Jim Nantz on Tiger Woods....Change? What Change?

Not that anybody ever cares about history or anything............

But in my zeal over this year's Masters, I must have hit record on the CBS special "Jim Nantz Remembers: Tom Watson at the '77 Masters." Or some such.

Anyway, I was fast forwarding thru it the other night, and I watched the end of the '77 Masters, which came down to Jack Nicklaus and Watson.

They were not in the same pairing. Watson was one pairing behind Jack.

And when Jack was on 18, Watson was on 17, and they were tied.

So Jack hears a roar and understands that Watson birdied 17. He knows he has to birdie 18 to force a playoff....

And Jack proceeds to hit a terrible, fat shot. A really bad shot. So the camera zooms in on him. What does he do? Nothing. Maybe a grimmace - that's it. No petulance, no dropping the club, no comments under his breath. So then walking up 18, the crowd is on its feet, and Jack's smiling and acknowledging.... just very pleasant. Then he misses the birdie putt on 18-- his last chance basically. His reaction?... A look on his face something akin to 'oh rats,' taps in for par and puts his arms in the air-- almost like what you'd see a winner do today. Why did he do that? He was really happy with his Masters.

So then Watson wins, and one of the next shots you see is Nicklaus happily shaking hands with Watson either right at 18 green or right outside the scorers tent. Folks, they weren't in the same pairing.

When's the last time you saw Tiger do something like that?

At that time, Watson was the up-and-comer, the 20-something kid gunning for late-30-something Jack. And Jack is sitting there congratulating him near the green with a big smile on his face.

So when Tiger says, "I hit a bad shot, you can't expect me to just be happy and go on with my round...." Well, that's what Jack did.

As for Arnie, my father-in-law reminded me that Arnie used to get on Curtis Strange for being petulant on the course ... so I doubt Arnie was having these kinds of outbursts.

Watch the old footage, folks. It becomes pretty clear how we've let Tiger change our expectations for on-course behavior in this sport.

 

Well, the then 37-year-old Nicklaus and Watson were especially good friends. Also, as I recall, in his early days on the tour, Jack's temper was much worse he was not particularly well-liked by his fellow golfers and golf fans.

He was considered kind of dour (he was heavier then, too, lending to his image issue) and unfriendly relative to the great fan favorite and the golfer he would ultimately unseat Arnold Palmer. Palmer and Nicklaus were never particularly close and really didn't even speak much until the later years when both were secure in their greatness.

 

But there still wasn't much cursing. Arnie did not curse on the golf course or throw clubs - sorry. The proof is right there in the footage.

"Dour" back then has nothing on Tiger today.

 

With all due respect, so what? Why does Tiger have to be like Jack? If you watch old footage you also won't see many minority's. I don't understand why everybody things that the old days were always the good days.

 

Please tell me how you know that Arnie never used a swear word on the golf course.

 

Because anyone who didn't do shit on the golf course in his later years (the senior tour was made for HIM) but continued to pile up the cash has to be living clean.

 

I don't think there's anything wrong with admiring athletes for behaving like gentlemen. I won't apologize for that.

Just because some things were bad about the old days doesn't mean everything was. (You're talking to someone who still only recognizes Hank Aaron's record-- a record of the "old days.")

Maybe I appreciate gentlemen more because I'm a woman.

But reading the 'nice guy' thread over on Anything Goes... I'm with a nice guy, pretty much the opposite of a Tiger or Roethlisberger, so what do I know?

 

I'm surprised some of Tiger's biggest strokers don't use "Passion Play" when talking about Mr. Woods and his stations of the cross as Tiger moves from Augusta to Quail Hollow to Saw Grass to Pebble Beach to St. Andrews. I can see Wilbon or Rhoden coming out of the gallery as Tiger makes the turn at Pebble Beach to wipe his brow and offer him water.

 

I do think Tiger misplayed it when he went with the "I didn't win, so I'm pissed" angle. And don't think that response wasn't calculated and pre-planned.

Seems to me he would have been better off going with the glass half full approach: 'I'm pleased with my performance, -11 at a major after a 5 month layoff is pretty good, just not good enough to catch Anthony or Phil, congrats to them'.

Would have been a little better for the image than the cold blooded assassin approach he took.

Oh, and just one man's opinion, but I do think Arnie dropped a few profanities on his way around the courses over his career.

 

The fact is that you don't know enough about any of these people to make these types of judgments, which is why all of these attempted moral comparisons we've read the past several days (mostly Phil Mickelson) ultimately fall flat. FYI, Arnie was considered to have a terrible temper, just a notch below Tommy Bolt.

 

Nantzie ain't seen nothing yet. Tiger saves his best stuff for the US Open at Pebble!