Mad Man: Tiger pitches merch in N.Y.
Woods hits NBC shows to sell Sun Day Red; Ryder Cup door not closed to LIV's Euros
Tiger Woods emerged from his South Florida private life to go on national TV, first on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Tuesday night and then Wednesday morning on the Today show with Carson Daly.
The reason? The promote his new Sun Day Red apparel and accessory brand. (And by the way, many items were already sold out Wednesday, pointing to the marketing prowess and popularity of the 15-time major champion.)
While the Masters was one of the topics of discussion, Fallon focused on a tree meme that has been making the rounds of Woods shaking hands with retiring CBS-TV broadcaster Verne Lundquist.
During the final round of the Masters on April 14, Woods made a point to seek out Lundquist, 83, whose career at Augusta spanned 40 years and included some classic calls of Woods’ exploits — including the iconic “In your LIFE” call of his chip-in from behind the green at the par-3 16th on his way to his playoff victory in 2005.
The viral tree photo showed Woods only shaking a hand from behind a tree. Fallon asked Woods if he knew what it was about.
“Yes I do. It’s the great Verne Lundquist, and he was there,’’ a smiling Woods said, drawing laughter from the audience.
“It’s the best picture I’ve ever seen, I love this so much,’’ Fallon said. “It went all over the internet, I don’t know if you saw this.’’
Woods sheepishly replied he had not.
Tiger Woods tree handshake shakes up the meme realm
Fallon showed Tiger a sample of the memes bouncing around the internet after the Masters.
“When I asked for my receipt to be emailed instead of printed”
“How it feels to go on a good hike”
“‘These edibles ain’t s—’. 30 minutes later’’’
On Today, Woods reiterated his desire to play once a month at the major championships, starting in two weeks at the PGA Championship.
Woods also dropped an interesting story about his 16-year-old daughter, Sam, when Daly asked him why she’s not seen more at golf tournaments.
“Golf has negative connotations for her,’’ he said. “When she was growing up, golf took daddy away from here. I had to pack, I had to leave and I was gone for weeks. So, there were negative connotations to it.
“We developed our own relationship and our own rapport outside of golf. We do things that don’t involved golf. Meanwhile, my son (Charlie) and I, everything we do is golf-related.’’
Tyrrell Hatton and Jon Rahm aren’t aced out of Ryder Cup (Scott Taetsch/LIV Golf)
A Path to the Ryder Cup
New DP World Tour CEO Guy Kinnings raised a few golf-related eyebrows last week when he told reporters that key members of his tour, the PGA Tour and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia — which funds LIV Golf — had yet to all meet in person.
At the same media session with UK and Irish golf writers in London, Kinnings went to great lengths to explain why Jon Rahm, who went to LIV Golf in December and was a key member of the European Ryder Cup team last year, is not prohibited from playing next year in the matches at Bethpage Black.
In fact, Kinnings said, both Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton — whom Rory McIlroy made clear he wanted eligible for the team — said no rules have been altered.
“If you look at what the qualification/eligibility criteria was for 2023, then I think there has been a slight misconception because the reality is under the current rules, if a player is European and is a member of the DP World Tour and abides by the rules as they currently are — so, if you don’t get a release, there are sanctions and if you accept those sanctions and take those penalties and work with that — there is no reason why players who’ve taken LIV membership but maintain membership with the DP World Tour could not a) qualify or b) be available for selection,’’ Kinnings said.
Rahm and Hatton will face a one-event suspension and fine for playing in the LIV Adelaide event last week and this week’s LIV Singapore tournament. Both conflict with DP World Tour events, thus requiring a release.
Interestingly, both Rahm and Hatton — or any LIV player who has designs on playing in the Ryder Cup — could serve a suspension by skipping an event they had no intention of playing.
According to Kinnings, as long as the players pay the undisclosed fines and serve the suspension, they will be eligible, provided they meet the criteria of playing in four DP World Tour events this season.
“It’s not a loophole,’’ Kinnings said. “That’s the rules we’ve always had and those are the rules we are going to continue to apply. They have been tested and, if everyone applies and follows those rules as they are …’’
Asked how a player can be suspended from an event they were not planning to play, Kinnings said: “Because rules are rules. Rules are for all of the membership and it’s important for people to know how those apply and they apply to every member.”
LIV Golf’s final two events conclude the weekend of Sept 20-22 — which is when the DP World Tour’s BMW PGA Championship is contested.
That means Rahm and Hatton would likely need to play a few events prior to that time because they’ll get one-event suspensions for missing that week, thus possibly knocking Rahm out of a tournament in Madrid. The British Masters and European Masters are ahead of LIV’s final two events.
Following LIV’s season-ending event in Chicago Sept. 13-15 are DP World Tour events in October in Scotland, France, Spain and South Korea.
Meanwhile, it’s unclear where any American LIV players might stand. Brooks Koepka was a captain’s pick of Zach Johnson last year after finishing seventh in the points race. He was eligible via technicality — having his PGA of America membership extended.