horned into real estate developments. “Playing golf in tight corridors around houses takes angles and options away from the game,” he says. “We have taken golf design, made it like McDonalds: we’ve packaged it and sold it around the world at ridiculous prices. Now the world is choking on Big Macs. Instead, I like to have my courses look natural, I’m not going to take one style of course and drop it into another location.”
“I like firm and fast conditions because they let a designer incorporate the ground game options,” he continues. “I also like land forms extending away from greens.” Sometimes one of Phillips’s greens will have one side extending into a flat area, so bogey golfers and amateurs have a bail out, but the other side will have a fiendish low chipping area or a bunker well below the level of the green, which makes for a fiendishly tough up-and-down. “I strive for balance. World class players will have a tough time getting close during tournaments and pay the price if they miss, but bogey golfers who’ll play my courses year-round will have a fighting chance.”
Phillips also likes to create illusions, called in design circles the “doctrine of deception.” “I like illusions to create intrigue and make the player think,” Phillips says, referring to things like hidden swales, blind bunkers and hazards that look closer to the green than they actually are. “Moreover, angles off the tee and greenside contours create strategy and make a course more interesting. Strategy can emerge from the natural landforms and that’s where the soul of golf dwells. When you play one of my courses, you’re not just getting spoon-fed where to hit the ball, and you’re not just getting one way to play the hole, but many, no matter what level of player you are. You have to think.”
Phillips raises an interesting point. Two players that are scratch will have different lengths and different strengths, so they might play the same hole completely differently. It’s only fair to give them both options.
Finally, while he embraces minimalism – the architectural school which moves as little earth on a site as possible to both reflect the natural forms of the property and save significantly on costs – he refines it pragmatically. He felt that minimalism – at times merely “stick a stake in the ground for a tee, stick a stake in the ground for a green, carve bunkers, and you’re done” – works best on a site blessed with varied and striking natural landforms.
However Phillips feels that subtle and well-planned enhancements to the less interesting portions of the property should not be dismissed out-of-hand. There’s nothing wrong with moving a little earth – a little mind you – to make a flat, unvaried parcel of land more interesting. Phillips describes the concept as “naturalism.”
“Naturalism uses existing natural landforms, but also – where the landforms might be devoid of character – allows for a natural looking shaping to be created, and then the holes to be overlaid this new, but natural looking and feeling landscape,” he explains. “The end result still looks and plays like what naturally was there, but we were able to make it more interesting – and most importantly strategic – than what was previously there.”
VERDURA, SICILY, AND SIR ROCCO
At first blush, Verdura doesn’t seem like a place that I’d write about or visit. My raison d’etre as a golf travel writer is to highlight affordable golf destinations, especially ergonomic trips where golfers can sample several different great courses in one region.
Instead, a cursory glance at the website and literature for Verdura Golf and Spa resort reveals a place completely at odds with that imperative: an expensive resort well-off the beaten golf path catering to a “Who’s Who” clientele that’s also trying to lure a major event, in this case the Ryder Cup.
Besides, I always get leery when “Spa” is in the name for a resort.
Questions leapt to mind: Why would we need to go to Sicily to play seaside golf? What sets Verdura apart from every other opulent resort with a golf course? If I miss playing this golf course, what important legacy to the world of golf will I miss?
The answer is different for Americans and Europeans. The latter could make Verdura a staple of the European jet-set rotation. It makes sense: Costa del Sol and the south of France, then Sicily-Corsica-Sardinia, before continuing north to Italy and on to Greece, or south through Monaco and on to other exotic destinations such as Marrakesh, Essaouira, or the Canary Islands.
However most Americans don’t have Sicily high on the travel list: not with Rome, Paris, London, Greece, and Egypt as priorities to name a few. It may draw some Italian-Americans, but it will need the cache of a Ryder Cup to draw the attention of America’s mainstream golf traveler. They’ll first go to Ireland, England, Scotland and even Northern Ireland before hitting the sunnier spots like Verdura and Spain.
Still, Sir Rocco’s sense of taste, class, and quality in golf design led him to make the wise choice of Phillips as designer of his golf courses, instead of a big-name “signature” designer. That’s the competitive advantage Verdura will have, despite its out-of-the-way location and high price tag for accommodations.
“It’s a Sicilian links. We wanted to bring links golf to this climate,” says Phillips. “There are great golf holes and some cool features, but the whole is greater than the sum of the parts here. It’s breezy, but not windy: think the east of Scotland, not the west. Like Kingsbarns, there’s fantastic views everywhere. The inland holes all have panoramic views of the sea.”
There are blind bunkers, blind swales and other surprises that you’ll find at Phillips’s beloved U.K courses, the strategies of which he deftly uses as a springboard for his own work. One highlight is at 6 East, a par-3 where a blind swale guards the front of the green.
Moreover, both Phillips and Sir Rocco think the seclusion is a draw. “No place else in Europe has 45 holes (an East and West Course and a nine-hole short course), of superb seaside golf in a warm climate that’s not dominated by residential projects in high density areas,” Phillips explains. “It’s different from the Costa del Sol. It’s a dream destination on the water that is not in a housing development – Verdura has 570 acres and only electric vehicles. It’s the same low impact environment of other great seaside resorts, but without a crammed tee sheet and a ton of people. The seclusion is charming.”
