Unbelievable Tiger Story

[Bill Murphy]

From Gary Van Sickle's current column on cnnsi.com:

"Woods, accompanied by girlfriend Elin Nordgren, was betting $10,000 a hand at the MGM Grand Mansion tables in Las Vegas when a cocktail waitress arrived with drinks. Woods pulled a $5 bill out of his pocket and put it on the waitress' tray, but when Elin reminded him that he'd tipped her earlier, Woods reached out and took back the $5."

If this is true, [censored] Tiger. Hope that knee don't ever heal. Hey Eldrick, $50+ million a year & dating a Swedish bikini model w/an identical twin sister, and ya gotta worry about your drinks getting spit in. Outstanding. Go Phold, go!

BTW props to both The Phold & David Toms for their clutch play on the 72nd hole of the World Cup today..... /forums/images/icons/frown.gif

[Bill Murphy]

Frank goes into a club. He's had his usual coupla-six pops, so he's a bit glowy. Maitre'D sits him down. Frank sez, "What's the biggest tip ya ever got?" M-D: "$100". Frank: "Who gave it to ya?" M-D: "You did, Mr. Sinatra." Frank: "Oh yeah, when?" M-D: "Last night, sir." Frank: "Well, here's $200!"

Frank Sinatra didn't do jack [censored] the last thirty years of his life, but everybody loved & protected him. Tiger could learn a lot from this.

Whatta scumbag. The more I think about the story above, the madder I get. Hope a camera click when he's in his downswing next year causes him to seize up, tear a rotator cuff, and send the ball & club into Elin's grille.

Anyone remember that interview w/Tiger from '97 where he talked about how he got grief for stiffing the locker room attendants, and so he was now starting to "leave 'em a few Ben babies"? Key-rist; in the same article it mentioned how The Phold leaves $2K minimum just for making the cut!

I might actually move to Orlando & get a job at that Sickie-D's outside Isleworth, just so I can spit in Tiger's food, that's how hot I am over this.

Anyone wanna bet that Tiger & Elin have all kinds of special food & drink orders whenever they go out? Tiger needs Kerry Packer & Ben Affleck to set him straight.

[HDPM]

First, if Elin told me to take money off a waitress's tray, I'd do it. Like everything else she told me to do. /forums/images/icons/tongue.gif

That said, Tiger was outta line here. $5 is an Ok tip, even if he could leave a lot more. Taking it back is pretty bad though. I won't hate him as bad as you will tho Bill, nor could I root for Elin's face to get hit with a ball except..... oh, nevermind. /forums/images/icons/wink.gif In many respects, Phold is a nicer guy than Tiger. Everyone who knows him likes him. He spreads some cash around as you say. He's also #2 (probably really #3 behind Els). Nice guys finish second, eh?

P.S., the worst athlete tipping story I heard was Elway in Denver. A place had .99 beers. Elway had a fin and drank 5 beers. He left the 5 cents change as a tip.

[Phat Mack]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
P.S., the worst athlete tipping story I heard was Elway in Denver. A place had .99 beers. Elway had a fin and drank 5 beers. He left the 5 cents change as a tip.

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually, that's a nickle more than Sammy Snead would have left. He was the cheapest!

[John Cole]

Phat,

Snead wouldn't have bought his own drinks in the first place.

John

[Boris]

I'm with Tiger on this one. Tips should be a function of the total bill and the service, not how much money you make. If it makes sense for Tiger to tip more, then I should tip about .5% and tell the server I'm being overly generous. You also have to consider that about 98% of the people Tiger deals with want a big chunk of his money. It's got to be irritating.

[marbles]

A $5 tip for a drink is extremely generous.
Taking back a tip of any amount is inexcusably poor form.

The fact that he's wildly rich is irrelevant.

[Bill Murphy]

...I'm telling Tiger how much to tip, while blasting the NY Times for telling him not to play the Masters next year.

Really just trying to help the kid out. Prodigies &amp; savants don't know much 'bout the lil' people. Waitress' boyfriend tells her Tiger gets 50 mill/yr &amp; 1 mill for the tourney they watch him win, then two days later gets stiffed by him &amp; the IRS calculates a toke off his order?

Toss the black chips around, El, and start grabbing the check. It'll come back to ya 1000 times over. What're saving up for, to be Martha Stewart; billionaire going to the hole for $50K? Think, son, THINK!

[afish]

I'm not saying the story is untrue, but it does sound similar to this recent report from the Review Journal gossip column (http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2002/Dec-06-Fri-2002/news/20194080.html):


"Jennifer Lopez is clamping down on fiance Ben Affleck's legendary tipping habits.

During their Thanksgiving holiday visit, Hollywood's hottest couple was at a baccarat table at The Mirage, and my spies tell me Affleck was on a roll.

When he tossed a $5,000 white chip to the dealers, J.Lo told him "no," retrieved the chip, and put it in her pocket book. Then she reached over and took three of Affleck's $100 black chips and pushed them across the table."

Urban legends can make their way into print.

[Rick Nebiolo]

Bill,

I wonder if the story was true. Taking back the second $5 was just too tacky to be believed. But even with Tiger’s vast wealth, I can’t see tipping a cocktail waitress more than a $20 bill. It just seems ostentatious, and a good-looking cocktail waitress working in the right spot makes a fortune anyway.

Even if I were rich, the whole idea of walking into a club/casino/restaurant and causing a scene tipping $100 bills doesn’t sit right with me. I’d rather leave $5 to a nice, elderly waitress in an old coffee shop normally used to getting a 50-cent tip.

Regards,

Rick

[M2d]

Was there a date attached to this alleged mis-deed? I wonder if Tiger and Elin were even in town when is was supposed to have happened.

[Clarkmeister]

I love how some people feel they have the right to tell other people how to spend their money.

[AmericanAirlines]

What's truly irritating is that we as a society allow a golfer to earn this kind of money.

The sponsors of this sort of BS should either raise the wages of thier employees by Tiger's cut... or lower thier prices to thier customer's by the amount they dole out to sponsor the Tour.

I'm tired of paying these people indirectly by my purchases.

And don't give me any bull about 'don't buy'... I complete avoid whatever I can as dollars are votes.

We, the viewing public create these people... we should simply boycott pro sports all together.

They're not the "home teams". They're fricken franchises.

Sincerely,
AA

[rusty JEDI]

i love how some people act holier than thou with their opinion.

[MRBAA]

Mickelson is a talented golfer but he's not even close to Woods or Els at this point. Woods is a genius -- in the Nicklaus, Hogan, Jones pantheon. Els is starting to look like a Lee Trevino/Gary Player type, a great player who can raise his game to compete with the best after winning the British. Singh probably has the next best record among active golfers who are still competitive (the great Nick Faldo cannot be counted in this class). Frankly, at this stage in his career Mickelson is just another real good golfer -- no matter how well he tips. And I'm not sure tipping is the best barometer, anyway. I've heard that Bill Gates earns scorn for playing in 3-6 hold em games rather than with the high rollers, yet he runs the world's largest foundation, giving a huge part of his fortune to improve education and healthcare in some of the poorest places on earth. Now that's someone to admire.