Here we are again, watching the mighty stumble and fall.  Tiger Wood’s admission today that he disappointed his family with “transgressions” that were not consistent with his “values”, all but validates the rumors of an affair with a 24 year old cocktail waitress.  He says he will now work out his problems in private.  Good luck with that.

Until now, is there anyone who didn’t wish they were Tiger Woods for at least a day?  That gorgeous physique with the killer golf swing and a billion dollar bank account?  What guy doesn’t think Wood’s wife is hot?  Or what woman even?  It was so perfect, it had to go, at least for a little while as the world adjusts to the reality Tiger Woods is really just a guy.

Like so many powerful men it is the people who have the most who risk the most. They approach the game of life as high rollers in Vegas prepared to lose it all.  Is it power?  Greed?  Entitlement?  Could Bill Clinton not have known he would be impeached for infidelity when he had sexual relations with that woman?

Former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, the lawyer crusader with the smart and pretty wife who was elected in a landslide, lacked enough inside that he needed a call girl too.  It cost him his job and his political future.  I wonder if he wanted it in the first place, or he found himself on a train which was not going to stop until he derailed it.

And here was Tiger, just two months ago playing in the Notah Begay benefit golf tournament at Turningstone.  According to the alleged mistress, Tiger was involved with her for two years.  I watched him eat a sandwich out of his golf bag as another player teed off on the 15th at Atunyote.  He seemed absorbed in the play, but looking back, maybe he was daydreaming about the next liaison with Jaimee Grubbs.

Tiger hasn’t run for office and he doesn’t owe us any explanation about his behavior.  He’s just a hero.  I don’t know any teenager who lamented the folly of President Clinton or Eliot Spitzer but my teenager announced tonight he doesn’t like Tiger “so much anymore”.  Older folks who’ve endured the knocks of marriage and others who didn’t survive and moved on probably have more sympathy for Wood’s situation, but children still believe in perfect marriages along with perfect golf games and cool product endorsements.

Is there a person in the land who would trade places with the guy right now?  He’s probably spending his fifth night on the couch;  no more special than any other guy who strayed from his marriage.  Infidelity has a way of recalibrating socio-economic scales.  A dog house at the trailer park is probably not very different from the dog house at the mansion; they’re cramped places on the outside of everything, the house, the wife, the kids, the respect.  There’s no promise of ever being allowed back in.

Remember the awkward stroll to the Presidential helicopter that first weekend after the news broke about President Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky?  First daughter Chelsea Clinton literally had to hold the marriage together for the planned vacation to Martha’s Vineyard.  She stood between her parents and held their hands.  We all watched and squirmed.

We squirmed while watching Silda Spitzer, tailored and composed with her Hermes scarf circled round her neck and bags beneath her eyes two feet behind her husband as he held a news conference about his “transgressions”.

And now we will watch the uneasy repair of the Wood’s marriage.  On his website he said he couldn’t believe the appetite for details of his personal life with the tabloids.  He ain’t seen nothing yet.  It’s one thing to attract attention with a dazzling smile, a perfect swing and a long list of sponsors.  But produce a soap opera in this Age of Reality TV, and you’ll find viewers you never knew existed.

I love the sport of golf as long as I don’t have to endure the heartbreak of having to play it.  It’s a thrill to watch a group of good looking, clean cut men make it almost look easy.  This is why the week of the PGA event at Turningstone is my favorite social week of the year.

I was invited to be one of the MCs Tuesday night at the pro-am pairings dinner.  Filled with food and laughter, it’s when Central New York men and women, 99 percent men, pony up some cash to play 18 holes with one of the pros the day before the tournament.  They find out which pro will join their group at this event.

It’s a good thing there was a rehearsal for the dinner in the afternoon.  I had never attended one of these before and had no idea how they worked.  Experienced MC Dan Jones of Turningstone was a terrific guide.

