Tail of the Tiger Golf Balls - The Mistress Collection

I heard about this yesterday on France24 and I thought it was interesting - Tail of th Tiger Golf balls - the Mistress Collection. Have you heard about them? A lot has been said and written about Tiger Woods, since the world was rocked by a scandal of epic proportions. Initially, I promised myself not to be caught up in the saga, but later wrote about - A Damaged Game: Golf without Tiger Woods; when Tiger's mother-in-law collapsed at his home in December 2009, I responded to the media frenzy that followed, by asking the question - Did Tiger Cook Dinner for his Mother-in-Law? I even wrote about a Swedish TV Presenter who, in her own words, claimed "Tiger Tried to Recruit Me as a Lover." Have I been caught up in the media frenzy? Probably, because today, I'd like to introduce the tail of the Tiger Golf Balls - The Mistress Collection.

Yes! You guessed right - Tiger Woods' mistresses have been featured on golf balls! A company - Creative Classics, has produced golf balls with the pictures of Tiger's first twelve mistresses inscript on them - one mistress on each ball. It even gets better - their names are written on the special balls.

The balls are being sold on a website - tailofthetiger.com. What actually caught my attention was not the balls, it was the slogan - "He likes to play a round with them... now you can too!" Can you imagine? How low can people get?

As you'd expect, one of the alleged mistresses - Joslyn James, a porn star, in her first press conference on Wednesday since the scandal took the world by storm, has protested against the sale of the golf balls. She said,

"I've come forward today because I feel it is wrong for a golf ball to have my picture on it. As a victim of violence myself, it bothered me to think that someone would be standing with a dangerous club in their hands and hitting a golf ball with my face on it."

Do you think she stands a chance of getting an injunction against the sale of the golf balls? I don't think she would. What I know is, it's immoral to profit from someone's predicament.

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A Damaged Game: Golf without Tiger Woods

He has won 93 tournaments since going pro in 1996 and has made a hundred million dollars in titles alone. Earlier this year, he hit the billion dollar mark. His name is Tiger Woods.

You might have noticed that I'm a big fan of Tiger Woods and have been taken aback by the media frenzy that surrounds him.

Every morning, I watch CNN International. Today, while on the breakfast table, news broke that Tiger Woods (the greatest golfer of his time) is leaving professional golf indefinitely, to focus on "being a better husband, father and person." To me, this is bad news. Golf without Tiger Woods?

Tiger Woods has worked very hard over the years to brand himself and to be what we all know him to be today. Tiger Woods is golf! We can't talk golf without Tiger Woods. As a matter of fact, yesterday, while I was watching the Omega Dubai Ladies Masters, a perfect swing was called - a "Tiger Woods" swing. That's what I'm talking about!

Since Tiger crashed his car outside his Florida mansion, late last month, he has been mired by controversy. I understand why it's big news. Afterall, he's Tiger, right? What I don't understand is why people can't separate Tiger Woods (the man) from Tiger Woods (the brand). Is there a conspiracy to destroy the brand?

Tiger is human and just like everyone else, he's prone to make some "transgressions". It's either people don't understand this or they're just out to destroy the brand.

Earlier (2 months ago), I explained 4 reasons why everyone is not happy about your success. The events surrounding Tiger Woods reminds me of the fact that not everyone celebrates success. When you're successful, there'll always be those who'd seize the least oppotunity to tear you down. Most often, they'd tear you down not because they don't love you, but because it makes them feel better for not working hard enough to attain your level of success. That's the way I see it.

That said. There're a couple to lessons to be learnt from the Tiger Woods saga:

• There'll always be supporters and haters.
• With success, comes greater responsibilty and media scrutiny.
• Do not cheat on your wife/husband.*
• Respond to situations promptly and apologise as soon as possible (if you must).
• Avoid reading or listening to negative things about you. It drains your energy.
  
• All human beings have difficult times.
• A single "transgression" can destroy everything you've worked hard to build.
  

I must say I'm disappointed by Tiger's decision to break away from professional golf indefinitely. This makes the pundits, haters and losers feel better.

All in all, I'm confident Tiger will bounce back to the golf course soon. He has endured tougher times on his way to the top. He'll be back to safe golf, because he knows the game would be damaged without him.

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Swedish TV Presenter: "Tiger tried to Recruit me as a Lover"

Since Tiger Woods got involved in the much talked about car accident, I have tried not to get involved in frenzy that surrounds the accident. However, events of yesterday exposed me to many articles that prompted me to break the silence.

On 9 December 2009, The Local, an online news portal, published an article about a 31-year-old Swedish TV presenter who claimed Tiger Woods tried to recruit her as a lover six or seven years ago. Is this just another person seeking five minutes of fame? Have we forgotten what success is all about?

Tiger Woods and his family are facing some tough times. For some people, this is just an opportunity to make a name for themselves and boost their celebrity. If Tiger Woods actually tried to recruit the TV presenter as a lover, why did it take her seven years to reveal the story?

Drawing from numerous events, such as the Balloon Boy fiasco and the White House Dinner Party crashers, there will always be someone seeking fame though crafty means. As Dr. Phil McGraw would say, there will always be somebody who will be glad to walk through fire or sit in cow dung or eat worms to get headlines. And sadly, they do get headlines.

