When I am asked why I became a golf writer I answer by saying that I don't write about golf, I write about people who happen to play golf. One of the reasons we love sports is because it speeds up the human clock. We learn a lot about a person in a very short period of time -- how they handle success and failure, their ethics, their humor and anger and more. That magic is gone if we allow athletes to hide from us.
Cultivating fans through social media is admirable, but not at the expense of the real media. There is nothing to be gained from building barriers between the athlete and the media. Instead, we all lose. In this case, Woods is hurting himself and he is hurting the PGA Tour. He has to win back the trust of millions of fans that he disappointed, and the media -- not social media -- is one way to do that. Let's hope this was a one-off and not a game plan for the future by the Woods camp.