The low season is December to April and the high season is May to November. The golf rates for both seasons are $135.14 for 18 holes and $202.71 for 36 holes. However, that’s the other problem: that’s just the golf. Lodging is pricey. The hotel is for rich flounders and whales, sometimes reaching $745.00 a night in high season, perhaps getting as low as $200 in shoulder seasons for “bed and breakfast” accommodations. There is a “Spring Offer” of U.S. $448.00 for unlimited golf, dinner each night, and use of resort amenities, but that’s still high, especially compared to the U.K., Ireland, and many U.S. resorts. Additionally, it’s seventy minutes from Palermo airport and nowhere near the only other tourist draw in Sicily. Mt. Etna is on the other side of the island. Some people disagree with me and say that Palermo and Agricento are vibrant cities and great starting points to tour the ancient ruins.
Even with Phillips, it may need a Ryder Cup to draw American tourism. Verdura could be a runaway success if that happens, or we could see the outer limit of “if you build it they will come.” The idea of a St. Andrews or Ballybunion or Royal County Down in 80-degree weather may be appealing and sell well, or people may still make the Auld Sod the highest priority. After all, golf is a game of tradition, and it takes time to build a sterling reputation, so the U.K will probably remain America’s favorite foreign golf destination for the time being. We’ll have to wait and see.
Unless, of course, you are a travel-happy, modern hotel-loving, beachcomber, like Britt is. Secluded beach? Pampering? Mediterranean sunshine all day? Count her in! She gave me her most imperious stare, a look that said, “if you know what’s good for you, we’ll go here” look. In those eyes, I could see she was halfway there already.
Well, sorry, Britt. I’m putting my foot down. We’re NOT going to Sicily. It’s MY turn to pick where we’re going on vacation next…and it just so happens BOTH Sir Rocco AND Kyle Phillips have new hotels and courses opening in Marrakesh. How does Morocco grab you instead?
Tiger Woods, Meet South Park
(C) AP/Comedy Central/South Park Studios.
Despite what IMG, Ari Fleischer, and Tim Finchem may blindly hope, America is most certainly not done kicking Tiger Woods; we haven’t forgotten “go to the bathroom and take a picture” quite yet. Just take the temperature of the public at large, then watch what the entertainment industry is doing and you’ll see the true feelings of the rank and file American…and America seems to think that since the sacred cow let itself be led to the slaughter by it’s own mistakes, well we might as well get a burger or two out of the deal.
Hot on the heels of a humiliating roast by Howard Stern, the aminated seriesSouth Park is sharpening the long knives, just in time for the Masters.
According to the article:
“Sex addiction, the intersection of powerful men and willing women, late-night phone calls to the police and bad public relations gave them so much fodder they could have made an entire Tiger-centric season, Stone said.
Since the Peabody Award-winning show’s first episode in 1997, Parker and Stone haven’t worried about lines between good taste and bad if they can get a laugh. They mocked the Church of Scientology to the point of annoying Tom Cruise, and depicted Jesus Christ defecating on President Bush and the American flag.
“There’s a delicacy in talking about (Woods) that we don’t have to worry about,” Stone said.”
And therein lies the rub. The worst element, the tabs and the comedians have sunk their fangs into Woods, and they can’t threatened, bullied, or denied access…although they can be bought, as the ugly “lets trade not publishing the sex tryst with the Perkins waitress (PERKINS WAITRESS!!??) in the car in the church parking lot for a Men’s Fitness article” shows.
These guys, who have no boundaries since everything is animated, may do much worse than just show Phil Mickelson marking his ball with an Ambien at Amen Corner…or maybe John Daly hitting a ball off a Trojan-Enz. The episode will be called sexual healing and will feature some of the South Park kids getting treated for sex addiction.
No, the world hasn’t forgotten that Tiger treated women they were like a buffet table. They also haven’t forgotten that now the PGA Tour…and poor Elin…will forever be immortalized in the porn industry’s new movie “Tiger’s Wood.” They also haven’t forgotten that now tabs will follow a lot more other golfers and try to dig up whatever they can find.
They also remember how impenitent and at times petulant Woods sounded at his glib “presser” – though no questions were allowed. According to this Daily News article, Stone admitted he was disgusted by Woods’s “apology” delivered February 19.
So that’s the legacy that will remain in history long after all the phony pressers the fawning TV broadcasts by talking heads under orders to be gloss over the scandal have ended. America hasn’t forgotten that when it learned the truth about Tiger Woods, it learned he acted like everyone – especially women – were beneath him. Finally, they also haven’t forgotten that the right thing for the PGA Tour to do would be to stand up for women’s rights and publicly condemn the utter boorishness of the whole sordid affair.
Then again, when we’re talking about such role models as Jamie Jungers, Holly Sampson, and Jaimee Grubbs, I guess you need to run in the other direction from them on general principle…which is just what Tiger should have done. But this time we know what they’re selling, so if we let them shove it down our throats with out protest, shame on us.
Tony Korologos reviews Sand Hollow
Tony Korologos of Hooked on Golf just got back from St. George’s, Utah and has a great review of Sand Hollow, one of last year’s candidates for best new public course.
Karl MacGinty has John Daly by the Numbers
The hits keep coming for John Daly. Hot on the heels of harassing a news reporter, he has a second war brewing with Calloway, the company that rescued his career years ago so he could flush it even further. To show his gratitude, Daly brought all conversation – polite and otherwise – to a screeching halt by alleging they made him take Paxil and other drugs as a condition to his contract.
How charming. What, no toilet or beer humor?
In the mean time, one of our AWITP faves, Irish writer Karl MacGinty breaks down John Daly by the numbers. From the article:
“3. It’s a measure of Daly’s off-course problems that his unworldly talent has yielded just three ‘regular’ PGA Tour victories — the 1992 BC Open, 1994 Bell South and 2002 Buick Invitational. Other wins on major Tours include the 1993 Dunhill Cup (with Fred Couples and Payne Stewart); the 2001 BMW International in Europe, plus the 2003 Korean Open in Asia.
