Tiger, I'm Wondering If You Really Get It?

Before Tiger Woods spoke a single word this morning, ABC News correspondent John Berman reported the security measures preceding Tiger Woods's 11am press conference is beyond oppressive and approaching presidential status. ESPN's SportsCenter reported there will be no questions allowed. Several media members who expected to be allowed into this event were being turned away.

Then Tiger emerged from blue curtains and laid down a neat, preppy apology, save for a few seconds of repressed anger directed at the media. It was the most surreal 13 minutes of television I've seen in some time.

Thanks, Tiger. I'm not convinced.

An apology from the heart? Maybe. It sounded great. ESPN's Rick Reilly said he thought Woods wrote most of his prepared statement. Are you kidding? If you listen to the great majority of the statement, no one I know speaks from the heart, person-to-person, in this manner. Maybe Woods wrote the majority or entirety of the statement, but there's no doubt some PR proofreading went into finalizing Tiger's fan-friendly concert. 

Here's why I'm not buying. I covered the pre-professional Tiger for the defunct Great Lakes Golf magazine and, like everyone else, have watched him evolve into Mr. Big Time. In June of 1996, Tiger Woods played the U.S. Open at Birmingham, Michigan's Oakland Hills. It would be the last time Woods would play a major as an amateur. Trust me when I say you wouldn't recognize the Tiger Woods I saw that day. He was playful and engaging with fellow players, course marshals and yes, fans bound behind ropes and signs. He was the fresh face, a refreshing change from the stale air golf had become clouded by. 

If you remember, the PGA Senior tour was outdrawing the PGA in person and in television ratings. The image of Chi-Chi Rodriguez swash-buckling about the greens with his putter remains an enduring image.

It was a far cry from the Woods we see on courses of recent memory. Woods is recanted as surly, intimidating and uninterested in engaging the millions who adore him. Hardly the stuff of 'Arnie's Army'.

Today Woods scolded the media for trying to ply the truth from the events of Thanksgiving, 2009. The tone and volume of his voice hit the familiar crescendo we have come to witness on the course when angered over camera or noise distractions as he spoke about the media hounding his wife and kids.

He thanked his fellow players, most of whom have thrown him under the bus privately, and some very publicly. He invoked the Buddhist religion and asked people to keep him and his struggles in their heart, a mea culpa for our prayers.

I just don't know, but my heart tells me it isn't truly in the heart yet from Woods.

Previously, he cried foul when the message wasn't what he wanted from the media. He pouted when the media machine that created a billion-dollar lifestyle for him wanted more. He earned the perks of a life most alpha-born males can only dream of and  pissed it down the drain by playing the role of hustler, running back and forth between his day job and pancake servers, porn stars and party planners. 

Now you want to complain when the media becomes overly-aggressive?

Tiger, perhaps this fear should have crossed your mind while you were tapping the backside of every loose-lipped home-wrecker you could get your hands on. Coming forward sooner than three months after the facts emerged might have cut that chase off before it began.

Perhaps he's still evolving from the former Tiger into a new Tiger and I shouldn't be so critical. That's valid. It took 13 years for Tiger to evolve into the person he apologized for becoming today, and it'll take some time to change the person he says he ruined with his reckless behavior.

But based on what I saw today, excuse me if I'm not on board yet.

Regards...

Comments

[The Write Referee]

Mistakes are mistakes and yes, he doesn't owe any of us an explanation...but he willingly accepted the checks, the lavish lifestyle and all the perks of being 'Tiger'.

If one is willing to accept the good, one accepts the bad. And it's bad to grab every single piece of ass you can grab w/o a single care or concern to what this might to do to those closest to me if I get caught...namely his wife and kids.

Trust me, there's been a lot of times I'd like to tell a coach or player to go do something to themselves that's physically impossible...but I don't, so I don't have to answer for transgressions I never commit.

I never said people shouldn't watch him golf. I don't find him to be the sincere, believable man of reform he wants me to see him as.

[Mary Lambert]

Beyond all of this, what happened to Tiger and his wife is between them - not you and not I. He owes only his family an explanation and the details of his past actions - again not you and not I. He is a golfer - one of the best if not the best ever. I pay to see him play - not to know of his personal life. He is not an ideal role model anymore, but that's really a parental role isn't it? So at the end of the day, I will watch him and I will support him but I will not demand that he share his personal life with me - no more than I would share mine (and my mistakes) with the millions who "think" they deserve to know.