The sooner Tiger Woods gets back to winning golf tournaments the sooner we’ll be spared any more grotesque public confessionals.
The advisors who put him up to that excruciating performance in Florida should be forced to watch it over and over again for the rest of their working days. What possessed them to stand him up to act and speak like a Dalek in front of an audience that looked to have been collectively tranquilised beforehand? And who thought it would be a good idea to let Tiger bare his teeth and lash out at the paparazzi?
One minute he’s all humble and doe-eyed, asking for forgiveness, the next he’s back to Mr control freak trying to tell the rest of the world to leave him and his family alone. Tabloid photographers are a fact of celebrity life Tiger, especially bad-behaving celebrity’s lives. Get over it. It saddens me to poke fun at Tiger Woods because I’ve been one of his supporters and promoters over the years and he was always very good to me.
Whatever he’s done, he deserves a chance to rehabilitate himself in the eyes of his family and friends and the public at large. He also deserves proper help and advice from the people around him who, let’s face it, have done very well out of brand Tiger. From day one, they’ve been trying to fix the brand rather than the man. If they’d just concentrate on the making the man better, all the corporate stuff would fall into place eventually. Much of what he said on that bizarre day in Florida was okay but it was all wrapped up in sponsor-speak and Tiger Woods Foundation updates.
All he had to do was stand up and say his childhood was a freak show and he never had any girlfriends until he was in his twenties, only to find that suddenly he could have any girl he wanted. Sorry I messed up so badly. Please forgive me and let me try to sort this out with my wife and kids. A couple of sympathetic questions from a supportive press corps, some faltering, natural responses, a few tears. End of story.
Instead, thanks to the shameful incompetence of his “people”, the wound is still very much open and the more vindictive sections of the media are just waiting to pour more salt into it.