4. Catastrophically unlucky in love, Daly has racked up four divorces. His relationship with second wife Bettye ended partly because she turned out to be 10 years older than she’d originally told him. Fourth wife Sherrie was sentenced to five month’s prison for pleading guilty to a Federal drugs charge. He has three children, Shynah Hale (17), Sierra Lynn (14) and John Patrick II (6).
5. The most recent of the five suspensions he’s received from the Tour was a six-month ban in November 2008 after he had to be taken into protective custody by police when found drunk outside a Hooters restaurant.
6. The number of times Daly has been placed on probation by the Tour.
7. Daly, who admitted he drank ‘a fifth’ (750ml bottle) of Jack Daniels every day at the age of 23, has been ordered to undergo counselling or enter alcohol rehabilitation on seven occasions by the Tour.
11. According to his disciplinary jacket, Daly has been officially cited 11 times for “conduct unbecoming a professional”. The first was in April 1991 when he cursed at a playing partner during a PGA event.
21. The number of times Daly has been disciplined by the Tour for “failing to give his best efforts”, most famously when he continually pumped balls into a water hazard at the par-five sixth at Bay Hill during the Arnold Palmer Invitational, resulting in a hole score of 18.”
Some people still try to sell us snake oil. They try to tell us that people still want to watch “Big John being Big John,” but they deny reality. We were sick of John Daly years ago. Just because we sometimes read about the ugly fall of celeb-u-tards doesn’t mean we admire it or want to see it lionized by misguided P.R. people and Tv execs who long sold out quality in the name of whatever is lowest common denominator.
That’s the best thing about golf…no matter how much lumps like Daly and Woods try to dumb it down or trick it out, it still resists and endures with grace and class. That’s what the ardent golf fan knows. That’s why Daly may resonate with casual fans – the ones who only like/watch golf for the sideshows – but not with real golfers and fans. They aren’t dazzled by his dubious celebrity. They know it’s not what you do for a living that makes you great, it’s what you do for others.
Golf Writers ask PGA Tour to Suspend John Daly
Alleging harassment and cyberstalking, among other malfeasance, the Golf Writers Association of America has formally asked the PGA Tour to suspend John Daly for his vengefully publishing a sports writer’s phone number and encouraging his fans to harass him.
Make no mistake, Daly is immature at best, dangerously anti-social and unhinged at worst. His conduct in encouraging fans to harass a writer who dared to show the truth – that Daly is constantly out of control – is actionable civilly and criminally. Daly didn’t like that the writer exposed Daly’s nearly running over an ATF agent at a checkpoint when late for a tee-time at the 2005 U.S. Open.
To all the simpering panderers and enablers falling all over themselves making excuses so fans won’t tune out his dismally vapid reality TV show, I say “Just because he can Whack-a-Ball doesn’t make him ALWAYS right.” It’s not what you do for a living that makes you great, it’s what you do for others.
Steve Elling beat me to the punch on the most salient points in his piece, slamming Daly as the reddest of the Tour’s red-light districts, but also condemning the Panderer-and-Enabler-in-Chief, Tour Commissioner Timid Finchem. From the article:
“In a dimwitted double-whammy, the organization that has been indirectly complicit in Daly’s actions over the years by allowing him to ply his trade has again elected to do what it does best — stand mute as he besmirches the sport. Unlike with Daly’s array of former wives, this is one marriage made in heaven….Once again, the tour’s disciplinary stance has rightly been called into question….As any parent knows, sometimes a child needs to be figuratively paddled in the public square for a point to be made and behavior to be modified, and the tour’s asinine policy of dealing with issues behind closed doors — PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem and his staff have the autonomy to levy fines according to a largely subjective measure — needs to be dynamited. It’s the hickory shaft of sports-league disciplinary codes. at some point, the tour must be held responsible for continuing to let this guy ply his trade and for failing to modify his behavior. The psychobabble term is that the tour is an enabler.
It needs to be a disabler.
The tour policy on discipline is an antiquated joke, the vestiges of a flawed philosophy that dates back to an earlier era. Tour players are, as a rule, a decent bunch, but as Daly and other prominent players have proved, these angels sometimes have dirty faces. Covering up the deeds of players is ripping off fans and sponsors, too. The tour is sometimes selling a tainted bill of goods..”
Still, Timid Finchem cares more about appearances and money than about doing the right thing. Tiger Woods bends Finchem to his will and he doesn’t even have to pay him $1,500 an hour, so why should Daly get any worse treatment. After all, casual eyeballs are down without Woods…***rolls eyes***
Your PGA Tour under Tim Finchem: there’s no record in the record books or any virtue of the game that’s not for sale.
Mike Lupica asks the Right Question: When do we start Faulting Agents?
I’ve been working on a longer piece about agent responsibility to not only their client, but the sponsors as well, but Mike Lupica of the Daily News has the same idea I do: It’s about time to hold agents responsible for whatever their role is in pandering, enabling or facilitating bad behavior or steroid use in their clients.
Here is Lupica’s article. From the article:
“Somebody will get around to talking to the player agents. Asking them what they know about Dr. Galea. Or maybe they won’t ever be put on the griddle. Somehow, throughout the era of performance-enhancing drugs, it is as if somebody granted agents permanent immunity, even though logic makes at least some of them unindicted co-conspirators of this time in baseball.
