Kevin Woods is the 52-year-old second son from Earl Woods’ first marriage, making him the half-brother of Tiger Woods. Kevin has been suffering from multiple sclerosis since 2009 and his health is “60 to 70 percent worse.” On top of that, he’s also about to lose his home. And yet, his family says Tiger isn’t returning their calls.
“I leave messages,” Kevin’s brother Earl Jr. told Hank Haney ESPN’s Rick Reilly. “I leave updates on Kevin, but for whatever reason I don’t get a response. … Kevin loves Tiger. A call from Tiger would really pump Kevin up. When he doesn’t call, it just makes him feel worse.”
According to Earl Jr., he and his full-siblings lost communication with Tiger after their father’s funeral six years ago. It’s unclear what caused this apparent falling out between Tiger and his half-siblings. Tiger reportedly has a good relationship with Earl Jr.’s daughter Cheyenne, a golfer for Wake Forest’s women’s team, but Earl Jr. feels almost disrespected when Tiger snubs the rest of his family.
“I’d like to [slap] Tiger, wake him up,” he said. “I’d like to say, ‘Don’t come knocking on the door when you need a bone-marrow transplant.’ To see this is the response we get? Maybe when you see the world like he does, you don’t see what other people are going through. But, seriously? You’ve got problems with your knee? That’s nothing compared to what Kevin is going through. Nothing.”
“We haven’t asked Tiger for a dime,” Earl Jr. added. “Not even tickets to a tournament. But Kevin’s losing his home. He needs a caregiver and he can’t have a caregiver and keep his home at the same time. And we can’t do that, we don’t have the means. He can’t move into Royce’s house because of the stairs. And he’s got a dog.
“Nobody’s asking for money here, but [a caregiver] really would be nice for Kevin. It would make Kevin comfortable. He wouldn’t have to leave his house. … But we’d at least like to be able to find out how Tiger is, to find out if he’s OK, and to let him know if we’re OK.”
Before you jump all over Tiger and use a bunch of not-so-flattering words to describe him, it’s important to get his side first. Reilly said he wasn’t able to get comment from Tiger, and his story ended up being extremely one-sided, which is unfortunate because it unfairly makes Tiger look like an incredible jerk.
Having said that, with Tiger apparently starting to have things click again on the course, another PR hit is the last thing he needs to deal with.
Photo credit: Allan Henry-US PRESSWIRE
