As a long-suffering Phil Mickelson fan — I have rooted for him in every major since the 1991 British Open — anything I have to say about Tiger Woods should be taken with bucketfuls of salt. I didn’t like Tiger when he was an amateur since he broke all of Lefty’s records, and I took an instant dislike to him when he turned pro for making the already collapse-prone Mickelson a virtual basket case.

With that disclosure out of the way, let me explain why I would never root for Tiger Woods even if I didn’t have a fan boy crush on Mickelson. First, there’s the undeniable fact that he has the personality of a peanut. The revelations of his infidelity were so shocking because they showed he wasn’t an android. In his quest for perfection, Tiger has suppressed any charisma he may have once possessed. Golf has always had many great personalities — there’s Phil constantly high-fiving the crowds, Jim Furyk with his funky swing and John Daly, whose antics would merit an entire essay. Tiger’s only quirk is to wear a red T-shirt in the final round of every tournament which, as superstitions go, is really quite tame. He is so distrustful of personality that he fired both his caddy Fluff Cowan and coach Butch Harmon for being colourful and opinionated.

Then there’s the arrogance. Stories of Tiger’s PR missteps abound. There was the time he refused to sign a golf ball for charity that a fellow player had given him. He’s managed to diss two presidents, by refusing to attend a dinner he had been invited to by Bill Clinton and refusing to say anything remotely positive about Barack Obama. He once dismissed the beloved Ryder Cup as merely an exhibition match and demanded to be paid for it. To be fair, four others, including Mickelson, also felt the players should receive prize money but none were as scathing as Woods about the tradition-steeped tournament.

What’s most galling about Tiger, though, is not really his fault. The PGA Tour holds him to a lower standard than any other player. Where other players would have been warned or even fined for the constant stream of curses and club abuse Tiger lets forth whenever he is unhappy, the Tour and television commentators are silent when the transgressor is Woods. Much like Javed Miandad would never be adjudged leg before in Pakistan, Tiger can get away with anything. At the final round of the 1998 British Open, Tiger’s ball moved when he was addressing a putt. For a mortal player who doesn’t bring the game millions of dollars, that would have been an automatic two-shot penalty. Tiger was in contention at the time (he eventually finished one stroke behind the winner) so he got away with it.

Even though the “transgressions” that have made Tiger tabloid fodder should have remained a personal matter, it is hard to have any sympathy for a man who has always been above the rules complain about being treated unfairly.