The commissioner of baseball, Bud Selig, gets blamed for everything except syringes. Everybody in the world knows how fiercely the Major League Baseball Players Association protected the guilty over the last decade. But what about these controlling agents? Does anybody think that the biggest stars in the world send themselves to Canada to see Galea, even if he has proclaimed himself a visionary and pioneer of sports medicine?
Scott Boras, who is Beltran’s agent, did everything except schedule Beltran’s knee surgery and scrub in himself. Now we’re supposed to believe Beltran went to see Galea on his own. Or that the Mets sent him. Come on.”
Now the time has come to ask the same questions about Tiger Woods and his entourage. Who knew he was spending unbelievable amounts of time in a harem of loose women for hire and why didn’t they think about the damge discovery would cause to the sponsorship deals. Did any of them procure these women? If so, the sponsors should look sharply at them for devaluing their investment.
The same questions hold true about Woods’s reported addiction to painkillers. These dangerous drugs are a serious health problem, causing many deaths nationwide.
Lupica asks similar questions. From the article:
“It was Tiger Woods’ management firm, IMG, that put him with Dr. Galea, and before long Galea was on his way down to Orlando to work with Woods when he was rehabbing from knee surgery. Woods wanted to get back faster, and it was in IMG’s best interests for him to get back faster, and that is how the search for the next hot guy from sports medicine begins. It is always about coming back, getting healthy, staying healthy. Or getting bigger and stronger….The illegal thing that Galea is accused of doing is transporting human growth hormone and another drug that is illegal in this country across the border from Canada. If it turns out to be true, and if Galea gets set down for that, you will probably be asking yourself how he decided which of his patients got the legal drugs and which ones didn’t.”
Lupica is right on the mark…Woods’s problems are not going to be solved as it seems all the panderers and enablers are still in place. Never forget his mother’s alleged comments to Elin which supposedly sent Elin into a towering rage: Kultida and the rest of Team Woods think they can get back to the way things were – by going to ground, hiding, and acting as though nothing had happened or that the problem was just a brush-off, a blip. The New York Post published this article which includes revealing glimpses into the thinking of Kultida, and by implication, Tiger, his team, and Tim Finchem:
“Elin feels that Tida is totally against her,” the source said. “[Tida] keeps urging Elin to talk to Tiger and sort things out — as if it was just a silly argument over a trivial matter.
“[Tida] had been telling everyone how ‘Team Woods’ would soon be back together and this all would blow over. That made Elin furious.”
You watch…Elin is no fool. She wasn;t at Woods’s Act of Contrition for one reason only: I think she’s not coming back, and I think the reason why she’s not coming back is because Woods has not canned the OTHER source of the problem…the handlers who let this thing get out of hand in the first place.
I’ll never forget it…an oily sports agent I know was discussing steroids in sports with me a few years ago. He said they should be legal. I asked him point blank, with all the health problems they cause, if your daughter got caught doing them on the high school lacrosse team, would you think differently. He said, “as long as she got a scholarship, no…not at all.”
Then he asked me the real question.
“C’mon, Jay…” he began, sidling up close to me like trying to impart secret wisdom, a simpering smile on his face. “Don’t you want to be filthy rich?” All that was missing was a bawdy wink.
Sure. Who doesn’t? But at what cost? Look at the price Woods paid: everything he ever was.
Pamper, protect, obey, and worship…it just doesn;t work in the long run.
Feds to Subpoena top athletes in Dr. Anthony Galea steroids and PED Investigation
While a list of names is not yet available, according to Sports Illustrated, “Federal law enforcement officials have alerted a number of world-class athletes to expect grand jury subpoenas in the case against Canadian physician Anthony Galea, three sources familiar with the investigation tell SI.com. While it is unclear which athletes and how many will be subpoenaed, it is an indication that the multi-agency, federal investigation of Galea is progressing. According to a December story in The New York Times, Galea’s medical assistant told investigators that he had administered performance-enhancing drugs to professional athletes.”
Galea, a native of Toronto, faces charges in Canada of conspiring to smuggle human growth hormone (HGH) and the drug Actovegin into the U.S., conspiracy to smuggle prohibited goods into Canada, unlawfully selling Actovegin, and smuggling goods into Canada in violation of the Customs Act. The doctor’s client list includes Tiger Woods, U.S. Olympic swimmer Dara Torres, Broncos quarterback Chris Simms, former Browns running back Jamal Lewis, and Mets shortstop Jose Reyes.
At his now infamous “Statement of Principles to the Press” of last week, Woods denied using steroids or PEDs. Woods is reputed to have received controversial blood platelet spinning procedures on his knee. Woods is presently in recovery of sex and prescription drug addiction, and is taking an indefinite leave of golf. Some golf writers are apready pressuring PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem for an opinion on whether Woods’s prescription drug addiction exposes hi to possible suspension on the PGA Tour.
Gatorade drops Tiger Woods, Possible Prescription Drug Rehab for Woods?
Gatorade is now the third company to break completely from Tiger Woods in the wake of his epic collapse. The previous two were Accenture and AT&T.
Two other sponsors have not cut contractual ties entirely, but have removed his image from ads: Swiss watch-maker Tag Heuer and razor-maker Gillette, a division of Proctor & Gamble. Two others that have stood by him steadfastly are Nike and EA Sports, the two youngest, yet least affluent demographics of the many Woods saw as a pitchman.
The revelations by several tabloids and reported as fact by the mainstream media of of Woods’s addiction to pain medication are of far more concern to everyone: Tour, sponsors, and fans alike. Woods’s health is at stake far more seriously from drugs than by philandering. Prescription drug abuse can cause death or serious deterioration of vital organs, shortening life greatly, when not taking it altogether. We should all take particular note of the government’s recent ban on many pain drugs such as Oxycontin and Vicodin which have been recently banned afters of being prescribed willy-nilly to our population. The cost in health care from this mistake – letting them pass in the first place, when they were both dangerous and highly addictive – is measurable more in lives lost and shattered than money.
