Friday (Tiger Woods and Minnesotans) edition: Wha’ Happened?
Posted on August 14th, 2009 – 8:46 AMBy Michael Rand
Take a good look at that photo by the Strib’s Jim Gehrz. That’s not at all uncommon while walking around Hazeltine following Tiger Woods. That picture, from Woods’ first round Thursday, is going to be used to illustrate a brief point and to ask a question.
Woods himself has said the galleries following him here are larger than anywhere else (at least for the practice rounds). We all know Tiger is the best golfer in the world and one of a handful of mega-stars competing in any sport right now. And yesterday, he played brilliantly and as part of a group that was, without a doubt, the one to watch at the tournament.
That said, does the Tiger obsession — and the obsession, really, with “stars” of any kind — reach a different level in Minnesota than it does in most other places? That is to say, is there something inherently Minnesotan about wanting to get a piece of someone famous — and, in turn, wanting that famous person to like us?
We would argue the answer is “yes,” but that could just be yesterday’s five hours in the heat and humidity talking. We definitely welcome your perspectives on the nature of Minnesota fans in the comments.
8 Responses to "Friday (Tiger Woods and Minnesotans) edition: Wha’ Happened?"
Yes. We Minnesotans have bit of an inferiority complex and we want everyone to love our state and tell us how great it is. We also love it when people say how cold it is so that we can say “ahh this ain’t so bad, it was 60 below last week.”
Were the crowds really that big yesterday? I heard only about 8K were following Tiger AND Harrington. That doesn’t seem like that much to me.
I heard there were less than 30K at Hazeltine yesterday, are there attendance numbers available anywhere?
The Twins/Royals game had an announced attendance of over 30K. I’d be a little disappointed if this version of the Twins outdrew the last major of the year.
And yes Minnesotan’s have an inferiority complex. You’d think Minneapolis was New York City with how much people here care what others think about them.
That must be Michael Jackson’s picture of heaven, where young boys grow on trees.
Minnesotans inherently want everyone to like us. I don’t think it’s limited to just famous people.
It’s just our passive-aggresive nature. we don’t want to accost Tiger; we just want to get close enough for him to acknowledge our “Nice-ness.”
In my experience yesterday, (I didn’t see you Mr. Randball, weird) everyone was talking about, looking for, or wondering how Tiger was doing. Justin Rose threw a ball to a kid on the 3rd tee, the kid quickly wondered aloud if Tiger would sign it. When Tiger came through he hit a perfect tee-shot, then went straight to a “biffy” prompting me to wonder if his um… tinkling sounds anymore special than mine (Padraig went in after him, prompting me to wonder if his tinkling is more special than mine, but just takes longer.)
I think it is a unique opportunity for Minnesotans to witness greatness. We don’t get out of the state much to see him play elsewhere, so when he comes to us we watch.
Jama- I’m not sure how they measure those “following” him as the hole-to-hole gallery was still pretty noticable, but the let’s get a few holes ahead to watch Tiger and then leave adds a lot more.
But yes I think the clapping and cheering was really saying, you should love us and move here so you can be “one of us” but if you win this tourney we’ll claim you anyway. Also, we own you Rich Beem.
newbie
Were the “Get in the Hole” and “You Da Man” idiots out and about yesterday? Maybe Minnesotans keep that to a minimum and that is why Tiger likes “us”.
Clarence-you get my COW vote. Will people be making Michael Jackson jokes 20 years from now?
jama-
I still make lame Michael Dukakis and rubik’s cube jokes, so I am probably not a good person to ask.
Jama-
I didn’t really hear any of that where I was. Even on the par 3 he stuck 10 feet from the pin.
People tended to wait until they saw the result of the shot. See Mike Wier hooking one into the gallery and received no acknowledgment.
