Pounding golf balls off the pristine turf on the range at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club at Dove Mountain Tuesday was one great ball striker after another: Robert Allenby of Australia, Rory McIlroy from Northern Ireland, the Colombian Camilo Villegas, the teenage sensation Ryo Ishikawa of Japan and, way on the far end, in a form-fitting golf shirt and wraparound shades, Tiger Woods.
Stubbs can put you in a lion's den, where he portrays these predators snarling at each other in mutual rivalry, or in a tiger's shaded hiding place.
That explains the flame-flicked burnt sienna tiger-stripes, shading out into deep, vivid violet lapels decked out with a top center Mohawk of feathery gold – landing strips for buzzing suitors.
The interior was rumored to house a lingam of Shiva; two weeks earlier, it had also housed a tiger, which had borrowed its convenient shade.
This remoteness, which sometimes shaded into surliness, was part of what made Tiger so intimidating, and it didn't change after he ran into marital, health, and swing problems.
But the lawn, dotted with tiger lilies and apple trees and tables shaded by forest green umbrellas, is lovely, and feels like a step back in time.
Syme points out, for instance, that the spots on a tiger moth's wings are the same shade of reddish black as the "Breast of [a] Pochard Duck".
Touring the shaded, winding roads, she raked her gaze across the streets like a hungry tiger, in search of the increasingly scarce housing stock that might suit her clients.
From the bus windows I saw countless families waiting out the hottest part of the day under the shade of thick bamboo stands while water buffaloes cooled themselves in ponds ringed by tiger lilies.
