Sal Johnson

So was today's Tiger announcement totally from the heart or a total sham?

Friday, February 19, 2010 9:06 pm (Eastern)

By SAL JOHNSON
Publisher, GOLFOBSERVER
E-mail me at: Golfersal@aol.com

Today Tiger Woods got more attention than a president or head of state, the big question that is being ask is if it was a total stage sham to regain sponsors and fans or a true apology in which Woods plans to change his life.

So Tiger Woods finally did what he needed to do back in December and frankly I was impressed with his candor and straight forward account of all this. Many are saying that it was a great acting job, that Woods paid hundred of thousands for speech writers to pen today's words and that it was a total sham as it wasn't from the heart and just a read speech. I have been told from insiders from the Tiger camp that this was totally written by Woods, with some small edits from some of his PR staff and that this was his thoughts, not some speech ghost writer.

Photo: © Lori Moffett-Pool/Getty Images A very slumber Tiger Woods.

The venue in which he made this announcement was probably better than I first thought it would be and have changed my mind on the media having to ask him questions. What was a writer going to ask, "How many affairs did you have" or "are you and Elin staying together and what's her reaction to all this?"

What is amazing about this whole process, every network in America broke into normal programming to show the announcement, all of the major golf websites ran the speech. What is really scary over all of this, Woods commanded more time than the President of the United States. There was no way that Obama could of made any live comments at the 11 o'clock hour because Woods was in just about every home, office and venue. I can bet you for a two hour stretch between 11 and 1, productivity around the world dropped as a good many folks, weather you were a golfer or not watched.

If I am a Brian Roberts, the CEO of Comcast who owns Golf Channel, I would see the tremendous future of the internet on a world wide basis and how you are able to distribute a product like Golf Central around the world via the internet. In talking with John Huggan who lives in Scotland, he was watching the whole hour and a half Golf Channel stream and told me he wished that he was able to get Golf Channel over there, even on the internet. But we are straying in a different direction.

First of all this was a staged event that Woods had 100% power over. As one person told me "Tiger is a bit insecure at times and he wanted to be in a atmosphere that he felt comfortable about, family, friends and people that worked for him." Some have called it a bit "uncomfortable" with the blue drapes in the background, still this was all put on to make Woods as comfortable as possible.

Photo: © Eric Gay-Pool/Getty Images Woods addressing friends, relatives and what could of been the largest morning audience in the history of communications.

One thing that was told to Woods was to play up to the main camera in front of him, this for a better reaction of his seriousness. Unfortunately for Woods who didn't know, the camera went out about halfway in and they had to use the second camera that was a sideshot which never saw his face. This probably detracted some of the power of the speech but the words were what people wanted to here.

Here are a couple of items that Woods talked about. One glaring absentee from the announcement was Tiger's wife Elin, it shows that she isn't 100% behind him at this moment and despite Woods comments of trying to work it out, until she publicly shows support there will always be rumors. Now I fully agree in what Woods said about keeping his marriage and family life private, we shouldn't be prying into this but the human factor has to be addressed and that is if Elin will stick around or leave him, we will just have to wait to find that out.

Woods addressed how he has let everyone down including his family, friends, business associates and fans. This along with him talking about his foundation is important because he has been a role model for so many folks and that is now shattered. His foundation, which does require charitable acts of others is not receiving the same funding and this has to be a concern. In all of these apologies Woods had a very somber and sad look. Of course he could of been acting during the whole speech but he looked very serious, disappointed and like a deer caught in headlights. In looking at the 14 minutes speech again, there was no smile or any look on his face other than dismay and sadness.

Photo: © Sam Greenwood/Getty Images Tiger during his speech.

Of course you could tell that he was staged in the way he looked into the camera in saying "how sorry" he was over his actions. Guess that we have to take him for his word on this, he was very frank in talking about his affairs, on how he didn't care who he was hurting and how he worked hard and felt entitled to all of the temptations that were around him. One thing that struck me about his talking of the affairs he apologized to everyone from his family to his fans, but he never mentioned once an apology to any of the women that he had affairs with. Most of them weren't the type of woman that you would bring home to meet mom, some of them have sleazy past including those that have starred in porn films, but it's interesting to note that Woods never felt that he owned them an apology. There had to be one or two lost souls among the pack and one or two that really cared for Tiger but they were never mentioned and I don't think they ever will be.

