Tigergate at the President's Cup

I am sure that you have heard by now about Tiger Woods and his former Caddie Stevie Williams. The pair had great success together and then in July had a horrible public break-up that left Tiger looking like a jerk and Stevie as another victim of "Tigergate".

Williams quickly found work on the bag of Adam Scott and appeared to have moved on from the "betrayal". Not long after joining Scott, he won the Bridgestone on August 7. After Scott's win, oddly, the attention was more focused on who carried the clubs than who was swinging them. After the final round, Williams was interviewed and declared "I've caddied for 33 years - 145 wins now - and that's the best win I've ever had". That comment (or the interview itself, I mean, how many caddies get the spotlight interview after the PGA player wins?) led to an outcry that Williams was a bit over the line and needed to be humble rather than bitter.

At the end of the PGA season the attention surrounding Williams and Woods subsided. It seemed that the two were moving on and becoming professionals again.

On November 4, Williams was attending a "Caddie of the Year" event dinner in Shanghai when he was brought on staged and asked to talk about his celebration after Scott won the Birdgestone. Williams apparently replied, "My aim was to shove it right up that black a**hole". Leaving everyone to wonder if Williams still wasn't over being fired by Woods.

On Tuesday, it was announced that Tiger will be paired against Adam Scott in this weekends President's Cup in Melbourne. During the first two days of the President's Cup each team competes in pairs, so Woods won't be up against Scott alone. Woods is paired with Steve Stricker and Scott with K.J. Choi. But you have to believe it will be a bit awkward for not only the golfers in that group, but for the fans watching from the rough.

Or, is this all just a big publicity stunt? Did Tiger and Stevie have some kind of inside deal with the PGA that would allow them to continue to create controversy and therefore repeat hype for events that people are half-heartedly into, like the President's Cup?

Up until the pairing was announced, I didn't think that Stevie and Tiger were putting on an act. But now, I am starting to think that they're playing us. I just can't imagine that there can be this many drama-related coincidences regarding the Woods/Williams break-up. I can see that Tiger firing Stevie could be genuine, and that Williams' reaction after Scott won, that could have been 100% legitimate. But after that, I think the two conspired together in order to increase the amount of attention each was getting, manipulate the public into watching crappy golf events and forgiving Woods for being a man-whore.

How many other PGA Tour caddies do you know by name? If Stevie wanted to, he could be on some Celeb-Reality show like Dancing with the Stars next season. And why would Woods allow Williams to go off on him using a racial slur? Scott said the comment did not bother him. Really?

Woods is trying to get people to like him again, and he isn't able to win, so he has to start trying to figure out a way to accomplish that without hoisting trophies. He's trying to get people to sympathize with him on some level, and what better than to have a bitter ex-employee be so against you and say something negative. If you brush it off, and don't react, you'll come across as a person who can forgive others. You think Woods doesn't want the public to forgive him for what he's said and done?

When everyone turns on their TV to watch the President's Cup tomorrow afternoon, it will be most people's first time watching said event, ever. And therefore the publicity stunt is working.