Many people seem to have forgotten the meaning of fame, celebrity and success. What happened to the days when success, fame and celebrity was achieved through hard work? Some have credited the TV presenter for revealing the story at the right time. In my opinion, she's just another person seeking fame, even if it means destroying the marriage of her fellow Swede, Tiger Woods wife.

The TV reporter reportedly loves the spotlight and over the years she has done some crazy stuff to attract attention. I won't go into the details. A lot has already been written about her. Read more on The Local.

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Did Tiger Woods Cook Dinner for his Mother-in-law?

I have done my best not to get involved in the Tiger Woods saga but the events of yesterday, 8 December 2009 prompted me to get involved.

Yesterday, Tiger Wood's mother-in-law, Barbro Holmberg collapsed at his home and was rushed to a Florida hospital. This raised more suspicion and speculation in the media, making it the second media frenzy in two weeks surrounding the legendary golfer.

A 911 call from Tiger's home was followed by an ambulance leaving his home with a lady, dubbed, "the mystery woman from Tiger's home" by the media. The "mystery woman" was later identified as Barbro Holmberg, a Swedish politician and the pro golfer's mother-in-law. She was rushed to the hospital with stomach pain and was later released about 11 hours later and returned to Tiger's manson. According to the hospital spokesman, Dan Yates, "she was wheeled out in a wheelchair just like everyone else."

Without going into the details of what happened yesterday, I was shocked by the global response when the news broke. Like every other CNN breaking news, I received this one on my cell phone and immediately swapped channels to CNN International. I later logged into Twitter, all in a bid to get peoples' response to the news.

The response that shocked me most, amid other shocking responses, was a comment posted on an article in The Local (a Swedish news agency). The comment went thus: "Did Tiger cooked dinner for her?...". Regardless of the grammatical error, I understood the comment. As a matter of fact, the comment hit me like a bombshell and I was like, "what?"

Thinking outside the box is important. But sometimes, our thoughts go too far. I wish there was a rule that people should only talk when they know what they're talking about. Speculations don't hold water, that's why submissions are overruled in court on grounds of speculation.

Imagine a world where people only talk when they know what they're talking about and not because they have to say something.

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Tiger Woods: Are Some People Born to Succeed?

Today, a friend of mine on Facebook shared an article entitled, "What it takes to be great". On the article, there was a photo of Tiger Woods, the world's greatest golfer, at 3 years old - holding a golf club. The moment I looked at the photo, one question lingered in my mind - are some people born to succeed? 

Evidently, Tiger Woods understood early enough that nobody becomes great without hard work. Unfortunately, most people see the fruits of success, but fail to realise how much hardwork and commitment was put in to achieve it.

After I looked at the photo of the Tiger Woods at 3 years old, I went further to read about him and came across the following video of the man - Tiger Woods at 2 years old:



You would agree that since Tiger was introduced to golf by his father at 18 months old, he has never stopped trying to be the best he can be.

He didn't only wish to become the best; he made it happen - by working hard to perfect his swing. Whether you understand golf or not, I'm sure you understand that practice makes perfect. Positive thinking alone could not make Tiger Woods the best. Positive thinking alone can NEVER make you successful.

As Benjamin Franklin rightly pointed out, "vision without implementation is hallucination." Can you cook an amelet without breaking an egg? If the anwer is NO, then it goes without saying that you can't become successful, arguably in anything you do, without long hours or years of pain-inducing hard work.

Not only Tiger Woods' story shows the role of many years of hard work and perseverance in the quest for greatness.

Permit me to mention the greatest entertainer the world has ever known (my opinion) - Michael Jackson. Together with his brothers, Michael consistently worked hard before he could be crowned "King of Pop". He didn't wake up one morning and became successful; he didn't wave the magic wand and became great. He showed up for reheasals every single day - while the other kids went playing around. If you have not done so yet, I encourage you to watch a mini-series entitled, "The Jacksons: An American Dream". The series reveals that there's truly a price for success! If success was "free", don't you think everyone would be successful today?

You are encouraged to read about successful people. If you do, you'll realise that they didn't become successful by settling in with the common things. They did what others would not do. They even did what they didn't want to do. Successful folks set clear goals and consistently worked hard to achieve their goals. No one is born to succeed; everyone is born with the potential to succeed - but it takes hard work to realise this potential. Success occurs over time and there's no short road to success. True success only comes from years of hard work, dedication and concentrated effort. Simply put - success does not happen overnight!.

Unfortunately, many people set a goal, "give it a try" for a few weeks or months, fail once and QUIT. What if Tiger Woods had quit after hitting a few golf balls off target? What if Michael Jackson had quit because rehearsing everyday was over-demanding? Or, what if Barack Obama - the political phenomenon - had quit because he lost a few primaries, and was told a black man would never be President of the United States?

Make no mistake - you might work hard and still fail. In this case, chances are you're working hard on the wrong thing. Keep in mind that hardwork does not guarantee anything, but without it, you don't stand a chance.

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