Sir Nick Faldo has blasted the reaction from golf authorities to the latest scandal involving Tiger Woods.
The Englishman, best known for defeating Greg Norman when “The Shark” collapsed in the 1996 Masters, has demanded that action be taken after Woods’ latest indiscretion.
“I feel sorry for Tiger that he is living 24-7 in pain … but it has all been self-inflicted,” Faldo said.
“There are two sides to this right now. There’s one side that’s like… let’s care for Tiger. And then there has got to be a responsibility and an accountability side as well.
“This is a serious thing that he has done. I look at the PGA Tour statement, it was so predictably weak. The Tour will look after him, as they always have done. But then you’ve got Jack [Nicklaus] saying it has tarnished the entire sport.
“There has to be some accountability. Forget about golf. We are not meant to be on the streets with two pills in our pocket.”
“The bottom line is that I really think that this is a serious issue and something should be done that is a little bit more serious than waving him off to a tropical island and saying ‘welcome back’ in three or four months or whatever it might be,” Faldo said.
“You compare it to other sports or business. If you were done for DUI a couple of times in your business, what happens? I’ve got a feeling that if he disappears and comes back in a couple of months, everything will carry on as normal. I’m not sure if that is right. It’s not a good message to the kids of today.
“Our sport is based on discipline. You rule yourself, you police yourself. I would have thought the PGA Tour – behind closed doors – must be very disappointed that they pay Tiger tens of millions to be on the course and off the course with this business role he has got [as chairman of the player-driven Future Competitions Committee].
“He has only finished nine tournaments in the last five years, yet they feel he is the future on the golf course and the future in the decision-making and they must say… ‘oh boy, what do we get out of that?’ In the normal walk of life, there would be some accountability.”
