No big surprise here, but it is now official that Tiger Woods’ first tournament for 2011 is next week in the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines.
“I’m really looking forward to competing. I’ve been working hard on my game, and I’m excited about 2011.” ~Tiger Woods
Tiger has won his last five starts at Torrey Pines, including the mega-exciting playoff victory over Rocco Mediate in the 2008 US Open.
Tiger Loses Another Endorsement Deal
Due to their inability to settle on a new contract, Tiger Woods will no longer be providing articles for Golf Digest after 13 years. That contract was his 2nd longest endorsement deal behind Nike, beginning in 1997.
I’m not a big magazine reader and I can honestly say I’ve never read one of these articles.
Tiger turns 35 today
Today is Tiger Woods’ 35th birthday.
Happy birthday from HOG to TW.
As of December 31, a day after Tiger Woods’ birthday, Gillette’s contract with Tiger will be done and it will not be renewed.
Twitter and every other social network are buzzing like an electric shaver about this, so I thought I might as well mention it for those of you who live in a cave and prefer to get your golf news exclusively from HOG!
Next Tiger endorsement loss expected to be ad space on his teeth
HOG crack blog sources tell me the next endorsement to fall from Tiger Woods will be the advertising contract for his front left tooth. I’ll post more details later as they become available.
It is time for the 6th annual HOG TURKEY AWARDS. The award winners are those who were the biggest boneheads in the past year, in the golf world. Please check out my pal Jay Flemma’s Jazzy Awards as well. He and I collaborate on pieces occasionally and we had some fun discussion in preparation for this year’s Jazzy and Turkey awards…
Last year’s winner was Tiger Woods for his poor behavior on the golf course, the club throwing and such. The awards last year were finalized the day before the big Tiger Woods car crash and the pending affair scandal, otherwise Tiger would have swept the awards back in 2009.
Previous winners before Tiger last year:
Without further ado, here are the top 10 HOG Turkey awards for 2010 as well as the Turkey of the Year below. Drum roll please…
#10 John Daly
What did John Daly do this year to earn a turkey award in 2010? I’m not really sure. I really like the guy, but I’ve gotten so used to putting him in here that I just typed his name out of habit. Perhaps we can say JD deserves an award for under utilizing his immense raw talent.
#9 Sergio Garcia
Watching Sergio play this year was very painful. How a guy with so much raw talent and such a bright future can be such an unhappy and unmotivated player is beyond me. Thankfully Sergio left the game this year. If and when he comes back, I hope he can put it together and enjoy it, and stop wasting all of that talent.
#8 Hyun Ahn and Ilmi Chung
These two LPGA players played the wrong ball, knew it, and tried to get away with it. That is CHEATING. To make it even worse, they told one caddie, “you didn’t see anything.”
#7 Money hungry Tiger Woods mistresses
Earlier this year Tiger mistress and porn star Devon James (Devon is not pictured left, pictured left is another TW mistress named Joslyn James) was shopping around a XXX video of her and Tiger Woods. Eventually she admitted that the tape was a fake which she made with a TW look-a-like.
Devon and all the other TW mistresses need to now go away. We are all sick of you. Please.
#6 Jim Furyk DQ’d for sleeping in and missing pro-am
First of all, I’m a big Jim Furyk fan. This guy is the epitome of what a PGA Tour player should be.
But even the best of us can be boneheads and Jim isn’t immune to that. Furyk’s phone battery died, and he uses his phone for his wake up alarm. Alarm doesn’t go off, he misses the pro-am at The Barclays which is the first FedEx cup event. For sleeping in Jim was disqualified. That’s enough to earn a turkey award.
The funny thing is that Furyk won the FedEx Cup anyway, even after missing the first playoff event. Way to go Jimbo.
#5 PGA Tour for DQing Jim Furyk
As noted in the previous turkey award, Furyk was DQ’d by the PGA Tour in the first playoff event for sleeping in and missing (possibly not all but some) the pro-am.
For a player who is so rock solid and such a great example for a PGA Tour player, the Tour should have simply fined him a few bucks and allowed him to play but they didn’t. Later they actually changed that rule.
