The sulking Tiger

The Shinnecock Hills golf course is certainly no advertisement for great golf. Soon Tiger Woods may join that category if he continues to behave the way he has been recently.

Tiger Woods called Shinnecock "out of control" and "unfair" and made comments like "This is not the way the game is supposed to be played." Maybe he's right. But it seems to take away from the gripping contest that Retief Goosen and Phil Mickelson were engaged in.

Tiger also said that the media had distracted him. "I had to deal with some other stuff here with you guys that I shouldn't have had to deal with," he said.

Woods had his worst final round in an Open since turning professional as he finished way down with a final round of six-over 76. In his last eight Majors, he has finished in top 10 only twice "" the next best has been a tied 15th. He was second at 2002 PGA Championships and fourth at 2003 British Open and tied 15th at 2003 Masters.

Soon he will be called a "cribber" if he is not already being called one. His behaviour is now making news more than his "slump" period. In the past few days, he had complained of everything; about the course, the weather, the USGA officials and the media. He even criticised Butch Harmon, his former coach, for publicly speaking about the problems with his swing.

While Woods' behaviour has hardly been exemplary, his caddie, Steve Williams, has come in for even more flak.

On Sunday, as Woods readied himself for the tee shot on second, he seemed to be bothered by the noise from a spectator's camera. Caddie Williams walked to the gallery and grabbed the camera from the owner who turned out to be an off-duty police officer.

The USGA executive director David Fay was said to have sent a word to Williams to leave spectators alone. Earlier in the week, Williams also had an altercation with a photographer.

In the past few years, people close to Tiger have faced his ire and have even lost their jobs. They include his former caddie (Fluffy, who carried the bag before Steve Williams), his agent, his lawyer, the head of Tiger Woods Foundation and his coach (Butch Harmon).

Harmon, who had coached Woods since the age of 16, was fired two years ago. Recently, Harmon while working as an analyst for Sky TV, commented that Woods appeared confused about his swing and seemed to be working on the wrong things.

An upset Woods said, "I don't know why he (Harmon) would say anything like that. Obviously, he doesn't know what I'm working on. . . If you go and say something like that, you go right up to my face and say it."

Harmon later observed, "If we look at the Tiger Woods of 2000, it's a different person. When I listen to him interviewed, when Tiger Woods in the past would have a bad round, like he's had numerous times this year ball-striking wise, he would tell you, 'I played really poorly, my short game saved me; I'm going to the range to figure it out.' We don't hear that anymore."

Now ,Woods insists that he is close to playing great again as he did two years ago. Harmon thinks Woods may in the denial mode.

Maybe. But someone should tell Tiger that he is after all human and golf is only a game. Sure, we all need champions but we also need them to be models for our children.