The Tiger Woods that stood before us for 13 minutes today was shamed, humbled shell of his former self.   He needed to be, and he was.

 

Although Tiger’s apology to his wife Elin, their kids, his mother Tida, his friends, extended family, sponsors and fans was long in coming – too long – it felt genuine and sincere, and Tiger, emotional at times, had a well-earned tear in the corner of his eye.

 

"I was unfaithful.  I had affairs.  I cheated.  What I did was unacceptable, and I am the only person to blame," he said, framing the problem perfectly.

 

It was good to hear Tiger concede that "fame and wealth" made him feel that the rules of life that apply to the rest of us didn’t apply to him.  It was good to hear him admit that there is nobody to blame but himself for the mess he is in.

 

There was a complete absence of arrogance, which was refreshing coming from a man known for just that.  In fact, no matter what you think of what he did, you’d have to be as cold-hearted and cynical as they come not to be able to musteer a little compassion after that performance.

 

Of course,  as Tiger himself said, he can talk the talk, but now he’s got to walk the walk.  "As Elin pointed out to me, my real apology to her will not come in the form of words," he said.  "It will come from my behavior over time."

 

If I had to nitpick, I’d say at first he seemed, well, a little stiff and wooden, no doubt as a result of nerves and embarrassment; he seemed a little more at ease once he looked up and spoke directly into the camera.  I could have done without the lecture to the media, considering it is a very small segment of the tabloid and gossip media that has been giving him fits.

 

Tiger is kidding himself if he thinks he’s not going to eventually have to stand before the media and answer questions.

 

But over all, Tiger Woods did himself a world of public relations good today.  Now, let’s see if he really means it.

When Tiger Woods makes his grand reappearance on Friday, he plans to make a statement but take no questions from the few, hand-picked members of the media in the room.  As always, he wants to be in control.

 

Well, I’ve got a few questions, and you’ve probably got a few of your own.

 

How about these for a starter:

 

1. What the hell were you thinking?

 

2. Other than that rehab clinic in Mississippi, where have you been?  It’s easier to find Osama bin Laden?

 

3. Are you cured or whatever?

 

4. If you were Elin, would you take you back?

 

5. Do you really, truly want to salvage the marriage?

 

6. If you were a golf fan, would you take you back?

 

7. Do you understand the shock, disappointment and betrayal your fans and the sports world feel?

 

8. It’s hard not to notice that Elin is a beautiful, classy woman, not to mention the mother of your two children, while the women you ran with on the side were largely skanks.  What was that about?

 

9. Come to think of it, why no women of color?  You prejudiced?

 

10. Why have you remained silent for so long?

 

11. You have shamed not only yourself but the entire game of golf.  Do you have a long-range plan to make amends?

 

12. How did you pull this whole secret, parallel life thing off?

 

13. Who around you knew?  Do you plan to fire them?  If not, why not?

 

14. Tell the truth, did Elin catch you in the kisser that night with that golf club?

 

15. Can your mother ever forgive you?   Do you think your father would be proud?

 

16. From everything we’ve seen, you had fine parents and stable, loving upbringing.  Could you please make some effort at explaining your behavior?

 

17. When you do return, do you think fans who heckle you at golf tournaments should be removed by security or do you think you have it coming?

 

18. Do you think you are a sex addict or merely the world’s worst narcissist?

 

19. When exactly do you plan to return to golf?

 

20. Competitively, how big of a setback is this?

To everyone who stopped by our booth at the North Coast Golf Show, thank you.

 

The just-ended annual show at the Expo Center in Oaks was our first real effort to promote and market MyPhillyGolf and the response was favorable and incredibly gratifying.  Our director of advertising, Paul LaPotin, and I passed out more than 4,000 informational postcards and golf pencils bearing the website logo.

 

Now that you’ve found MyPhillyGolf, we will do our best to give you reason add it to your list of "Favorites" and return day after day, even in the dead of winter.

 

My vision for this website was to offer news and information but, more importantly, to give golfers in the region a place where they can meet and talk to each other, to share their passion for the game and their thoughts on people, issues and courses to play or avoid.

 

As I pointed out to golfers at the golf show, under "Course Finder," MyPhillyGolf empowers you to write your own reviews of courses you play.  Under the "Discussion Boards," you can start a conversation about any golf topic under the sun.

 

As you explore MyPhillyGolf, if you come across something you don’t understand, or if you have an idea you’d like to suggest, please let me know in an email.

 

 

If the gossip website Radar is correct and Tiger Woods has indeed left the Gentle Path sex addiction rehab clinic in Hattiesburg, Miss., well, who among us doesn’t wish him the best?