Any jitters I had were dispensed of immediately.  The comedian- caddie- XM radio host- Golf Channel commentator Micheal Collins ran away with the whole thing, which was great.  He was hilarious.  How he read the biographies of about 32 players on the big screen fast enough to invent some humor for each was a thrill.  The program lasted about an hour and never got stale.  I essentially stood off to the side with Dan, we made some announcements about how things would run the next day, but then I just laughed along with everyone else.

I learned the pairings dinner amounts to a roast, only the butt of the jokes were not in the room.  The players were in the conference room just down the hall having their own dinner which probably involved roasting all of us.  I cannot remember to match the players to the jokes, but Michael made fun of their hobbies, their smiles, their intestinal gas, their hair.  Nothing was off limits but it all stayed within the bounds of good taste.  Brilliant.

Last night was the featured social event, the player’s dinner on the Great Lawn at the Lodge and I was reminded how the food and service at Turningstone are world class.  Executive Andrew Lee showed why he was plucked from Napa Valley, California a few years ago to oversee all food operations at Turningstone.  The buffet dinner was exquisite.

Participants were protected from the rain and cold with a giant white tent and carpeted flooring erected over the lawn.  Staff in jacket and tie and big golf umbrellas escorted guests from the Lodge across the exposed and rainy patio and into the tent where there was too much delicious food to fit into a 130 pound frame.  It was not the kind of affair where you ask for a doggy bag, but boy I sure wished I could bring some of the lobster, oysters, shrimp, sushi, beef and poultry home with me.

Turningstone is a unique venue for the PGA.  It is the only stop on the tour held on native land.  As such, members of the Oneida Indian Nation graced the audience with a traditional welcome ceremony.  It was gratifying to see the golfers, their families and staff respectfully and appreciatively observe the performance.  You don’t see this everyday.

Props to Syracuse comedian Daniel Uzunoff, “The Magic Man” who astonished us with his card tricks, and yes Dan, I did notice when I got home you had somehow managed to place the King of Diamonds in my purse, another feat for which I have no explanation.  Dan appears regularly at Turningstone and at Wise Guy’s Comedy club in Syracuse.  If you’re having an event, I recommend him.  I don’t know how much he charges but if you have to rob a bank, deal drugs or embezzle from your company, it is well worth it to hire Dan.

Today is the first day of play and I can’t imagine there are gobs of spectators watching in the cold and rain, especially because the forecast calls for improving conditions as the tournament wears on.  I hope the crowds turn out.  The future of the tournament here depends on it.

I have more to share, especially about an exciting contest taking place for all who come to the PGA event, but my other writing responsibilities are calling.  I’ll write about the contest next time.

The third annual PGA Tour event at Turningstone begins this week.  For the second year in a row the forecast calls for great golf and not great weather.  This is a terrible shame because Central New Yorkers tend to put off outdoor events until the weather improves but it’s a long way until May so I say put on every piece of clothing you own and come anyway.

Oneida Indian Nation President and CEO Ray Halbritter and his top notch staff worked years to get the PGA to consider our region.  It is testimony to his enormous skills and the fact that you just can’t say no to this quiet but brilliant man that Halbritter succeeded.

The first year brought weather from the Gods.  It was sunny, sparkling, warm and brilliant every day of the tournament and Halbritter had a sore back from all the pats congratulating him for not only bending the PGA, but the jetstream too on that inaugural event at Turningstone.

But last year the Oneidas were not so lucky.  Nearly every day was chilly or wet or both at once.  A few intrepid fans stood by the ropes, watching the pros make the most frustrating game on the planet almost look easy, but Halbritter had to be disappointed if not sympathetic to the turnout.  The PGA was watching too.  If we can’t show up to the most beautiful golf course within a hundred miles to cheer on the players and support this event, we’ll lose it.

Now it’s happening again.  The forecast calls for chilly temperatures and plenty of rain.  It’s understandable that with all the fear about unemployment, diminishing bank accounts and swine flu running amok and ending the world this winter, many moms will put their foot down and say Dad and the kids are prohibited from standing outside in the cold.

