Tiger Woods Losing His Cool

You would have to be living in a different far, far, away galaxy to have not heard of the Tiger Woods car accident incident that occurred just outside his Florida multi-million dollar home five days ago.

While the accident itself proved to be minor, as were Tiger’s injuries, the incident could have not been handled worse by Tiger and his expensive high powered team of advisers. The damage to Tiger’s carefully crafted image and reputation may turn out to be not so minor. If so he could face the loss of far more than the $164 dollar fine handed out by the police for careless driving.

The fact that the accident occurred as Tiger was leaving his home at 2.25 AM immediately fueled speculation that a domestic fight of some sort had taken place. Perhaps Tiger and his beautiful wife Elan were simply up late and had run out of milk. Perhaps he was on his hurried way to a nearby 24/7 food store. After all this is the control freak oh so clean image Tiger Woods we are talking about. How could he have been storming out of the house in rage? Please Tiger, tell me it’s just not so.

However, almost instantly speculation grew that his wife had confronted him about rumors of extramarital activity that involved more than giving golfing lessons. As of this writing Tiger has been linked to two women, one who denies the allegations that she was Tiger’s mistress, the other coming forward to brag that she was.

Tiger and his team are used to only glowing reports from the media about Tiger and his considerable talent as the world’s premier golfer. Perhaps that explains why they have done such a miserable job with damage control. By at first stating that the affair was a private matter and refusing to talk to the media or even the police Tiger set the stage for even more wild speculation about what really happened.

Today Tiger Woods posts a lame sort of half ass statement on his website stating that basically the incident is a private matter and he plans to keep it that way. It is pitiful that this is the best that his team of lawyers, handlers, and PR people are able to do. Tiger needs a new team.

I have long admired Tiger Woods as a talented athlete and all around good guy as a famous celebrity. I had always thought that Tiger did an outstanding job of controlling his life and was an outstanding family man. Now I’m not so sure. It’s not that perhaps he has had an affair or two. I’m sure that he has had many opportunities to bed beautiful women while traveling about the world staying at first class hotels. It would be a challenge to any lonely far from home man to always say no when presented with frequent opportunities.

However, the disappointing aspect of this car and perhaps affair incident is that Tiger thought that he could have it only one way. He thought that the media coverage was only going to be positive no matter what he did. That he was above negative or critical questioning coverage. By not facing up to the media now he has lost control of the story. He looks like a wimp and coward, not at all like a heroic figure, as he withdraws from his own golf tournament, and refuses to make a full statement.

Tiger will learn the lesson from this incident that you can’t be one of the most public figures in the world and run and hide behind privacy when an unfavorable incident occurs. In the end the truth will emerge. If, and I say if, it turns out that Tiger did have an affair and after being confronted with the evidence the accident occurred after a fight with his wife, Tiger will take a major hit to his prestige.

At a time when this nation could use more heroes I hope that there is some simple explanation to the entire incident. However, the way Tiger has managed the incident to date I fear that another unpleasant shoe will drop with this story. Who can you trust as our nation slides ever closer to disaster if we can’t even trust Tiger Woods to come clean and tell the truth?

It is really sad to see Tiger Woods losing His cool. But then President Obama lost his in the same week by escalating the war in Afghanistan. Who can the American people trust? We need a break and some new leadership.