LUKE DONALD "CLARIFIES" TIGER WOODS COMMENT

By mustang6560 on 9/15/11

Allow me to give Luke Donald and any other professional golfer who is willing to listen a piece of advice--don't answer questions about Tiger Woods! For the love!

In an interview with PGATour.com last week, Luke was asked if he thought Tiger would ever be the same golfer again.

It's going to be very hard to get back to the level he was at. He's had some physical issues and some mental issues dealing with the scandal he went through and being away from the game for so long. It makes it very hard. Having the injury and the mental scarring that went with being away from the game and not being that successful for a couple years does take [confidence] away from you. I would imagine he'll win again; I'm just not sure he'll dominate like he did.

Then, he was asked if he thought golf was in a new era.

Yea I think so. Even tough Tiger's only 35, there are a lot of young guys coming up -- Rory McIlroy and Keegan Bradley and a bunch of others. I would assume a new era is upon us. I'm not sure we'll see someone who dominated like Tiger, but maybe a bunch of people.

Naturally, the golf media pounced on Luke's answers and started reporting that he said that Tiger was never going to regain his form, that he said the Tiger era is over, etc, etc. And naturally, Luke was forced to clarify (backtrack) his opinion yesterday in his interview ahead of the BMW Championship.

“Whether the Tiger era is over, I don’t know. Obviously there’s a lot of great young players coming up and showing a lot of talent, but certainly I would never be naïve enough to write Tiger off,” Donald said. “He has a tremendous amount of talent, and I’m sure when he starts playing a little bit more that that will start showing again.”

I don't know when the likes of Luke and Bubba Watson will learn to quit answering questions about Tiger. All Tiger Woods questions are a trap and it's always a lose-lose situation. If you say Tiger will bounce back, then you're naive. If you say Tiger won't bounce back, then you're chastised for being disrespectful and you'll eventually have to "clarify" your opinion. Either way, your response is twisted.

It's been nearly two years since Tiger's scandal broke in the news, yet it seems nobody has learned to dodge the Tiger Woods questions. When will they learn? I guess now Tiger can add a new face (Luke Donald) to his wall of naysayers in his basement.



Luke Donald's Interview

photo by Keith Allison