a tiger in the tank
At the risk of showing my age, can anyone else remember when, in the days before fuel production ironically went green and started to worry about its carbon footprint, petrol was all about macho speed and burning up the highway at maximum revs. Why, Esso even claimed that using its four star was akin to putting ‘a tiger in your tank’. Roooaaarrr!
Fallen golf hero Tiger Woods certainly seems to be playing on empty these days and appears to have nothing in the tank, let alone a tiger. I see another sponsor, flashy Swiss watch manufacturer Tag Heuer, dropped him this week and join the long list of companies (Gillette, Accenture, Gatorade and AT&T) who no longer wish to be associated with the once golden boy of international sport. Whilst this undoubtedly must hurt his pocket it just had to be his pride that took a major knock last week when his sacked caddie, Steve Williams, supported his new lord and master, Adam Scott, to a championship win in which poor Tiger trailed far behind in 38th place.
In the old days before sports psychology the caddies’ responsibilities could be boiled down to the ‘Three Ups’ – show up, keep up and shut up. Players hit the shots and caddies carry the bag! Steve Williams turned the tables on this view as he grew to be friend, mentor, adviser and confidant to Tiger. At one tournament Tiger was distracted mid-swing by spectator taking a photo. When the entourage had moved on Williams sidled over, grabbed the camera and threw it into a lake! Tiger’s going to miss this guy more than his sponsors me-thinks.
