Last week Tiger Woods made his return to golf at the US Masters, five months after sordid allegations surrounding his personal life rocked the sporting and celebrity gossip world.The rumour mill was in full swing (pun fully intended) about the extent of Tiger’s numerous extra-marital affairs, allegations that Swedish super model wife, Elin Nordegren attacked the world’s number one golfer with a club after finding out the extent of his cheating forced Tiger to take a self imposed hiatus from the game and sparked some hilarious re-constructive videos about how the supposed attack played out.
The media came up with the name ‘Cheetah Woods’ and generally had a field day spilling the beans on the string of affairs he had with numerous women over the last five years. Tiger admitted himself to a sex-addiction rehab clinic to address what he described as ‘inappropriate transgressions’.
Tiger’s clean-cut, family man image was shot to pieces and many of his biggest sponsors like Gatorade and AT&T cut their multi-million dollar ties with the fourteen time major winner. This public move by some of his endorsers dealt a big blow to Tiger 'the brand', however his biggest sponsor, Nike stood by their man and released a controversial advert on the eve of the Masters featuring the voice of Wood’s deceased father, Earl.
The professional golf world was split in their support for their colleague. European tour veteran Jasper Parnevik publically condemned Tiger’s behaviour while American John Daly backed Wood’s after he faced such criticisms.
During his break from the game Tiger made two announcements, the first was a public apology in front of a select number of journalists and the second was to reveal his intentions to play at Augusta. At the first conference no questions were allowed from the media and he avoided any questions about his private life at the second. Tiger did mention that he would appreciate some cheers from the Augusta galleries during the tournament, and the golfing world waited with baited breath to see and hear what reaction he got...
Tiger walked onto the first tee at Augusta on Thursday to a rapturous applaud from the crowd, as they seemed to have granted the man who built golf as a global brand a second chance. He showed flashes of brilliance throughout the four day tournament as well as some wild hooked drives and too many missed putts. He finished in fourth position (much to my annoyance because I had £20 on him to finish in the top three at 6/1) which was not enough to secure a fairy-tale win upon his return to the game.
The Tiger Woods story is a fascinating one in that he has been exposed as one of the biggest serial celebrity cheaters in recent times, yet upon his return golfers fans seem to be, on the whole, united in their support for him. I accept that this has not been an easy ride for Tiger (again pun fully intended) however he seems to have emerged from this fiasco safely on the other side. The media storm that brewed has turned into more of a slight-breeze, and although only yesterday an article appeared in the Scottish Sun about ANOTHER affair, it seems that golfing fans are willing to forgive and forget...
The professional golf world was split in their support for their colleague. European tour veteran Jasper Parnevik publically condemned Tiger’s behaviour while American John Daly backed Wood’s after he faced such criticisms.
During his break from the game Tiger made two announcements, the first was a public apology in front of a select number of journalists and the second was to reveal his intentions to play at Augusta. At the first conference no questions were allowed from the media and he avoided any questions about his private life at the second. Tiger did mention that he would appreciate some cheers from the Augusta galleries during the tournament, and the golfing world waited with baited breath to see and hear what reaction he got...
Tiger walked onto the first tee at Augusta on Thursday to a rapturous applaud from the crowd, as they seemed to have granted the man who built golf as a global brand a second chance. He showed flashes of brilliance throughout the four day tournament as well as some wild hooked drives and too many missed putts. He finished in fourth position (much to my annoyance because I had £20 on him to finish in the top three at 6/1) which was not enough to secure a fairy-tale win upon his return to the game.
The Tiger Woods story is a fascinating one in that he has been exposed as one of the biggest serial celebrity cheaters in recent times, yet upon his return golfers fans seem to be, on the whole, united in their support for him. I accept that this has not been an easy ride for Tiger (again pun fully intended) however he seems to have emerged from this fiasco safely on the other side. The media storm that brewed has turned into more of a slight-breeze, and although only yesterday an article appeared in the Scottish Sun about ANOTHER affair, it seems that golfing fans are willing to forgive and forget...
Like I wrote in my post of the 5th of March about this topic, I totally disagree about how Tiger Wood managed this situation. I think that it was unfair that in the press conference in which he apologised about his behaviour, any journalists could ask him anything.
ReplyDeleteMoreover, I think that these weeks without "official" information, rumours and speculations about his lovers damaged more his image, because he did not stop them and he did not say the true at the begining of the problem.
This press conference was the perfect moment to explain everything and not now in the Augusta, where he should go only to play, and not to speak about his personal life with the journalists like it happened (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTL2NT4zOtQ).