Tiger Booed - It's a Cal Thing

So Tiger got booed during the past weekend's big Cal-Stanford match - and apparently was caught off-guard. I suppose that's understandable. Everywhere he goes, huge adoring galleries follow. And why not? He's been the world's number one golfer seemingly forever. But what I've learned from my time here in Northern California is that Cal takes precedence over everything. The Bears trump the Tiger. I'll often wear my Cal baseball cap to the golf course and inevitably I hear a chorus of "Go Bears!" from the pro shop to the driving range and around the course.


Thus, when that famous fairway 'furd stood midfield in his Stanford scarlet to be inducted into the Stanford Hall of Fame after earlier having performed the coin toss (on Stanford's home turf, not that it mattered), he was just another Cardinal rattling the bear cage. And so it goes on any given Saturday in Bear Country (or anywhere Bears fans congregate). Was it the classiest move? Definitely not. But I believe that many of these boo-Bears followed Woods recently when he was at San Francisco's Harding Park for the recent President's Cup and showed him the respect and admiration he deserves and has come to expect on the golf course.

On the football field, however, to some fans, he's fair territory in Bear Territory.