It’s not all good, Tiger Woods

3:36 PMIt hadn’t occurred to me until Monday that Tiger Woods had never put me in a bad mood. I wasn’t the biggest fan in the world, nor did he ever motivate me to pick up a golf club. But once he stopped playing with any regularity and dominating the PGA Tour, I stopped caring. When his life and public image blew up before our very eyes in 2009 and subsequently, sure, it was a tad embarrassing, but I didn’t think any less of him.

Now, the acute feeling of disappointment is impossible to ignore.

For some, Woods eternally turned in his invitation to the cookout when he decided to declare that he was not black but “Cablanasian,” a melange of races whose name he invented himself and for which he was roundly mocked from there on out. It represented something more than just an attempt at an inclusive racial mindset. It felt like a snub to the black community, which had ridden so hard for him over the years and claimed him as one of their own.

Caller, on Tiger Woods: "He shouldn't be unhappy – he's rich." Utterly sickening listening to someone so out of touch with real life.

— talkSPORTDrive (@talkSPORTDrive) May 30, 2017

I sympathise with Tiger Woods and hope he gets the support he needs.

— Daniel Reynolds (@Dan_Reynolds_) May 30, 2017

Now that he’s been arrested on suspicion of DUI and his mug shot is all over television and the internet, the police have listed his race as “black,” which has folks cracking jokes everywhere. Few people feel bad for him. You might recall the story The Secret History of Tiger Woods by Wright Thompson. We learned all sorts of things about him, for example, that he kicks it with Navy SEALs and believes in the paranormal.

This is different, though. So basic, so rudimentary, so tacky that it feels like he’s learned nothing, at the very least, about understanding public opinion. He was quick to point out that alcohol was not a factor, which struck me as a particularly odd distinction, considering. We’re talking about a guy whose mistress admitted that he regularly took Ambien as a way not to get better sleep but to add some variety to his life in the bedroom. While it’s not classified as a narcotic by the government, people have been known to do some wild things while taking the drug for its intended purpose.

Mind you, prescription drug abuse is killing people left and right all over this country, at a rate that we haven’t seen before. As far as concern for Woods’ well-being goes, alcohol not being a factor does not necessarily make anything better.

I hope Tiger Woods fully recovers and breaks every golf record known to man. Or at least wins 1 more major.

— David Downey Jr. (@DavidDowneyJr) May 30, 2017

“I will do everything in my power to ensure this never happens again,” Woods said. What that means, who knows. But at this point for Woods, you have to wonder who his support system is. Who he trusts. Who he doesn’t. From the sounds of it, perhaps he doesn’t even trust himself.

If Woods ever wins another major, I’ll be flat-out shocked. And while this incident will ultimately not be something that we necessarily remember him for, it’s certainly one you mark down as a potential indicator of where it all went wrong.