Woods deserves deep sympathy for this, and questions should be asked directly to Woods’s advisers as to whether this situation could have been averted. After all, agents devalue their clients and their clients’s contracts when they fail to act in pointing their charges toward recovery, not abuse.
Other Sports – FIFA 2010 World Cup Handicapping
Rising star PR rep Jessica Aufiero, (who, among other projects, is repping the new Kyle Phillps-designed courses in Sicily, a resprt owned by Sir Rocco Forte called “Verdura”), asked me for my thoughts on this year’s FIFA World Cup. After the success I had picking Italy to win in 2006, and after turning the World on to Ghana – the darling upstart of the tournament, I’m excited to try my hand at soccer reporting again, so here goes…drum roll please…
Group A – France, South Africa, Mexico, Uruguay
Since they lost both Zidane and Barthez, France’s star has been waning, but they are still deep with Henry and Malouda. Host South Africa is merely a marker for the other three teams, but in a close game, might get a call or two to give the hosts a lift. Mexico and Uruguay are a level down from the elite teams and do not travel as well as France. Mexico has the edge head-to-head against Uruguay, but doesn’t have the firepower of France, though they may give them a tough game. France and the Mexico-Uruguay winner advance, but not much farther and certainly not to the semi-finals.
Group B – Argentina, Nigeria, South Korea, Greece
A tougher Group than it looks on paper. Now that Italy have finally closed the deal after decades of heartbreak, Argentina is the biggest bridesmaid, underwhelming at times, narrowly missing at others. Despite being deeply talented with Messi and Mascherano, they’ll have their hands full every game. Africa always has one surprise for us per Cup, but may have two in Ghana and Nigeria. Greece is better than people expect, and South Korea is steadily rising. Argentina should advance, with the winner of Nigeria-South Korea as well. Give Nigeria a home-continent advantage.
Group C – England, USA, Algeria, Slovenia
The hype is all about England-USA, and that should be one for the ages. It’s a shame it has to be played at the Group stage. Is there any more stirring sound at the World Cup than 30-35,000 voices all singing “God Save the Queen?” Either the US will gel, play well, and advance from this group – which they should – or they’ll fold up like a gun metal grey chair and limp home angrily. Algeria and Slovenia aren’t pushovers, but they’re not powerhouses either. If England and the USA don’t advance, when they get back home, they should be egged on general principle.
Group D (Group of Death) Germany, Ghana, Australia, Serbia
Now do you believe me about Ghana? How everyone laughed at me last year when I wrote, “They will win one game and knock that team out.” Well they won two games and knocked out both of the teams they beat. This year, led by Michael Essian and Samuel Inkoom, they finished second to Egypt in the African Championships, losing 1-0 three weeks ago. They will advance, probably with Germany. Australia plays well on both sides of the ball and Serbia can beat anyone and make a run deep into the tournament as well. Give Serbia the edge over Australia, but don’t be surprised to see any strange combination of teams from this group. P.S….someone please get the Australians a new nickname, because “Socceroos” just makes every other team want to kick their ass harder. After all, would you want to look your girlfriend in the eye and tell her you lost to the Socceroos?
Group E – Netherlands, Cameroon, Denmark, Japan
Netherlands-Cameroon-Denmark-Japan? What blind man made this a group? This bunch of also-rans has no business letting two teams advance. Give the edge to the Europeans. Netherlands has Robben and Van Persie, and if they can stay healthy, they can play with anyone. Denmark is surprisingly strong, but there is no clear, marquis, cast-iron, semi-final-quality team in this group.
Group F – Italy, Slovakia, New Zealand, Paraguay
After several murderous groups in the past, Italy, the defending champions and authors of the greatest defensive performance in modern sports history in the 2006 Cup, (they did not surrender a single goal in play in seven games), has a good chance of advancing without the hand wringing of the past. Paraguay can play – they are a good sleeper pick – and Slovakia is strong. I know anyone can beat anyone, but if the Kiwis make a run, it may be a sign of the apocalypse.
Group G – Brazil, Portugal, North Korea, Ivory Coast
Brazil and Portugal…ouch! That’s a marquis matchup. North Korea and Ivory Coast are over-matched, but I did hear that Kim Jong II went to a team practice, scored twelve goals and made forty saves, but turned down a place to play for the squad because “this is just too easy.”
Group H – Spain, Honduras, Chile, Switzerland
Here we go again with Spain and a bunch of chumps. They consistently get not just the easiest bracket, but the joke bracket. This year playing the role of the typical “Tibet, Antarctica, and Vanuatu,” patsies, it’s Switzerland-Chile-Honduras, who scare nobody and won’t be missed when they’re gone.
Okay, so those teams are a little better than footrags, but not much. Switzerland can play defense, but they are overmatched in talent and depth. Honduras is the clear second place choice on offense, but they may get lost in all the hoopla and blow a game through lack of experience. Honduras is better than Switzerland on paper, but Switzerland plays better in big games and plays them more often.
A good guess at the final four might be Germany, Brazil, Argentina, and Italy. Spain is my number one alternate to crash that party. England also belongs in this elite, but may face too many tough teams as the tournament rolls on, and they always seem to let their one mental lapse kill them. Sleepers: Ghana, Honduras, Uruguay, and the Netherlands/Denmark winner.
