It was about two weeks that I spoke about ‘threes’. And how crazy it is that that number keeps coming up? Well it looks like third is the word once again. Tiger Woods placing third in the Australian Open made golf actually worth watching in November. Go figure.

Before we get into the actual highlights of the Australian Open, I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about what happened prior to the Open. Steve Williams, Tiger’s former caddie, the best man at his wedding and who was fired in July, was awarded a fake award, at a dinner for caddies and players. The award was for ‘best celebration by a caddie’, and in his acceptance speech he said something wrong.

Now the mood of the evening was light and fun and when asked what prompted his celebration back in July, his response was “I wanted to shove it up his black a******.”

Inappropriate? Yes. Humourous? Questionable. But people calling it a racial slur is a stretch. If he used the N-word, that would be a racial slur but calling him black should hardly be called a slur because he is black! Except, he is American and in the States they prefer to be called African Americans which is another tangent we won’t go into today.

Tiger spoke with Steve and held a press conference stating that he didn’t find Steve to be a racist and Tiger was moving on. Clearly Steve hasn’t and truly, Steve’s comments came from a broken heart.

Or conspiracy theorists could say this is all a ploy set up by Tiger to take the heat off him so he can concentrate and get his game back and maybe it worked.

Tiger went off! He took the lead at the Australian Open after two rounds (for the past two years, this has been unfamiliar territory). He faltered in the third round but was back again in the final round. The final day — Tiger’s day — he battled to a strong third place finish.

We’ve missed this Tiger. And with the President’s Cup coming up, Tiger may have to play against his former-caddie’s golfer, Adam Scott. If we see Tiger ‘the great’ then everyone will be happy.

Everyone, except Steve.

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