The more I think about it, the more certain I am that my 90% prediction that Tiger will not play in the Masters is very sound. He needs to inflict some real pain on himself for both his wife and the public to forgive him. Without at least giving up a Masters in his prime, then this “break” will be seen as just a hollow attempt to finally take some of the fire out of the story. If I had to predict when he returns I would say either the Ryder Cup or his own Chevron Challenge, one year after the downfall began. I still think a more permanent “retirement” could be in store.  

 Forgetting the marriage for a moment, from a golf and PR perspective, I think Tiger needs to take enough time off where people are publicly begging him to come back. This way the expectations for when he returns will be much lower (because of the long, unprecedented, self-imposed layoff) and it will likely make the inevitable circus surrounding his return at least somewhat manageable because the story will no longer be fresh and the tabloids will have mostly moved on by then.

Assuming Tiger takes this approach, Elin stays with him, and his golf game returns (all very big ifs) I am beginning to think that Tiger may emerge from this different, but in some ways stronger and better than ever. He will never be worth of the same sort of worship again (those the pending end of this web site) but he could still end up being, in some ways, “bigger” than he has ever been. In fact, if he were a stock, I would buy Tiger Woods right now. Since he has fallen so low his upside is much larger than his downside.

As ticked off and disappointed as I still am with Tiger, there are others in this story that also deserve to be castigated. Many of them are members of the news media who were mostly either absolutely irresponsible or completely gutless. Almost no one got it exactly right, though, to my shock, The Golf Channel, after a very slow start, actually has done a pretty good job of covering what could end up being their own funeral.

A special place in hell (if there is such a place) should be reserved for all of those black commentators who tried to make Tiger’s choice of mistresses into a race issue all so they could increase their own profile by inserting themselves into the circus. Tiger is NOT “Black.” He is more Asian than Black and almost as Caucasian as Black. He has always called himself “Cablainasian.” To think he has any obligation to take up “Black” causes is almost as absurd as blaming a man for race of woman he finds attractive. If Tiger can be criticized for anything in this particular area it should be the relative ugliness and scankiness of his mistresses, not their race.

Speaking of the media, when did TMZ and Radar Online become reputable news sources for allegedly legitimate organizations? While I am sure they have gotten some things in this story first and correct, I am equally sure that a lot of what they have reported is completely made up. For instance, TMZ reported that Tiger told a friend that he had to go get Elin a “Kobe Special” because she had gone “ghetto” on him. This was ridiculous on many levels and obviously fraudulent. Not only would Tiger never use that type of language in this situation, but no one that close to the inner circle would ever tell that to TMZ because they would be immediately excommunicated. Will TMZ ever retract such nonsense? Of course not.

I am particularly suspicious of TMZ because it seems very clear that they have some sort of arrangement (official or unofficial) with Gloria Allred to help facilitate a pay off by Tiger to her client. Some of their reports appear to have been written by Allred herself. And yet many members of the “lamestream” media still pick up their reports as if they are inherently credible.

The worst offender from the group of media who used to have actual journalistic standards has been NBC. On both the Today Show (in a live nine minute interview) and Dateline NBC they interviewed a woman who claimed to be one of Tiger’s mistresses. This act violated journalistic ethics in numerous ways.     

First, while NBC claimed on the Today Show that they did not pay for the interview, what they reported on Dateline indicates that this may only be technically accurate. Secondly, the only evidence that she ever had an affair with Tiger was a couple of innocuous photos of what she claims were the inside of his house. Thirdly, since when is it remotely “news” when a woman claims to have sex with a married sports star who has already admitted “transgressions” in his marriage and who isn’t even accused of any crimes?

The answer is clearly: never. In this case the ratings were just too good to resist. Journalism died with the 2008 Presidential election, but the Tiger Woods story has buried the casket.     

The media intensity of this story has exceeded (largely because of the emergence of the Internet) that of the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal and that involved the President of the United States and numerous felonies.

Perhaps an even better analogy (one that was used in the latest SNL), is that of John Edwards who had a love child with a woman on his campaign payroll while he was running for President and his wife was dying of cancer. Even though Edwards’ “transgressions” were far worse than Tiger’s and were also first reported in National Enquirer, they were never repeated by the mainstream until his campaign was long over.

So golf is much bigger news than a Presidential election? Actually, Tiger’s story was just much sexier and didn’t involve bringing down a liberal politician. 

But John Edwards isn’t the only one who has to be looking at this madness and thinking, “Damn, I had it easy.”

Arnold Palmer, who was a notorious womanizer, Phil Mickelson, who has long had some freaky stories in his closet, Nick Faldo who once (for sure) had a girlfriend take an iron to his automobile in anger, and Greg Norman, whose much romanticized marriage with the wife of his former friend’s wife, Chris Evert, lasted only fifteen months, all have to be at least a little thankful they never reached Tiger’s level of stardom.

I am still angry at Tiger, but the level to which he is being treated differently than anyone else ever has already started to create a bit of a backlash in his direction.