More Tiger Woods Conference Feedback – Jenkins, Czaban, Sal Johnson
So whether someone thinks Tiger Woods’s conference was good for his image breaks down like this:
Broadcasters: They are preconditioned and afraid of change. They are also beholden to the last dollar on the table. They want TV ratings to be high, and they still need Woods to show up for vanilla comments about nothing after rounds, so they won’t ask any tough questions, and they will fawn all over anything he does, including asking the press to be a token marker and silent partner at pressers.
Magazines: Finally, Dan Jenkins has chimed in with a terrific opinion about why he doesn’t believe we should give Woods a free pass. From the article:
“Hogan, Palmer and Nicklaus never set themselves up to become future statues in Central Park.
They never pretended to be the All-American Daddy-Pop Father of the Year Who Also Wins Golf Tournaments.
They never sold themselves as the greatest Family Values brand ever, and conquered the marketplace with it, shamelessly scooping up hundreds of millions of dollars while saying, “My family will always come first.”
They were never what Tiger allowed himself to become from the start: spoiled, pampered, hidden, guarded, orchestrated and entitled.
I’ll tell you what Hogan, Palmer and Nicklaus were at their peak.
They were every bit as popular as Tiger, they endured similar demands on their time, but they handled it courteously, often with ease and enjoyment.”
Still, about half of the magazine writers gave Woods a passing grade, half didn’t, but the half that did react favorably to the presser are still looking sternly at him to back it up going forward.
The print journalists are slamming him, with a mantra of fool me once = shame on you, fool me twice = shame on me. They are rightfully indignant about Woods – the most demonized man in the world for the last two months – ordering them to show up and shut up at his conference.
Here’s Sally Jenkins’s article. For those of you scoring at home, she is Dan’s daughter. From the article:
“Tiger Woods has always been artificial, but never has he seemed more waxen than in his so-called public apology. Here’s the problem: Woods and his handlers staged a fake news conference to apologize for being fake. To these ears, it was stilted and rehearsed to the point of insincerity….it’s hard to feel sorry for an effigy….His words were often halting, and meant to be moving, but largely blank. They included self-serving howlers about the kids, and Buddhism, and privacy. I’m just so relieved that “the work will go on” for those “millions of children” he has helped. He said all the right things. But he’s always said all the right things, and the words were hollow then, so what reason do I have to believe them now?
It would have been easier to accept Woods’s confessional at face value if he hadn’t followed such an obviously calculated, familiar media crisis strategy: lead off with heartfelt apology, transition to trumpeting charitable work, and then attack the press. What do I want from Woods? Not much really. Just an unscripted, spontaneous exchange that suggests he respects his audience enough to be honest with us. He peddled a false icon and hushed up his transgressions and continues to stage-manage himself to the point of opacity. His so-called public appearance on Friday was a heavily armored, mock affair. The nature of the proceedings — the limiting of admission to a few friends, the refusal to entertain any queries, even from a set of golf writers who have been egregiously kind to him — suggested that Woods is still determined to have things on his own terms. Which calls into question just how much he’s changed, or whether he even thinks he needs to..”
Steve Czaban slammed Woods as well, calling it a second car wreck:
“Tiger said the least he possibly could, in the most chickenshit manner, to a comically staged room full of cronies – the commissioner included….His robotic opus of therapy inspired talking points hit all the scripted notes. Some TV commentators insisted that he wrote the entire thing himself. This was a laughable assertion that was both unknowable and pointless even if true. For a guy with a team of advisers ballsy enough to dictate terms like this for an apology, to think they didn’t at least poke their nose a bit into the script proves that gullibility is a chronic condition….
If I were a golf writer covering the Tour, getting to the Zero Hour facts is precisely where I would start whether Tiger likes it or not. Because hard as it may be for him to understand, more than a few journalists still care about pursuing and reporting the truth, especially when they themselves or others have grossly misrepresented the facts.”
Czaba followed it up with a list of questions that – like it or not – we will be asking Woods and we will be expecting answers…and if we don’t get answers, we will dig until the answers come out, from him or from others, because it is our job to dleiver a truthful story, not be a pitch/PR person for famous people. Those questions include:
Q: You were injured in that car crash. How much of it do you remember, and did you fear for your life or golf career at any point?
Q: What kind of surgery – if any – did this accident require?
Q: Have you added any new people to your management team, or dropped anybody in the wake of this?
Q: Will you become more fan friendly once you return as part of your rehabilitation?
Q: Why didn’t you do more to avoid holding this press conference during a live tournament day? Explain more clearly why your schedule demanded this?
Those are just the tip of the iceberg for Czaban. I’m just as curious about allegations regarding Dr. Galea – the unlicensed Dr. doing modern bibbity-bobbity-boo on his leg and who was caught with Antivegin and HGH. I also think that when he comes back, the golf media can’t just let him get away with not answering questions about his behavior – on and off the golf course – because letting him walk away is the easiest thing to do.
Finally Sal Johnson – who I am trying to teach that it’s “He could HAVE, not he could OF – has this article analyzing the whole presser and giving too much of a free pass. From the piece:
“I want to give Tiger the benefit of the doubt on today’s speech and say this, if he doesn’t change and if we find out, which we will, that Woods was blowing smoke up our rear ends he will be discredited by not only members of the press but golf fans. There is going to be zero toleration of anything Woods does in the future, he is going to have every paparazzi following him around, there will be even more woman that will love to see if they could break him of his vows. Many think of today’s actions as the biggest sham in golf, that Woods was play acting and not sincere. No too ways about it, this time next year we will know what the truth is and I just hope for golf and for Woods and his family that things will be different in the future.”
