The gold champ takes issue with a satirical piece published on Golf Digest and responds to it in a fiery piece on The Player's Tribune, calling it 'character assassination.'
- Nov 19, 2014
AceShowbiz - Tiger Woods has blasted senior golf writer Dan Jenkins for writing a parody piece about him on Golf Digest's December issue. The whole debacle started after Jenkins wrote a fake Q&A session called "My (Fake) Interview With Tiger - or how it plays out in my mind" in which he fired a question and arranged the answer himself, discussing various topics.
Woods, who was unhappy after learning of the parody, hit back at Jenkins in a piece he wrote on The Player's Tribune. "Did you read Dan Jenkins' interview with me in the latest Golf Digest? I hope not. Because it wasn't me. It was some jerk he created to pretend he was talking to me. That's right, Jenkins faked an interview, which fails as parody, and is really more like a grudge-fueled piece of character assassination," Woods said.
"Journalistically and ethically, can you sink any lower? ... This concocted article was below the belt. Good-natured satire is one thing, but no fair-minded writer would put someone in the position of having to publicly deny that he mistreats his friends, takes pleasure in firing people and stiffs on tips - and a lot of other slurs, too," he continued.
In the piece, Jenkins imagined asking Woods why he hadn't fired his agent Mark Steinberg. Woods, in Jenkins' fake interview, answered, "I'll probably get around to it. I like to fire people." He also asked Woods about being a bad tipper in the fake chat, to which the golfer answered, "So let 'em go find a better job."
Golf Digest has defended Jenkins' article, telling The Win, "The Q&A is clearly labeled as 'fake,' both on our cover and in the headline. The article stands on its own." Jenkins also reacted to Woods' statement in a tweet, "My next column for Tiger: defining parody and satire. I thought I let him off easy."
My next column for Tiger: defining parody and satire. I thought I let him off easy: https://t.co/E7e9imSKwO
— Dan Jenkins (@danjenkinsgd) November 18, 2014
