Another TigerWoods.com Scoop: Joey Approached Tiger!

For a small news operation they sure do land the exclusives, including this on Tiger's hiring of Joe LaCava. Tiger doesn't talk to a lot of media these days, but the intrepid reporters at TW.com pulled it off:

"Mark [Steinberg] and I were approached by a lot of people, including Joe, who expressed an interest in becoming my caddie," Woods said. "This was an important decision, and I wanted to think about it carefully. Also, out of deference for the FedExCup Playoffs, I decided to wait until they were concluding to have substantive talks. We then spoke to Joe and came to an agreement.

Lawrence Donegan does a bang-up job breaking down the chain of events and despite suggestions that Tiger was trying to upstage the Tour Championship or Butch Harmon's assertion that Tiger should have called Dustin Johnson for permission to talk to LaCava, it's all hogwash.

The news of LaCava's defection was revealed by Harmon, not Woods. Indeed, had Harmon said nothing then the Solheim Cup in Ireland and Tour Championship in Atlanta – both of which served up thrilling Sunday finishes – would have got the attention they might otherwise have received, and Woods would have gone ahead with his plan to announce LaCava's hiring later in the week.