What an enthralling Masters it was. Woods was the Tiger of old, rampaging around the front nine in 31 in the final round to be, for a short time, tied for the lead, the Australian connection trying to erase a painful past at Augusta and a South African as cool as they come to finish with four straight birdies.
Woods, who has lost so much respect in the past 18 months, plus his No.1 ranking, lost his momentum on the back nine and proved old habits die hard in a brief interview with CBS's Bill Macatee - no Kerry O'Brien when it comes to asking the tough questions.
Regular readers will say, "Here goes Stone again, burying his size 11 boot into Woods from afar," but his responses to three innocuous questions showed his contempt for others. Not just the interviewers but also the millions watching around the world.
A total of 27 words in answer to the three questions, five of them repeated. A response that lacked common courtesy and civility. Sure, the guy was disappointed. He'd made a run for a 15th major and he came up short. He remains winless since the 2009 Australian Masters and it's now 11 majors since he won one. What about giving something to the public which once adored him.
Unlike tennis where players are fined if they refuse an official request for a media interview, there is no compulsion for golfers to present themselves. Generally, golfers are co-operative and, if they don't want to say something in the heat of the moment, they politely decline.
Why didn't Woods simply say: ''Not now, thank you. I'm only one shot from the lead [which he was at the time]. Let's see what happens?''
Brandel Chamblee, a former tour player and now a commentator on The Golf Channel, recalled the other day that Ben Hogan once became so annoyed with a long series of questions, he said: "I hope one day a deaf mute wins the US Open, so you guys will have to figure it out on your own."
Chamblee summed it up wonderfully well - "I'm sure Tiger feels the same way, but since he is neither deaf nor mute, he should give his sponsors what they are paying for or give the money back. After all, he is not obligated to talk after a round; he is paid to."
Contrast this with 21-year-old Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy who imploded with a final-round 80 after leading by four strokes going into the final round. He was close to tears but all class for one so young - "It was character building, put it that way. I'll come out stronger for it," he said with none of the surliness of Woods.
McIlroy is in the same management stable of Andrew "Chubby" Chandler as the Masters champion, Charl Schwartzel, and they were on the same flight together after the Masters to Kuala Lumpur for the Malaysian Open which ends today. A photo was taken of McIlroy and Schwartzel arm in arm on board the plane before it departed and McIlroy sent it to his 237,000 Twitter followers with the caption: "Glad one of us has the green jacket on."
On arrival in Malaysia, Schwartzel spoke of travelling with McIlroy: "In a way it was awkward. For him it must have been really hard so I take my hat off to him. He could have been really, I can only think of the Afrikaans word, 'bitter.' "
Of course, Woods's charge on the front nine was big for the CBS Network in the US, with the ratings the second highest in the past decade - 35 million people watched all or part of the telecast on Sunday afternoon. Here in Australia, the Ten Network had a huge leap in its audience, too, because of the deeds of runners-up Adam Scott and Jason Day, and Geoff Ogilvy, who tied fourth with Woods and Englishman Luke Donald.
Schwartzel's victory at Augusta also signalled another moment in the history of golf - for the first time all four majors are held by non-Americans - Northern Irishman Graeme McDowell (US Open), South African Louis Oosthuizen (British Open), German Martin Kaymer (US PGA) and now Schwartzel which really goes to show that the game is now truly global.
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