Well this mom has some other advice.  There is no evidence that standing in the cold brings on a cold.  Just go.  It’s a thrill.  You can’t watch these men whack a little ball all over the place and not marvel at how quickly they convince it to go in the little hole over and over again.

Bundle up.  Bring a hat, bring your most weather- proof walking shoes, gloves.   Let’s show the PGA and the players we’re grateful they selected our beautiful little corner of the world for a few days of golf.

The play begins at Atunyote Thursday morning.  You can get ticket information at the turningstone website.  I hope to see you there.

The greeting at the door of Lava at Turningstone read “No Cameras.  No Cellphones”.  That took care of that.  A blog about this region’s most beautiful golf course, a buffet dinner that made Vegas look like cooking school and four of the most talented and ripped men alive, with no photos.  Sorry about that.

I don’t golf, but I recognize the sport as perhaps the most dignified on the planet.  It’s well-mannered and gentlemanly, even among women.  The rules are serious.  If Tiger Woods can be fined for questioning the call of a PGA official as he was a couple of weeks ago, a lot worse things can happen to me for trying to sneak a photo of the players.

In golf, spectators are quiet.  Players are respectful.  Fist pumps don’t come at the expense of other players, but at the course itself.  Who could deny a man the joy of victory over a path of crazy perfect grass?

For the third year in a row I am pinching myself for my good fortune at being named a member of the Empowerment Fund of the PGA event at Turningstone.  Twenty Central New Yorkers who represent politics and government, business, athletics and media, serve at the pleasure of Oneida Nation C.E.O. Ray Halbritter, who also happens to be my business hero.   You can’t be in his presence for five minutes and not realize the man has something.  My fellow committee members, all impressive in their own right, speak of Ray in the same universal way.  The Empowerment Fund is the charity arm of the PGA event at Turningstone and in just the first two years, the Oneidas turned over nearly $800,000.00 in ticket proceeds to various Central New York charities.

Ray summoned all his skills, smarts and connections to land Tiger Woods for a game of golf today at the stunningly beautiful Atunyote course.  Everywhere you walked, the talk was about Tiger.

But in fairness, today was really about a lesser known pro golfer named Notah Begay III, another quality guy with an economics degree from Stanford University and the only full-blooded native American on the tour.  Notah has a Foundation dedicated to helping Native children through golf and soccer, and a longtime friendship with Tiger Woods,  one that precedes their famous roommate assignment at Stanford.  In a question and answer session at the reception at Lava last night, Tiger said of Notah  “He took care of me and he didn’t take care of me.  I killed a lot of brain cells”, which provoked laughter from the invitation-only 300 in attendance.  Did the best athlete in all the world and the greatest gentleman and role model too just suggest he smoked weed?  No!  Tell us you wore the same socks for two days in row why don’t you?  And now stick a fork in our eyes.

In typical pro golf fashion, the four players: Tiger, Notah, Mike Weir and Camilo Villegas all spoke of how impressed they are that Notah has this cause and it’s a pleasure to assist him at Turningstone.  For his part, Tiger said, “anything Notah needs, and I’m there”.  Quite a promise from the person most in demand in all the world since Princess Diana.

After the intimate gathering at Lava last night today’s skins game seemed anti-climatic except for the 3000 fans who stood ten and fifteen deep at each hole, and the media that was finally granted access.  At one point, my son Harry and I stood within eight feet of the players because we skipped ahead two holes and secured a spot at the rope at the fifth tee.

The four players collectively earned one million dollars for the Notah Begay III Foundation.  I’ll bet no one was more grateful than Ray Halbritter who envisioned top notch play on his golf course rolled from native land, where wetlands met limos and pampas grass sprouted bronze sculpture, and where a perfect late summer day saw four talented classy men turn the most accomplished Central New Yorkers into star-struck 12 year olds.