ASKING FOR TROUBLE

Can’t pose tough questions to Tiger

WHAT do Tiger Woods and the late Bernie Madoff have in common? Neither of them permitted anyone to ask any good questions.

Last week Woods reemerged to face the media he had conditioned to ask only fawning questions in exchange for same-oldstuff quotes. Reporters had long ago been trained to kiss his fanny at the risk of losing access. Yet this time someone had the temerity to ask Woods to explain what the heck happened in his latest, highly suspicious car-driving saga, from February.

Woods went suddenly sour: “All those answers have been answered in the investigation, so you can read about all that there in the police report.”

No you can’t. The investigation and ensuing report raised far more questions than it answered. For starters, was a legit investigation conducted by California law enforcement as would apply to you and I, or was it given the quick brush on behalf of the one and only Tiger Woods?

After all, Woods had previously pleaded guilty to reckless driving when he was found in a drug stupor behind the wheel of his Mercedes in Florida. Hard for Los Angeles cops to miss it; it was in all the papers.

Yet the California authorities failed to administer a blood test that commoners who have inexplicably driven off the road at high speed — over 80 in a 45 mph zone — would have undertaken. Why was Woods issued a free pass, especially given his drivingwhile-impaired record?

But Woods long ago was conditioned to believe — and with ample reasons — that he is excessively entitled to play by his own rules, even being excused for an illegal drop at The Masters with a mild, next-day two-stroke penalty that would have left others disqualified for signing an incorrect scorecard.

Blowing whistles on Tiger would be bad for golf and attendant TV ratings, thus he’s encouraged to play by his own rules. The media years ago granted him immunity and impunity.

Consider: A since-arrested, convicted for illegal drug-dispensing and defrocked miracle cure doctor from Canada was frequently flown to Woods’ home in Florida to treat his aches and pains.

What was that all about? No one — not the PGA, not the golf media and certainly not the Tiger-reliant TV networks —would dare pursue that one. Woods has been schooled to expect such entitlements and privileges.

So Woods was startled last week when someone had the gall to ask him to explain his solo crash that nearly killed him, though much of the media still reports the episode as “an accident,” as if caused by two parties.

Perhaps Woods can’t help but operate off the Madoff formula, the kind that cost the Mets’ Wilpon family ownership a reported $500 million as they sought unrealistic, fantastic returns on their investments with Madoff, the dictum that begins and ends:

“You’re not allowed to ask any questions” — at least not those kind.