Tiger, Galvin Are No Heroes

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Irish Voice Sport

Tiger, Galvin Are No Heroes

June 18, 2008

The Cathal Dervan Column

WE were rocking for Rocco in Headfort golf club on Monday night, rocking and rooting for the forty something who did more for the game of golf and for sport in the U.S. Open playoff than Tiger Woods did in winning his 14th Major title.

There, I’ve said it. The sporting tree huggers out in the Bronx may be upset, but I don’t care.

I prayed that Mediate would kick Tiger where it hurts in San Diego and show the world that bad tempered prima donnas don’t always win, even when they are probably the best golfer the planet has ever seen.

It didn’t work out that way of course, but Rocco Mediate won something more important that silverware on Monday. He won the hearts and the admiration of the world with a performance and a demeanor that his conqueror could well learn from.

It may not be the popular thing to say, but the behavior of Tiger Woods was a disgrace to golf at Torrey Pines last Sunday night as the U.S. Open threatened to swing free of his grip. As a result he deserved to lose the playoff on Monday in my humble opinion.

Watching the live Sky coverage after a great day’s golf of our own, I really wanted Mediate to win the playoff more than I’ve wanted any golfer to win any tournament, with the obvious exception of Padraig Harrington at last year’s British Open.

I wasn’t alone, by the way. The clubhouse in Kells was packed on Monday night, and only one very loud and very silver haired man was on Tiger’s side as the underdog put it up to the best golfer in the world.

Most of the Headfort set, members and visitors alike, were on Rocco’s side. I suspect they were rooting for Rocco because of his week long demeanor, his attitude and his courage during a playoff that eventually took 19 holes to decide after a quite incredible 18th hole par from Tiger on the Sunday night.

Being Irish, in the main, they wanted to see the little guy upset the applecart; they wanted the red hot favorite with the sore knee to have his plans for world domination upset by the 45-year-old playing out of Naples, Florida.

It didn’t work out that way, and the big old monster got to eat the little guy as usual which is a pity.

When Tiger threw the toys out of the pram on more than one occasion on Sunday evening, as he feared the Major was slipping from his grasp, he gave us a fascinating insight into the real Tiger Woods, an ugly Tiger Woods.

Watch the re-runs and you will see him throw his putter at his bag more than once as Saturday afternoon’s brilliance was replaced by Sunday’s petulance.

Study the video evidence and you will see a so-called role model for kids everywhere act like a spoiled brat merely because the script wasn’t going according to his plans.

I expected more of a great sportsman like Tiger Woods no matter how much pain he was in from his recent knee surgery. He should have behaved like a gentleman on Sunday evening as the title threatened to walk away from him on that 18th hole of the fourth round.

He should have behaved like Rocco Mediate.

Tiger opted instead to pitch a fit until a quite wonderful putt earned him the playoff that ultimately earned him another Major and moved him ever closer to Jack Nicklaus’ record in Southern California.

In doing so he proved he is human . . . and maybe not as nice a guy as we were led to believe for all these years.

Tiger wasn’t the only sportsman to lose the run of himself over the weekend, of course. Here at home we have just read the news that Kerry’s Gaelic football captain Paul Galvin has been suspended for six months for his petulance in the Killarney win over Clare in the first outing of the summer for the All-Ireland champions.

Galvin was so incensed by his imminent red card from referee Paddy Russell that he slapped the official’s notebook out of his hand, then became embroiled in a confrontation with one of his own teammates.

Of course Galvin has been pleading remorse ever since his moment of stupidity, even stooping to apologize to the nation in an interview with RTE’s Pascal Sheehy on television on Monday night.

The apology was too little too late to save the Kerry skipper when the GAA threw the book back at him on Tuesday afternoon and effectively brought Galvin’s championship season -– and his reign as Kerry captain –- to an abrupt end.

I have to say I have no sympathy for Galvin, who has been an accident waiting to happen ever since the Kingdom appointed him as their spiritual leader for the season.

Galvin, a schoolteacher of all things, is far from a role model for the kids of that county or this country as his behavior in Killarney on Sunday serves only to prove.

For too long now he has delighted in the role of hard man, self-perpetuating the myth in more than one newspaper interview and taking pleasure in the wild boy tag that has latched onto him in recent years.

Wild boys have no place in team sports. They certainly have no future as captain of the All-Ireland champions, so the GAA did the right thing when they slapped that ban on Galvin with the same force he used to slap Russell’s notebook out of his hand.

It may be a harsh lesson for Galvin, it may even spell the end of his inter-county career if Kerry boss Pat O’Shea has any backbone, but it is a lesson Galvin had to learn.

When he was appointed captain of the country’s top Gaelic football side last December, Galvin turned to his Feale Rangers clubmate Jimmy Deenihan, the former player turned politician, for advice.

Deenihan made no qualms of telling Galvin that the Kerry captaincy isn’t just the top job in Kerry sport, it is the top job in the county full stop.

Galvin clearly didn’t take any heed of Deenihan’s advice when he slapped the referee’s notebook out of his hand on Sunday afternoon.

Like Tiger Woods later that night, he clearly felt he is bigger than the sport. Wrong.

Tiger may have won the U.S. Open on Monday, but he certainly did not behave like a champion on Sunday, nor did Paul Galvin on the other side of the Atlantic, so good riddance to both as far as I am concerned.

Sideline Views

SOCCER: Some things never change in football as the current European Championships have proved. As kids away back when, we were always told to play the whistle. As young footballers we were always told to never give up on a game, any game. Those maxims are still true. Ruud Van Nistelrooy stuck the ball in the Italian net last week, then looked for an offside flag that never came. Holland won the game. Turkey refused to throw in the towel against the Czech Republic on Sunday night, even when they trailed 2-0 with 15 minutes to go. Then Turan scored and the Turks won the game. Professional soccer is ever changing but some things, thankfully, remain the same.

RUGBY: The Irish rugby team’s season finally came to an end with another defeat to Australia in Melbourne on Saturday, and good riddance to the campaign. This was the season when the golden generation were supposed to deliver the World Cup but ended up home before the postcards. The sooner Declan Kidney gets into the job and starts to rebuild the better.

GAA: The Cork hurlers are already out of the Munster Championship and their footballers needed two goals in the last minute to finally see off Limerick in the football semifinal on Sunday, so maybe the fall-out from the infamous players strike in the spring is still affecting the Leesiders.

SOCCER: Portugal manager Phil Scolari has apparently been telling Ronaldo to sign for Real Madrid during their time together at the European Championships. Scolari has just been appointed manager of Chelsea. Could the new items be related?

Hero Of the Week

CLASS is permanent as Henry Shefflin proved on his return to the Kilkenny team after injury with 11 points in Sunday’s demolition of Offaly in the Leinster semifinal. Shefflin is one sportsman who knows how to combine natural skill with good grace. Great to see him back.

Idiot Of the Week

A CLOSE contest this between Tiger Woods and Paul Galvin as you will see elsewhere on this page, but the award really has to go to the Kerry captain who lost the run of himself in Killarney on Sunday afternoon.

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