Tiger Woods was furious about a satirical interview published by Dan Jenkins in the recent edition of Golf Digest and retaliated on November 18 on Derek Jeter's The Players' Tribune.
In the Golf Digest issue, the story was entitled "My interview with Tiger". Jenkins, however, placed an asterisk before his byline, suggesting sarcasm. The article attacked the golf legend in various ways, giving the idea that Woods is cheap, does not treat his friends well and likes to dismiss those who work for him.
Based on a report by Yahoo! Sports, Woods wrote, "Jenkins faked an interview, which fails as parody, and is really more like a grudge-fueled piece of character assassination. Journalistically and ethically, can you sink any lower?"
He added, "I like to think I have a good sense of humor, and that I'm more than willing to laugh at myself. In this game, you have to."
Woods also wrote on The Players' Tribune that Jenkins "has no idea how I think or feel about any of the things he claims to know about, which is why he had to make things up." It also stated, "All athletes know that we will be under scrutiny from the media. But this concocted article was below the belt."
Woods next wrote a letter to Golf Digest, "Jenkins implies in the piece he was declined for an interview with Tiger. But no such request was made, at least not recently. Shouldn't he have done that before making up an interview?" He further wrote, "These things aren't jokes, they are character slanders and ones for which Jenkins has no basis whatsoever."
In a report by Golf Channel, Golf Digest replied, "The Q&A is clearly labeled as 'fake,' both on our cover and in the headline. The article stands on its own."
Glenn Greenspan, Woods' publicist said, "The excuse from Jenkins and Digest that this is satire is even more deceitful. Journalists can't just add an asterisk or a question mark to any slander that they dream up and call it appropriate."
Dan Jenkins tweeted a response to Tiger's comments, "My next column for Tiger: defining parody and satire. I thought I let him off easy." He placed a link to his piece at the end. ESPN described Jenkins as a longtime critic of Tiger Woods, since he turned pro in 1996. One of Jenkins' main problems with Tiger is that the latter would never let him have a one-one interview.