Oh…and Sal…the caption should read “A somber Tiger Woods”…not a SLUMBER Tiger Woods:)
Reaction: Golf writers, fans agree – Tiger Woods is Still Impenitent
It’s not what he said, but how he said it – and although Tiger Woods “apologized” it was forced, defiant, ambiguous, and most of all insincere. which means he’s still done little to rehabilitate his shattered image.
“It was totally phony” said one prominent, award-winning journalist. “He only did this for endorsements, but most endorsers won’t buy it. He wasn’t contrite or sincere enough, and at times he scolded people, such as the media. This was not the time or place to scold. He was there to apologize, but now all the world saw him still wagging his finger at us and tut-tutting.”
Indeed, Woods’s words rang empty. On the one hand he said, “I don’t get to play by different rules. The same boundaries that apply to everyone apply to me,” but 1) he is pandered and enabled by Timid Finchem – free use of the Tour’s HQ at his beck and call -and 2) he again refused to answer questions about the scandal and told us in so many words not to ever expect answers or explanations.
“If he’s been rehearsing this for weeks and paid $100,000 for that statement, it was a failure. I give he and his advisors an F for both strategy and execution,” said our anonymous reporter, a life-long sports journalist. “This was all about the endorsers and the friendlies. But Accenture won’t take him, he torpedoed them. Nike will stick with him.”
He got that right. Woods could turn into a werewolf and bite the head off a kid and they and Finchem would downplay it and ask for his privacy to be respected.
“Tiger did the worst thing he could have done. He growled and lashed out at the media again. Which means he’s a hopeless case.”
In the most damning blow, Elin not there, and until she’s convinced, we should not be.
S.I’s Gary Van Sickle gave a slightly more beneficial review. “I give him a decent grade, but he’s got to back it up. He did better than A-Rod and McGwire. He did insert a commercial about the foundation and could have had better tone. It was bad acting…he won’t get an Oscar.”
Gloria Allred, high-octane attorney for porn star Joslyn James and socialite/party planner/newly-minted talk show host Rachel Uchitel called Woods’ address “a staged public relations stunt” and “a disgrace.”
Fans were equally perplexed. “What a loser,” said Julie Zimmerman, a life-long golf fan from Minesota. “Nobody could really believe him reading in that ‘learned-by-heart’ mousy voice. The only time he showed any life was to scold the media.”
Avid golfer Elmo Vada agreed. “I give him a C+. It could have been better, but he is a golfer.”
Most women are still slamming Woods for his serial philandering. “I’m glad Elin hit him,” said golf fan Nancy Carpenter. “Guys who do what he did are lucky to get off as easily as he did, although I guess I shouldn’t be saying ‘get off’ around him too loudly. I’m with Elin. Make him squirm, if you have to take him back at all.”
Gloria Allred wants a piece of Tiger Woods!
Looks like Tiger Woods has Gloria Allred’s panties in a bunch, but just not the way he usually likes when it comes to womens’ underwear.
The high-octane attorney who reps Rachel Uchitel and Joslyn James (real name Veronica Siwak-Daniels for those of you scoring at home), is holding her own press conference after Woods gets done grovelling to his wife, sponsors, sycophants, and simperers.
Pamper, Protect, Worship, and Obey – Your PGA Tour in Action, but not the Golf Writers!
People have asked me for my opinion about Tiger Woods/IMG ordering the Golf Writers Association of America to show up at Woods’s “news conference” where he’ll deliver a fake apology, but not be allowing any questions. Here it is, as part of my letter to Varten Kupelian, the president:
I think the golf writers should boycott the Tiger Woods “Apology” tomorrow. While a reporter or two should be there to send back their observations, the GWAA should not be allowed to be seen as a prop, nor should we be used as window dressing or silent partner.
The rank and file golf writers are almost unanimous in their outrage: it sends the wrong message to our readers if we grant our imprimatur upon being silent and complicit in what amounts to a sham and a fraud of a “news conference.” Woods – who deserves no clemency after what he did – has no business asking us to be sit there and nod our approval so he can try to rebuild his image. We’re reporters, not lap dogs. It also shows Woods hasn’t learned a thing from this ordeal, and that he’s as unrepentant as ever making such an unpalatable, unsavory demand. He deserves another shot in the chops from Elin for even asking. Nevertheless, after tomorrow’s debacle, his image will be even further sullied all because he doesn’t have the courage to face tough questions and be true to us, his wife, and himself.
This important moment in the story – perhaps the most important since the scandal broke – demands that questions be asked and serious, thoughtful answers be given. Yet for professional journalists to show up on the condition of agreeing to keep our tongues in our mouths and smile for the cameras on cue sets a ghastly precedent that we can be used and walked all over, and betrays our duty as journalists. We would undercut our credibility, and we would be no better than the panderers and enablers who allowed Woods to get into this mess in the first place.
We do Woods, the Tour, golf, our readers, and ourselves a dis-service if we allow the cycle of “pamper, protect, worship, and obey” to begin all over again. We cannot allow Woods or any other athlete to treat us like Kleenex tissues: use us when he needs us, and then we are disposable. He also should not be allowed to tell us what we can ask and what we can’t. We are journalists, not PR people. One misguided PR person simpered, “I just want him to be who he is and play golf.” Well that got him in this mess to begin with. If you don’t learn from your mistakes, you repeat them and compound them. Maybe Woods wants to live like that, but self-respecting journalists don’t.
The GWAA – the gold standard of reporting in the sport – has a duty to protect the integrity of the both our craft as writers and the game. We should not be bullied into keeping silent. Our readers will lose faith in us as a body and we’ll be the laughing stock of the various sports writing associations.