Tiger also talked about being in rehab for 45 days, never mention which one but more importantly addressed the rumor mill about him and Elin, that Elin never hit him, use of performance enhancing drugs and the tabloid reports on his family. He was firm on the fact that there has never been any domestic violence in their marriage and that Elin has shown enormous grace and poise throughout this ordeal. He also said that he never has used performance enhancing drugs, which honestly most golf writers believe to be true. But the one thing that he seemed angry about was the false news story on him and his family. Sorry Tiger nobody buys what you said because frankly you or your people never responded when these stories came out. The whole problem of today's admission is that if he would of done this the first of December, all of these reports and lies wouldn't of gotten out of hand. Now it's easy for me to make the statement, in talking with some folks the picture painted back in the first part of December was a very defiant Woods and one who was very lost. Nobody knows what broke Tiger of all this to finally seek help, but it seems that the rehab has been able to let Tiger focus more on what happened and why it happened. Who knows, maybe Elin leaving and taking the children away in December helped Tiger realize that he needed help, but it seems in talking with some that by going through the rehab it refocused his life.

Woods also talked about Buddhism and how he had drifted away from it over the last couple of years. He talked about the importance that he had gotten in therapy on his spiritual life and keeping it all balanced in his professional life. More importantly despite not saying when he will return to golf, he said how much he needed to make his behavior more respectful of the game. Hopefully that means that all of the cursing, spiting and club throwing will cease. It's really important because between the British Open and his win in Australia it had gotten out of hand.

Photo: © Spencer Platt/Getty Images Tiger fans watching from the ESPN grill in Times Square, New York.

On the whole his speech was an ok start in this process but had some flaws. First of all, even though he apologized to Accenture and the players in the field at the Match Play it was totally wrong for him to give this speech today. Woods said that he was returning to rehab on Saturday but he could of waited until Monday for this, rehab would of been there two days later. He has completely changed the importance of the Match Play Championship and the focus has been on him instead of the tournament.

Sorry to also drag Tim Finchem into this, but I feel that the commissioner didn't do his job in agreeing with this. If Finchem would of put his foot down and demand a Monday conference things would of been different. Not to bring up this ugly fact, but we are in the seventh week of the 2010 season and every week but the AT&T has had conflict and problems. This isn't very good for sponsors, fans and those from television that pay the big bucks.

Tiger now needs to face the music and meet the press. I am not talking about the TMZ's, the National Enquirer or the News of the World but the golfing media that have followed him for all of these years. It's not going to be pretty for him, a lot of media folks are not happy with him and we have always gotten a half ass Tiger that seems to just want to give us a piece or two of his life and feelings. The same with his fans, Tiger needs to spend more time with the kids, not those kids that are used as props for his newest sponsors that pay him millions. Woods can spend 15 to 20 minutes a day to sign autographs, it's a part of being a pro. I have seen Phil Mickelson and Ernie Els spend 40 minutes to an hour signing for the kids.

Photo: © Joe Skipper-Pool/Getty Images Tiger Woods with his mother Kultida.

Anybody read the Dan Jenkins Golf Digest piece? Very good piece on what Tiger Woods and his people are all about, something that Tiger needs to read and realize that he may be the greatest golfer of all time but as a human he is very flawed and not well liked.

We don't know when Woods will be back, he left it opened ended and in a weird way. This is the way he put it
"I do plan to return to golf one day. I just don’t know when that day will be. I don’t rule out that it will be this year."
Would of loved to see Tim Finchem's face when Tiger said that but the fact is that golf doesn't seem that important for Tiger right now. As others have said I think that he is trying to work out his marriage and after that comes to some conclusion he will be back. Since the first part of December, when the reality of all this was knowledge, I have had this feeling that Woods wouldn't return to the game for a year. Of course he is in a quest for Jack's record and this year's venue's is perfect for him. Frankly, Augusta will always be there so if he misses the Masters is no big deal. But Pebble and St. Andrews are shoe-ins for him and have to be at the top of his mind. I see him coming back in May at possibly the Wachovia, Players and Memorial before tackling the three majors.

We will always speculate, if we didn't, we wouldn't be human. I want to give Tiger the benefit of the doubt on today's speech and say this, if he doesn't change and if we find out, which we will, that Woods was blowing smoke up our rear ends he will be discredited by not only members of the press but golf fans. There is going to be zero toleration of anything Woods does in the future, he is going to have every paparazzi following him around, there will be even more woman that will love to see if they could break him of his vows. Many think of today's actions as the biggest sham in golf, that Woods was play acting and not sincere. No too ways about it, this time next year we will know what the truth is and I just hope for golf and for Woods and his family that things will be different in the future.


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