WOUNDED TIGER WILL ROAR AGAIN

For the past week and counting, Tiger Woods has had to negotiate the trickiest slope of his life – a slippery one.

In the blink of an eye, the millisecond it takes to get into a car crash, the air bag deflated on his pristine reputation.  Herculean on the golf course, Tiger admitted last week that when off the fairway, he was human like everybody else.  Prone to make mistakes.

When you’re the most well known face in the world, a fall from the top will expose you to the people you managed to avoid on the way up.  And those interactions can sometimes be anything but pleasant.

Tiger Woods isn’t the first, and certainly won’t be the last household name to succumb to temptation.  Maybe a psychologist can provide insight as to why, but it seems that for a few people who are truly exceptional, highly successful, and driven in one aspect of their life, sometimes fail to apply the same discipline required, in areas that demand an ounce of common sense.

Secluded inside his Florida estate, the square footage must seem painfully reduced and yet, there are a number of issues he can’t escape.  Tiger must now heal what should take precedent over chasing any historical number put up by Jack Nicklaus.   If he needs any motivation, it’s in plain view all over his residence.  There are two beautiful children that must melt his heart and make him proud to be a father.  And then, there’s his wife, Elin.   She came under Tiger’s radar in 2001 when fellow golfer Jesper Parnevik introduced the world’s No. 1 to his then nanny, Elin Nordegren.  Three years later, they became husband and wife.  She had to feel like Cinderella and her prince had finally arrived.

If Tiger needs further soul searching, he should think how far up his butt his father’s foot would be if Earl Woods was still alive.  Having had a character building father myself, I can only imagine the words the man largely responsible for shaping Tiger’s mental toughness would have for his son.  Believe me, that’s a significant void in Tiger’s life.

I’ve never had the pleasure of meeting or spending time with Tiger but I would guess there aren’t many people in the “Team Tiger” circle who feel they have the license to be up front with him.  If there was, I don’t think his self admitted “transgressions” would have begun or continued after a serious sit down of “Are you crazy? What the hell are you thinking? Risk throwing it all away for that?”

So a wannabe famous cocktail waitress is getting her five minutes of fame  (and the clock is ticking rapidly) by exposing an alleged affair with Tiger.  According to her, she’s kept over 300 text messages from him and what a class act to let her co-workers listen to a voicemail from Tiger.  She’s a real go-getter.  Management material.

Tiger is right in saying that this is a personal matter.  The media should back off, but in this day and age, that seems to be a fleeting, unrealistic wish.  It’s also understandable if some of the companies that endorse him have serious meetings behind closed doors.  The majority I suspect will stick with him, believing he is a man of character who can and will overcome this blemish on his reputation.

Tiger issued an apology.  Accepted.  But he really didn’t owe me one.  He would if Thursday thru Sunday while playing in a tournament he didn’t give it his all.  He’d owe me an apology then for wasting the hours invested watching him perform as the best player in the game.

To this date, he’s never had to say he’s sorry.


UPDATE:
Jesper Parnevik had some strong words on the situation, considering Elin and her twin sister once worked for the family as au pairs.

"I feel really sorry for Elin -- since me and my wife were at fault for hooking her up with him," Parnevik said. "We probably thought he was a better guy than he is. I would probably need to apologize to her and hope she uses a driver next time instead of the 3-iron.  It's a private thing of course," he added. "But when you are the guy he is, the world's best athlete, you should think more before you do stuff."