Dear Tiger: Nice try.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Dear Tiger: Nice try.

Unless you’re living in a black hole, you’ve at least heard through the grapevine that Tiger Woods is indeed going back to golf and will be playing in the Masters Tournament beginning April 5.  Tiger has recently come forward and given his first interview since the sex scandal that completely crushed his image surfaced in November of last year. 

The mechanical, horribly impersonal press-conference-involving-no-press-whatsoever that he led on February 19 was obviously the dress rehearsal to this interview’s opening night. 

Although I still think that this five-minute interview screams “Just tell them what they want to hear,” it was more successful in that he at least appeared to be something resembling a living, breathing, emotional, semi-remorseful human being. So to Tiger, I say: Nice try.

But frankly, actions speak louder than words, and where he will convince people of his true reconstructive efforts is on the fairways.  

During this brief TV interview last Sunday, he talked to ESPN reporter Tom Rinaldi, and answered--or refused to answer--questions regarding his marriage, infidelity, rehab, fans, and his feelings toward returning to the sport that made him an icon.  

While he didn’t put a block on the 19 questions he was asked, he did sound like something of a broken record, repeating “That’s between Elin and myself,” numerous times.  And, when asked what type of treatment he is seeking, he quickly spouted that  “that’s a private matter as well.” Denying the public details that they so crave is not going to make this go away, so why not just come clean and move on? Surely as Tiger should know better than almost anyone at this point, secrets will come out.

Does he really think he can get through the Master’s just answering questions about birdies and course conditions? It’s obvious he’s avoiding facing all the uncomfortable, richly detailed questions that most want answered.  But--after 3 months of complete silence and an additional month before even taking questions--if he would just bite the bullet and address the facts, he could surely speed up the process of rehabilitating his image and putting this all behind him.

While I don’t mean to bash him this whole time (wait...yes I do), I just think that, although finally not digging any deeper, now he’s just sitting in the hole he’s dug himself, rather than trying to climb out of it. People want to see him as the well-rounded, near perfect idol that they once thought he was; perfect athlete, perfect husband, perfect man. Winning the Master’s (which I’m sure he believes he will do) will only get one foot out of that hole.  

Oh, and one more thing: enough with the Buddhism stuff, already. 


-Liz Trubey

Tweet