Woods off green transgressions won't overshadow his gains on it: Golf historian

Washington, Mar.18 : A leading golf historian has said Tiger Woods's 'transgressions' off the green won't overshadow his gains, but coverage of them shows how the sport has changed.

Woods' return to golf at the Masters Tournament at Augusta National next month could become one of the biggest media events of the last decade, rivalling even the Obama inauguration, according to CBS News and Sports president Sean McManus.

US golf historian George Kirsch, the author of last year's book, "Golf in America," and a history professor at Manhattan College in Riverdale, N.Y., describes Woods as an interesting character.

"But for someone who's writing a long-view history of golf over 100 years, what can I say? I'll add a paragraph or two on how it shaped his career and not get into all the details," the Christian Science Monitor quotes him, as adding.

What Kirsch will write about is how the scandal has affected Woods''s endorsements and reputation as his popularity has sunk.

The Tiger''s tale, Kirsch says, now opens new lines of inquiry into the extent to which the elite nature of golf bleeds into the scribblings of its chroniclers.

"[The Tiger scandal] raises the question specifically of what is considered appropriate or proper to put into sports writing, which may reflect the elistist cast of [the craft,]" Kirsch says.