Masters Security On Whore Patrol

Politi: Can the new Tiger Woods be as successful as the old Tiger Woods?
By Steve Politi/Star-Ledger Columnist

AUGUSTA, Ga. — He called winning golf tournaments “irrelevant.” He talked about finding his “inner peace.” He promised to be less excitable on the golf course, so forget those tantrums and fist pumps.

Tiger Woods swore he’ll be a different man this week at the Masters, and after listening to him during his first press conference in five months Monday, he sounded like he was describing a completely different man.

Seriously, give him love handles and left-handed clubs and he’d be Phil Mickelson.

Is he really sincere? You are forgiven for being skeptical. For years Tiger managed to convince the world he was a righteous family man while juggling a dozen or so mistresses. He is certainly capable of putting on a performance while answering questions for 35 minutes.

But assuming Woods is serious about his personal transformation on and off the golf course, the bigger question is this: Will this neutered Tiger still win golf tournaments?

That is the most compelling element of this story now. The curiosity about the porn stars and the dirty text messages will begin to fade, even if the mess he made follows him.

To wit: Security guards at Augusta National were actually carrying around a sheet with the mug shots of Woods’ alleged mistresses, with one of the guards asking a woman at the fifth hole, “Are you the stripper?

I figured with The Masters starting today I had better feature some Tiger related story. This column examines whether the "new" Tiger can win (you can click the headline for the full column). But the take home portion of this story for me was that Masters security is actively combing the crowd (or as The Masters calls them "patrons") for Tiger's former slamhounds. This just goes to futher reinforce my point that noone in the gallery will be screwing with Tiger this week. Unless of course they want to be banned from Augusta National for life.

You've got to love the "are you the stripper?" question. If I were there I would have gone Jedi mind trick on them and said "this is not the stripper you're looking for."

UPDATE: Tiger is -1 through four holes. But what has been the biggest Tiger story from the start of The Masters has been the new Nike commercial with a voice cameo from his late father Earl. I'm not going to even show it because you'll be fully inundated with it this weekend. But here is a different version - maybe the route Nike should have gone.