Golf Update: Corey Pavin and Jim Gray fight over Tiger Woods
Corey Pavin, the Ryder Cup captain and a Golf Channel reporter Jim Gray, were found standing nose to nose and fist to fist after a press conference at the PGA Championship on Wednesday afternoon.
The argument started after a report was aired on Tuesday night. In this report, Jim Gray pointed out that Corey Pavin said earlier, that he was going to shortlist Tiger Woods as a captain's pick in the Ryder cup team. As Tiger Woods was the best player in the world.
However, one day later on Wednesday, Corey Pavin quoted on Twitter that he was misquoted. To clear himself, Corey Pavin repeated the same topic in front of the press with another interesting point that Jim Grey’s report was incorrect. After Corey Pavin was done answering different questions, he and Jim Gray came face to face to confront each other in the Whistling Straits media center. The argument started with a finger pointing from Jim Gray who called Corey Pavin a liar. In respond to the accusation Corey Pavin said,”You are full of it.” The conflict took place in front of the press that has assembled for a press conference for Colin Montgomerie and Corey Pavin.
At one place, Jim Gray tried to settle the hatchet by walking away from the conference room but Corey Pavin stopped him by saying that he couldn’t just walk away after creating a mess. To which Jim Gray responded by coming back to the arena for a continued thrashing of words and gestures. If this wasn’t enough, Corey Pavin’s wife Lisa, joined the drama that was taking place in front of the press.
According to the media reports, Cory Pavin’s stance is that he did not say anything that gave a perception or an idea of him considering Tiger Woods in the Ryder cup team. However, to make the story clear, Corey Pavin told the press that whatever Jim said was his side of the story , in fact Pavin did not say anything at all regarding Tiger woods’ being considered on the team. To support his stance, he further added that if he would have said something of this sort, it would have been highly disrespectful for the players who were trying to make the cut into the team.
With PGA championship’s 92nd edition hovering in the air, Tiger Woods is currently ranked as the 10th according to the Ryder Cup points. Moreover, quite recently he came off with the worst 72-hole finish of his golfing career at the Bridgestone Invitational. To make it simple, only the top eight in Ryder Cup points will fundamentally qualify for the team.
However, there is an exception to this criterion. A player can qualify into the team if the captain chooses him but as far Tiger Woods is concerned, he is one of those players who are not even in top 8. Other than Tiger Woods; Dustin Johnson, Rickie Fowler, Zach Johnson, Stewart Cink and Sean O’Hair are one of the players who aren’t top 8 even. However, Corey Pavin will finalize the team on the September 7th.
According to the media report, four spots are still vacant on the Ryder cup team and for these four positions, twenty players are being considered. The crucial point here is to select players who can work together and create a synergy.
Moving forward, there is one person who is stressing that Corey Pavin should pick Tiger Woods for the team. That one person is Colin Montgomerie. The reason which Colin Montgomerie presents behind his suggestion is that, by bringing in Tiger Woods, a whole new excitement will be added to the event.
To sum it up, a heated discussion took place between Corey Pavin and Jim Gray at the press conference that was taking place for the PGA championship. According to Pavin, Jim Gray misinterpreted the interview which he gave regarding the selection of players for the Ryder cup whereas, Jim in defense said that Corey Pavin was denying his statement. Who is right and who is wrong cannot be decided merely by words so to find out the truth, read the upcoming article on the same story.
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