Tiger Wins, The Sport Loses, and some of us wonder if they actually pulled it off...

Some of us actually watch online coverage, especially non-network online coverage, of the major golf championships to escape the increasingly-corporate-propaganda nature of the sport.

I guess when your patron saint is Donald Trump and you haven't debased yourself to the level of NECKCAR, I guess it should stand to reason.  We have to put up with Trumpie Jut-Chin, Bryson DeChambeau, as the leader of the tournament a good part of Friday...

(Seriously, I haven't seen a chin on a guy like that since Sergeant Slaughter!)

But, for the first time, some of us are left to wonder if this really IS too good to be true and that they finally have the pieces set in place to rig Tiger to 19 majors...

Even I cannot say, for sure, that they did...  But one has to wonder a few things:

• The first of which is the FLAGRANT Tiger-jocking of the official coverage.  Even Thursday, there were moments that, if you were on the 15th/16th hole feed, you'd get Tiger's scorecard (even though he was nowhere near those two holes.  (I recall on the feed of his scorecard through 10.)
• Later in the first round, he actually made it to -3 and was one of several golfers leading the tournament.  He was past Amen Corner, so we thought we could escape it...  Until the feed takes a long, longing look at the top of one of the scoreboards, presumably on Amen Corner, with the top name area taken out...  And then Tiger's name being put in it...
• And that was THURSDAY -- a day in which the latter groups were stacked and a number of golfers, including Phil, carded 67s and 66s...

Why is this important?  Because, more than any other major, the actual course and the presiding body over the Augusta National Golf Club basically has, on a historic level, taken control of the broadcast of this tournament.  (The one year that there was the controversy with admitting women into it's membership and a boycott was threatened, ANGC responded by basically ridding the broadcast of all commercials on an elective basis.)

But, this year, on a highly-suspicious level, even Augusta (and long before Tiger actually was making a move to win the tournament) was trumpeting his arrival.  On THURSDAY...

And then we get to Sunday...

• I posted about this yesterday, but I'm going to bring it up again here -- though it didn't make any real difference at the end of the day.  (Tiger still had no real shot at the tenth green, and had to punch out.)

There is no video (apparently, several attempts by Twitter posters have been removed by CBS), but it's clear if the feed is still up on Masters.com and was shown on the broadcast.  Tiger's tee shot on the tenth was well right over to the gallery past the trees.

But after what would appear of a moment's rest, a white-shoed patron in the gallery actually makes a motion of kicking, and the ball then reappears.

It is basically clear that a patron attempted the ol' "foot wedge" on national television to help Tiger Woods!  Fortunately, at least on that hole, he failed:  Tiger still had no shot at the green and took 5 on the hole, one of the toughest on the course.

• A weekend full of missed opportunities by the rest of the field (I swear to God, I saw more shots from the pine straw and worse than I saw in multiple years before.) is highlighted when one of the most consistent golfers in all of professional golf has the Green Jacket in his hands...
• And Francisco Molinari plunks TWO to take identical 7's on the two par-5s, giving back at least SIX shots on the field!
• And the worst part of that is two-fold:  On #13, you don't go straight for the pin in two, and anyone who's watched the tournament five minutes knows going for the pin with the Sunday placement is just asking for a bath in Ray's Creek!  And then on #15, you lay up short, hit a tree to put one in the water, and then nearly douse your FIFTH SHOT and take another 7.

Not saying at this point that Molinari was ordered to take a dive, but I have to think him (and Finau, who also went wet on 13 in the same problem Molinari had) have some very real questions to ask.

And with Trump tweeting in support of Tiger and ESPN saying the ground shook in his wake...

And with Deadspin even now posting TWO ARTICLES, as of Monday morning, glorifying the piece of shit...

Until this weekend, more intelligent people than I with the sport of golf were continuing to convince me it was not possible to rig a golf tournament. 

Just saying...