Bad Grades (Tiger Woods)

When you’re as high profile as Tiger Woods, you have to finesse your words just like your golf.

In his first start since winning the 1997 Masters Championship, Tiger won the GTE Byron Nelson Classic “without his A-game.” He had taken a month off prior, and though he won the tournament, gave his game a C.

“Several PGA Tour players considered this an affront to their own abilities. Even Brad Faxon, with whom Tiger is close, took a shot at him, noting the following week that he, too, only had his C game.

“He’s making a big deal out of it, winning with his ‘C game,'” Faxon said. “I talked to him at the (JC Penney Classic) and told him, ‘You’d better be aware of what you’re saying and how it’s being taken by some of your fellow players…'”(1)

For a brief moment, Tiger Woods let his high standards affect his better judgement. He learned the hard way that a little discretion can go a long way in making friends.

(1)John Strege, Biography of Tiger Woods (New York: Broadway Books, 1997), p. 248.