This is a “man or a mouse moment” for us as writers. If Woods wants to continue to self-immolate by being every bit as fake and arrogant as he was before this scandal broke, that’s fine, but we can’t shrink from our duties to be journalists and not report critical stories about the game for the sake of the extra money the “Jack record chase” brings in to the PGA Tour. That’s selling out the game as well as our integrity – individually and as a body.
The rest of the journalistic world must know we will not be ordered into silence, we will not be beholden to agents, stars, the star system or money, and we are not going to walk away from the tough story because it’s the easy thing to do. Moreover, we need to send an important message to Team Woods: things will be different this time around.
He fooled us once: shame on him, but if we let him do it again, it’s shame on us.
***UPDATE*** Golf Writers Board votes 19-4 (3 abstentions) to boycott the Woods Dog and Pony Show.
As reported by Hank Gola, who also is a voting member, the GWAA Board of Directors will boycott tomorrow’s “conference” and not send a three member panel to watch, smile on cue, and simper lovingly at poor, misunderstood, tired, privacy-deprived Woods. From the article:
“The board of directors of the Golf Writers of America has voted unanimously to boycott Woods’ statement reading unless it is opened to all accredited media.
“I cannot stress how strongly our board felt that this should be open to all media and also for the opportunity to question Woods,” said Vartan Kupelian, president of the 950-member group.
“The position, simply put, is all or none. This is a major story of international scope. To limit the ability of journalists to attend, listen, see and question Woods goes against the grain of everything we believe.”
The vote was 19-4 with three abstentions.
The GWAA will not provide the three pool reporters it had first agreed to send. The three wire services, Associated Press, Reuters and Bloomberg News Service, will still attend the 11 a.m. event, which will be broadcast through one pool camera from the clubhouse of TPC Sawgrass, the headquarters of the PGA Tour.”
Interesting pieces from Sal Johnson and Bob Harig
Sal Johnson teamed up with Robinson Holloway to write a fictional piece about Tiger Woods which claims to draw on “It’s Wonderful Life,” but really mixes in quite a bit of the ghosts from “A Christmas Story” as well:):) I have mixed feelings about the piece, but got a huge laugh out of this bit:
“Eldrick’s ears are assaulted by the riotous cheering and applause from the grandstands that line the 18th green of the Old Course, and he blinks rapidly as his eyes adjust to the blinding sunlight. “Who is that coming up, Rossi? I can’t tell.”
“It’s Sergio. You are about to witness a great moment in golf history. Sergio Garcia is about to become the fifth man to win the career grand slam, the first since Nicklaus did it in ‘66. After he won the 1999 PGA Championship at Medinah at age 19, everyone thought that he would be the next Nicklaus, or at least the next Seve, but it wasn’t until he got married and settled down a few years ago that he has started playing to his potential.”
Eldrick grimaces as he watches Garcia putt out for the historic win and bow to the rapturous gallery. “Wow, the crowds here really love the little punk, don’t they? Look at his smug little grin. Wait, who’s that? ELIN??!!? He’s married to Elin? Noooooooooooo!”
Again, the problem is that we keep perpetuating the myth that the so-called Tiger Effect is greater than it actually is. Golf is down for three reasons: 1) the economy is flagging, 2) the golf and real estate economies hit a downward cycle at the same time and 3) Tiger being out loses some casual fans and their casual dollars.
The other problem is the Tour hitched their star to Woods and the record chase with the same simoniacal attitude of the baseball owners. You can’t make anyone bigger than any game; it just doesn’t work.
On that note, Bob Harig has a great article about the continuing cone of silence about Woods from the players and Tour. From the article, which focuses mostly on Woods confident Mark O’Meara’s comments:
“I’m disappointed,” O’Meara said at Spyglass Hill, where he shot 77 in the opening round of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, a tournament he has won five times. “I’m disappointed for my friend. I was shocked like the rest of us were shocked. I don’t think anybody would agree with what happened.”
Woods has not been heard from since announcing his leave on his Web site while acknowledging marital infidelity. Since that time, the rumor mill has churned with numerous tabloid reports.
During that two-month period, no one in Woods’ management team has confirmed or denied any of the reports. And when he will return to competitive golf remains a mystery.
“I guess he has all these advisers,” O’Meara said earlier this week during a conference call to promote the Champions Tour’s Toshiba Classic. “I’m not his adviser. I would have handled it differently, myself, personally. But that’s who I am. Whether he’s handled it right or wrong, only time can decide that. Tiger is being Tiger.”
That’s exactly the problem – Tigers being Tigers, they don’t change their stripes, and they especially don;t change their stripes surrounded by people who protect, pamper, obey, and worship.
Ask yourself one question: if Jim Furyk or Sergio Garcia did what Tiger did, when would they be allowed to return to play golf? How much “Privacy” or “Solitude” would they be given by their employers?
Then ask yourself the same question with Doug Barron or Scott McCarren as the subject. Welcome to the PGA Tour star system: cash up front, please.
Good Tiger article by Van Sickle, but I still think we need to hear “I’m sorry”
I luv ya, Van Sickle, and I’m always glad when you lay the lumber to a chump, lunkhead, or dingbat who needs it, but I still say the world needs to hear from Tiger what he’s sorry about and why he’s sorry. Otherwise he’ll forever be evasive, ungrateful, and selfish…
…and as for the Tour? Timid Finchem is married to the money. Woods could turn into a werewolf and eat three kids before his eyes and it would still be a private matter that has nothing to do with golf. What a way to run golf: no ethics, no accountablility, no transparency, no remorse. But hey, protection, pampering, worship and obedience? sure…just open your wallet.