Best column/interview about Tiger Woods and golf I've seen in the last three weeks

If the art forms that are writing and interviewing ever die, we may as well, too.

There have been a hundred columns and a million sharky blog posts for every one of Tiger Woods' alleged mistresses. Some are profound. Others are mundane. Such is life.

For various reasons, the interview Brian Viner of the Independent in London did with 78-year-old golf commentator Peter Alliss struck me as being really good, insightful, clear-minded stuff.

I'll link the entire piece at the bottom of this post, but first I'll share these excerpts that I found particularly interesting:

At least six weeks before a fire hydrant, a Cadillac Escalade and a bevy of cocktail waitresses entered the remarkable story of Tiger Woods, Peter Alliss said something strikingly prescient to me. "I'm probably the only person left in the world," he ventured, "who thinks that Tiger won't beat Jack Nicklaus's record [of 18 majors]."

But that was then. Now, hardly anyone thinks that surpassing Nicklaus's record is a matter of "when" rather than "if" for Woods; indeed, it's become a pretty monumental "if". But Alliss is too long in the tooth to revel in his prophecy. "I just thought there were so many things that could go wrong for him," he says. "His health and fitness, all sorts of things. He's a handsome black man married to a beautiful white girl, and there are some strange people in America, who take exception to that. Who knew what would derail him, but I always thought something might. I've seen him become much more distant, more grumpy, these past two years.

"We're supposed to feel sorry for his family. But I don't know his family. She [Elin] might be a cow to live with, I don't know. What I do know is that the jokes will go on for 20 years. 'In the hole, Tiger' has a whole new connotation now, and will he be able to put up with that? If he can, if he does go on to win another five majors to move ahead of Nicklaus, I think everything he's done in the last 12 years will pale into insignificance. It will be a huge achievement. Of course, you can gain forgiveness in America even from those who would like to whip you with thorn bushes or whatever. You can go on Oprah. You can own up to things, like Jimmy Swaggart, the evangelist. But that won't stop the jibes. And Tiger's a proud man. He'll hate the jibes. But he's got to re-enter society sometime."

"I was probably the most successful player in Europe in the 1960s. I won 20 tournaments, and my total prize-money was just under £30,000. Now they can get that for finishing 25th in a single tournament. I know it's all relative – you could buy a Rolls-Royce back then for £3,500 – but even so. In many cases they're very successful without having what I would describe as success. That's why you can't name any amateurs now. They might play in one Walker Cup and then they turn pro, because they know they can gross £2m a year by finishing no higher than third a couple of times. And they're treated like royalty. 'Where's my courtesy car? Where are my free sandwiches? What about my free dry-cleaning?' " A basso-profundo chuckle. "It's a long way from Ben Hogan sleeping in the back of his car, and in many ways that's marvellous, but it makes them soft. And they get very touchy."

"Some golf clubs want your money but they don't want you, and that saddens me. At least in America they're honest about it. There's far more snobbery and elitism over there than there is here. The land of the free? They leave us for dead. There must be 500 clubs over there that won't even let you down the drive if you don't fit in."

I've put a lot of the article here, and I hope the Independent doesn't mind. But I strongly urge you to read the entire piece and see how these excerpts all fit to make for a fine column. The link:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/peter-alliss-i-always-thought-it-could-all-go-wrong-for-tiger-1844072.html