So when is a good time to talk then?

[finnster01]

Now I don't play golf, but I watch it. In fact I enjoy it quite a bit.

Now what on earth makes Ernie Els come out bash Tiger Woods for the "timing" of his long road back to respectability? That is not right at all in my book. We don't even know what he is going to say yet, but this buffoon has already come out to blast him.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/golf/8522507.stm
 

[clintclintdeuce]

Els has fallen out of the spotlight as of the last few years due to injury and other things.... He is playing well as of late, and maybe this is a ploy to get him back into the camera.

Also, I can never remember when they were ever on good terms with eachother.

[mofulham]

Supposedly, Woods would never play in the tournament in question over a slight from several years ago.  So between that and the fact that the tourney sponsor dropped him, it does bring the timing of Woods' conference into question.  Let's see if there is something in Woods' announcement that justifies the timing.  If not, Tiger will drop another notch on the respectability scales for me.

[HatterDon]

Forgive me if I continue NOT to be shocked when a good-looking, talented, mega-rich, world-famous athlete occasionally takes a poke at one of the 200 attractive young women a week who fall on their backs in front of him. Tiger Woods did not invent adultery, and it doesn't even sound as if he's very good at it. Why in the world would anyone who actually likes to watch other people play golf be shocked that he's schtupping somebody? Don't they watch all the golf movies? Isn't this what they all show golf pros doing?

The fact is that the PGA tour is cratering without him. viewership is down 50% since his ban, and sponsors are downshifting. If they don't get him back on the tour and kicking ass soon, this economy will ensure that professional golf will be as "must see" as it was before Arnold Palmer became its superstar.

The other fact is that events like these allow for tons of people to shake their heads and say how can he/she do that to his wife/husband when, given the chance, most of them would go on a shagging spree til they dropped if they could pull what only money can.

The only people who should care about this are Tiger and his wife and their families. I hate it that the sports world -- like the rest of the world -- has turned into breathless followers of Entertainment Tonight and Us magazine.

[mofulham]

Forgive me if I continue NOT to be shocked when a good-looking, talented, mega-rich, world-famous athlete occasionally takes a poke at one of the 200 attractive young women a week who fall on their backs in front of him. Tiger Woods did not invent adultery, and it doesn't even sound as if he's very good at it. Why in the world would anyone who actually likes to watch other people play golf be shocked that he's schtupping somebody? Don't they watch all the golf movies? Isn't this what they all show golf pros doing?

The fact is that the PGA tour is cratering without him. viewership is down 50% since his ban, and sponsors are downshifting. If they don't get him back on the tour and kicking ass soon, this economy will ensure that professional golf will be as "must see" as it was before Arnold Palmer became its superstar.

The other fact is that events like these allow for tons of people to shake their heads and say how can he/she do that to his wife/husband when, given the chance, most of them would go on a shagging spree til they dropped if they could pull what only money can.

The only people who should care about this are Tiger and his wife and their families. I hate it that the sports world -- like the rest of the world -- has turned into breathless followers of Entertainment Tonight and Us magazine.

Well how is that for a morally bankrupt post.

[timmyg]

Forgive me if I continue NOT to be shocked when a good-looking, talented, mega-rich, world-famous athlete occasionally takes a poke at one of the 200 attractive young women a week who fall on their backs in front of him. Tiger Woods did not invent adultery, and it doesn't even sound as if he's very good at it. Why in the world would anyone who actually likes to watch other people play golf be shocked that he's schtupping somebody? Don't they watch all the golf movies? Isn't this what they all show golf pros doing?

The fact is that the PGA tour is cratering without him. viewership is down 50% since his ban, and sponsors are downshifting. If they don't get him back on the tour and kicking ass soon, this economy will ensure that professional golf will be as "must see" as it was before Arnold Palmer became its superstar.

The other fact is that events like these allow for tons of people to shake their heads and say how can he/she do that to his wife/husband when, given the chance, most of them would go on a shagging spree til they dropped if they could pull what only money can.

The only people who should care about this are Tiger and his wife and their families. I hate it that the sports world -- like the rest of the world -- has turned into breathless followers of Entertainment Tonight and Us magazine.

Don, I agree. I hate golf and believe that personal lives should remain that -- personal.

But this is about a marketing cult of personality unravelling. Tiger is basically an American David Beckham -- his reputation is (or was) pristine to a fault. He is a PR machine. Sponsors lined up to get his John Hancock.

Yet it comes out that he is not just who he, or his ads, say he is at all. And instead of acting like a human and fessing up (see: Letterman) he gives a robotic speech that gives me the impression he is still the soulless PR machine he was before.

[finnster01]

I agree with robot like behavior, but I did like him giving his mum a big hug in the end. I think he has some emotions in there somewhere.

However, what I don't understand is why it is OK for Letterman do to the same thing but not Tiger Woods?

[HatterDon]

Forgive me if I continue NOT to be shocked when a good-looking, talented, mega-rich, world-famous athlete occasionally takes a poke at one of the 200 attractive young women a week who fall on their backs in front of him. Tiger Woods did not invent adultery, and it doesn't even sound as if he's very good at it. Why in the world would anyone who actually likes to watch other people play golf be shocked that he's schtupping somebody? Don't they watch all the golf movies? Isn't this what they all show golf pros doing?

The fact is that the PGA tour is cratering without him. viewership is down 50% since his ban, and sponsors are downshifting. If they don't get him back on the tour and kicking ass soon, this economy will ensure that professional golf will be as "must see" as it was before Arnold Palmer became its superstar.

The other fact is that events like these allow for tons of people to shake their heads and say how can he/she do that to his wife/husband when, given the chance, most of them would go on a shagging spree til they dropped if they could pull what only money can.

The only people who should care about this are Tiger and his wife and their families. I hate it that the sports world -- like the rest of the world -- has turned into breathless followers of Entertainment Tonight and Us magazine.

Well how is that for a morally bankrupt post.

Why, thank you!

[mofulham]

I agree with robot like behavior, but I did like him giving his mum a big hug in the end. I think he has some emotions in there somewhere.

However, what I don't understand is why it is OK for Letterman do to the same thing but not Tiger Woods?

I think they are different.  Letterman's behaviour is an issue more from a sexual harassment in the workplace standpoint.  Bosses having sexual relationships with people that work for them, especiall numerous ones, is against most companies sexual harassment policy.  So the big issue as I saw it was should he be fired.  However, I think he owns the production company that produces his show so he would either have to fire himself or CBS would have to fire the entire show.  Letterman wasnt like Tiger because he wasnt even married until last year.  He has been single for pretty muich the entire time he has been rich and famous.  He didnt marry the mother of his child until many years after the kid was born.  He wasnt trying to fool anyone about what he was or how he behaved.

[timmyg]

From Bill Simmons:

...I thought it was a borderline train wreck. It amazes me that Tiger learned little to nothing from the past two months. The control freak whose life slipped out of control dipped right back into control-freak mode, reading a prepared speech in front of a hand-selected audience of people, taking no questions, talking in clichés and only occasionally seeming human. Everything about it seemed staged. Everything. When the main camera broke down at the nine-minute mark and Tiger had to be shown from the side, I half-expected to see that he was plugged in to the wall.