Tiger's tale

Tiger Woods’ mea culpa ahead of his return to highstakes golf should be a lesson for the mixed-up doubles pair that Sania and Shoaib are turning out to be.

The golfing prodigy has not taken long to realise that saying goodbye to mistresses is a small price to pay for getting back to bagging those Masters again. When what Shoaib thought was a dolly turned out to be a doosra, and Sania’s expected love game became a deuced nuisance for them both, they should have taken time out to rethink their gameplan.

After all, tennis ace or star batsman, as sportspersons they should have known the consequences of taking their eyes off the ball. Instead, they blindly lashed out at the media’s googlies and heavily topspun serves, with the expected result.

Tiger, on the other hand, managed to avoid all the sand-traps and roughs in his first media interaction , teeing off expertly before a select(ed) audience. His relaxed stance, wide-open eye contact and a disarmingly charming way of saying a lot without saying anything at all, unerringly hit the sweet spot of the assemblage.

Talk about a high power transfer ratio — there was nary a fat shot or break to stymie Tiger’s progress down the back nine to superstardom again. Contrast that with the confused comments, uneasy body language and occasional badly-timed shots from our cross-border couple. So far, it’s been a dismal partnership of defensive blocks and footfaults, depending on the sport alluded to, with both retiring hurt from every match without scoring much.

That is all the more reason for the duo to watch re-runs of Tiger’s carefully calibrated return from the woods, for it was a masterly exercise in media management. To misquote Erich Segal’s immortal words, ‘Love means having to say you’re sorry’ — and then getting back to doing what you are best at. Howzzat!