Georgia is one of those funky states that has it’s own “Bureau Of Investigation” and they dutifully tag it with the impressive moniker — The Georgia Bureau Of Investigation.
Seems the men and women of the GBI get to provide an added layer of security at The Masters.
And last Saturday, the GBI nearly had a world-class disaster on its hands.
Tiger Woods, playing from the left rough on the par four 14th hole, had just hit a marvelous draw around the tall pines and a lot of people made a quick step to see the shot. GBI agents held them back and one over-zealous guy basically decided that he’d run toward the offending patrons to “protect” Tiger from the most knowledgeable spectators in sports.
You can stand at Augusta. You can sit at Augusta. You can even walk at Augusta. But everyone who has ever passed through those forbidding gates and entered this monument to the 1950s knows you can never run at Augusta. Try to run and a security guard will likely instruct you to “STOP!” in a commanding voice.
You don’t want to run anyway, if the grass has just a little moisture on it, you’ll slip, fall and bust your ass.
That’s exactly what happened to that GBI agent. As he ran toward Tiger, he slipped, went sliding into Tiger like a runner trying to break up the double-play and clipped Tiger’s right heel.
Tiger proceeded to hop three times, then limped a little and shook it off. “I’m and athlete,” Tiger later pointed out.
It could have been tournament-ending had it caught Tiger squarely on the ankle instead of just clipping him.
It was the talk of the day. Luckily for the GBI agent, Tiger birdied that 14th then the 15th.
No harm, no foul. Tiger was most gracious about the entire incident:
“It’s all good. Accidents happen. I’ve had galleries run over me. When you play in front of a lot of people, things happen.”
Still, we’ll let the lad from the GBI slide right into The Dog House.
2 Comments
baxter cepeda
Big galleries pay to be there, security gets paid. One would think this man will not only never work the Masters again, he is officially out of lottery consideration; though based on his actions he probably doesn’t even know about the lottery. What a dunce. He almost ended tigers career. Slow mo that thing and you see how close that came to a total disaster.
Also, look at the patrons and there is literally nothing going on to merit running. There are already a few guards around tiger. Our hero also knocked another guard down and tried to hold him back for some reason. He should never ever be allowed to live this one down. Everyone whine ever comes into contact with this man is responsible to make sure he knows you know.
Jk. But not really ….
Tom Edrington
Baxter: The GBI is the state’s equivalent of Federal agents — Georgia Bureau Of Investigation — not sure why they need them, I would think Pinkertons would do nicely….Yes, this is one place where you don’t have to worry about “the patrons” getting out of order, for sure. Close call.