Tiger finally spoke out today regarding his marital issues that have resulted in a leave of absence from golf that isn’t so good for the PGA. A lot of golfers were justifiably pissed he chose to make his announcement right in the middle of the first big tournament of the season, but the world was demanding Tiger come out of hiding and say something.
What did he say? Basically that he was sorry not only to his wife and family, but to all of his fans, the media, and all of the kids he tries to help. He said he’s been working to control his impulses and has realized that he doesn’t have a separate set of rules from the rest of us. He didn’t go into great detail on his infidelity (thankfully), but he did say that he and wife Elin did not fight before his Thanksgiving car crash, accusations of performance enhancing drugs are completely false, and he asked the paparazzi to leave his family alone. The biggest part of it all for sports fans though was that he’s not sure when he’ll return to playing golf, as he will be returning to rehab. He didn’t rule out the possibility of playing this season. Elin was not present at the press conference (which was really just a statement), but Tiger’s mom was.
I didn’t think Tiger really needed to apologize to anyone in the public forum in the first place, but now that he has, I hope we can move on from this. As far as actual sports are concerned, let’s hope Tiger comes back to golf this year. Sure, the media stories will get super annoying, but the guy is a hell of a golfer and, like him or not, he’s a presence on the course that the PGA needs. Lefty alone can’t quite do it, and guys like Jim Furyk and Padrig Harrington aren’t household names for non-golf fans.
Sure, it was a speech written for Tiger, and yes, it’s going to be talked about for the whole weekend, but I think it finally hit Tiger that you can’t do whatever you want just because you’re a superstar (by hit, I’m mean bludgeoned). Whether or not that was for appearances only is another issue, but does it matter? Let this guy figure this out with his family and get back to doing his job.
