Eye of the Tiger

In case you haven't heard, Tiger Woods had a news conference, apology, speech today. For those of you who thought we has sincere, honest, and heartfelt, what were you watching? That speech was so forced, that apology was bullshit, and he had no genuine emotion. At all. Whatsoever.

I want to believe Tiger, I do. I know what he means to the sport. Unfortunately, I cannot believe him. And my disbelief came well before this whole photo op of him "crying" and hugging his mom.

Tiger Woods had a image of being perfect, not just on the golf course, but also in his personal life. That was a lie. He obviously was not perfect in his personal life. Also, when he was playing, you always heard that his colleagues said that they respected him. They never said they liked him. He is not the role model we thought he was.

And now, bad PR move after bad PR move, here we are, with this ridiculous, robotic, over-rehearsed "apology." I simply could not believe him in this speech. I couldn't. His breaks in the speech were not genuine; his hand gestures (when he used them) were fake. I have to say this is another bad PR move. I don't care what his therapist said to do, that this was the time to do this. It was not. If he truly was sorry, he would have known more than three months after the fact. He should have spoke three days after, not three months.

And Tiger, if you don't want the media to fabricate stories, don't give them three months to do so. Don't blame the media for writing that you wanted to get back at Accenture and tell them to get their facts straight. If you don't give the media facts, there is no way for them to get their facts straight. You are the top golfer in the world. You are the face of golf. The media and the general public care about you more than the other 155 golfers in the field. That is how the world of journalism is when you are top dog.

Hey media: I am calling it: Tiger will not return in 2010. So please stop writing reports that he will play in next week's event, or the week after's. Get your facts straight. (See what I did there?)

To be honest, while what he did was bad, he could have done much worse. He could have raped someone. He could have killed someone. If anyone is to blame, it is not Tiger, but his PR people, creating, presenting, and marketing into something he was not. The Tiger who throws clubs and swears is the real Tiger. Now we know.