For this boneheaded implementation of a dumb policy, the PGA Tour gets a turkey award.
#4 Two chicks who I hope didn’t sleep with a dude they thought was John Daly
I’ve searched and searched through facebook, but I can no longer find this very funny photo. These two chicks ran into a guy in a hotel somewhere who barely, barely looked like John Daly. I mean, if you saw him from 300 yards away and he had golf clubs in his hands and those nutty pants on, you might think it was him.
These two chicks posted a photo on their facebook page posing with this guy with the quote, “here we are with John Daly.” The guy saw an opportunity, was pretending to be JD and loving the attention from these two females.
The real JD found that photo on Facebook and commented in “that’s not me!!!”
I just hope those two girls didn’t sleep with this guy…
#3 Ryuji Imada 26 stroke penalty
Ryuji Imada most definitely earns a turkey award for suffering 26 penalty strokes in a tournament in China.
#2 Dustin Johnson for finding a way to not win two majors
Once again I have to preface this award by saying that I’m a big Dustin Johnson fan. I think DJ will win several majors before his career is over, and perhaps getting this close twice this year will give him the experience he needs later down the road.
DJ had a three shot lead in the final round of the US OPEN at Pebble this year. It was very hard to watch him give that up. Once the unraveling started, it couldn’t be stopped. I felt really bad for DJ.
Two more majors down the road at the PGA Championship was the now famous “Bunkergate.” On the 18th hole at Whistling Straights I remember watching DJ ground his club and saying out loud (even though I was alone), “Oh my God he just grounded his club!!!” I then fell out of my chair.
That club grounding, in a bunker destroyed by patrons walking in it, cost DJ a penalty stroke and a chance at a playoff for the PGA Championship.
#1 Ray Halbritter gives himself a sponsors exemption to the Turning Stone event
Ray Halbritter, CEO of the title sponsor at the Turning Stone PGA Tour event, gives himself a sponsor’s exemption to play in the tournament. Isn’t that great?
So some tour player who is living out of his car, struggling get his tour card and trying to make a living can’t play because this CEO decides to give himself the sponsor’s exemption? Wow. That deserves a 2010 HOG turkey award.
AND THE WINNER IS…
2010 HOG Turkey of the Year, and DECADE – Tiger Woods
How disappointing has the last 365 days been for Tiger Woods fans? We watched world #1, the perfect role model for our kids, the guy on the Wheaties boxes, the man with the perfect marriage and two beautiful children, the man who’s wife was one all other men dream of having… we watched that all fall apart because of TW’s “transgressions.”
I admit it. I was a fan. I was anxiously awaiting the day TW broke Jack Nicklaus’ major record, but not anymore. I didn’t want to believe all the crazy stories which were surfacing a year ago. Like many thousands of TW fans, I’m very disappointed.
Conversely, the last year has been a feast at the most gluttonous of buffets for the Tiger haters. They’ve come out of the woodwork, enjoying the fall of the biggest house of cards ever.
For all the affairs, strippers, sexting, porn stars, Perkins waitresses… For the phony image which was pounded into our daily lives on TV, print media, billboards, web advertising, by Tiger’s sponsors and PR engine… For the lies… For the disappointment…
Tiger Woods wins the 2010 Hooked On Golf Blog Turkey of the Year. Barring some insane and unlikely happening, TW will win the Turkey of the DECADE.
Time To Move On
I’m sick of all the talk about the porn stars and affairs and all that. I want them all to go away now. I see through the transparency of the new Tiger Woods twitter activity and interviews. They’re obviously trying to resurrect his image, which is understandable. I’m not really paying a lot of attention to those things.
Some say TW’s time has come and gone and that he won’t break Jack’s record. They may be right with all this new and young talent in the USA and Europe. Only time will tell.
What TW needs to do is move on, show the public that he can be genuine (which I’m sure many doubt), and play championship golf. We’ll know how well TW has succeeded if he doesn’t win any more HOG Turkey Awards.
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