 

Forget for the moment his return to golf; the man has his work cut out for him earning his wife’s trust and forgiveness.  His mother’s, too.  The kids are probably too young to know what’s going on. What his millions of fans around the world will feel upon his return is probably a mixed bag.

 

The men I talk to, for the most part, shrug and say, "That fool screwed up big time."

 

On the other hand, knowing the temptations Tiger likely faced on a daily basis, men also seem to be more willing to eventually close the door on this ugly chapter.  That door will close all the quicker if Tiger’s return, whenever it is, is highlighted by an victory of Secretariat proportions.

 

Women, they’re another story.  The women I’ve talked to don’t seem nearly so ready to forgive and forget.  They think Tiger is a rotten, low-down dirty dog, and they seethe with rage over the shock, betrayal and humiliation Elin must have felt.  Can Tiger earn back female fans’ trust and respect, let alone Elin’s?  Women shake their heads.  Not likely.

 

A newspaper in Melbourne, Australia purports to have inside info that Tiger will return to action in mid-February at the Accenture Match Play Championship.  Don’t count on it. For one thing, Tiger has never been a big fan of match play, even if he has won it three times.  If that tournament wasn’t one of the World Golf Championship events, he’d like skip it every year.

 

For another thing, the sponsor, Accenture, was one of the early corporations to publicly dump its endorsement deal with Tiger, saying he "no longer fit the company’s image." Tiger, a well-known holder of grudges, will not be doing Accenture any favors anytime soon.

 

It’s also a given that when Tiger does return to golf, we will want to make a statement by winning and winning big.   You know, show’em that the High Sheriff is back in town. Unless he has been secretly pounding balls by moonlight out behind the Gentle Path clinic, even the great Tiger is going to need some time to knock the rust off his game.

 

What is unknowable at this point is what Tiger is thinking, or what he wants from golf and life from this point forward.  We’ll find out soon enough, but not before Tiger is ready to tell us.

Word just in from Golf Channel that the network is launching a morning show, beginning in January.

 

Here’s the full announcement:

 

ORLANDO, Fla. (Sept. 15, 2010) – Golf Channel announced today that it has greenlit the network’s first-ever morning show. Tentatively titled Dawn Patrol and currently in development, the show is slated to debut in January 2011. 

 

Scheduled to air live, weekdays from 7-9 a.m. ET from Golf Channel’s Orlando, Fla., studios, the show will feature news and commentary on the biggest sports and news stories of the day.

 

Following a news/talk show format, the sports-driven morning show will place an emphasis on golf while also offering a fresh perspective on topical news, sports and pop culture.

 

The program will feature field reporting and an array of in-studio guest appearances from a variety of industries. Golf Channel currently is searching nationwide to cast the program’s two co-hosts.

 

"We’ve wanted to introduce a morning show to Golf Channel for a number of years and felt that now was the right time," said Tom Stathakes, Golf Channel senior vice president of programming, production and operations. "Tackling everything from Tiger Woods to Brett Favre, the show’s format will be unlike anything we’ve done before and we are very excited to be launching it in 2011."

 

The latest edition of the National Enquirer is out with more juicy tales about Tiger.

 

In the Feb. 8,  Nat Enq (The main cover story is Oprah & Stedman’s BIG GAY LIE EXPOSED!), the tabloid reports:

 

-- "I hate myself," or so Tiger is said to have cried out during a "total breakdown" the day before wife Elin was scheduled to arrive in Hattiesburg, Miss., for a five-day visit, at Gentle Path sex addiction center.

 

-- The magazine said that as "Disclosure Week" drew closer, during which Tiger must come clean to Elin about his affairs, he became increasingly "freaked out" and "emotional" and wanted to leave the sex addiction facility.  ÔI can’t do this," cried Tiger, according to one source

 

The tabloid quoted a "close source" as saying, "It scared the hell out of Tiger that he had to confess to his wife that there are more women in his past than the list of bimbos she knows about."

 

If you’ve lost count, the current tally is 19 and counting.

 

Other revelations:

 

-- For the first two weeks at Gentle Path, Tiger had a room to himself but he now has a roommate, and the "lack of privacy has started to get to him."

 

-- For a time, he was working out in the mornings at a local YMCA, until the photographers began hanging out near the center.

 

-- Gentle Path experts are concerned that Tiger is "not accepting full blame for his fall – and the golfer points to Elin as part of the problem," a source told the tabloid.  Tiger reportedly said he became "weak" out of sexual frustration.

 

-- Tiger is filled with shame, the source told the Enquirer, and he is "afraid to go out in public and play golf again, because he believes everyone who thought he was a hero now views him as a low-life."

 

-- Tiger is "itching to get home" but he fears that the Gentle Path staff will insist that he stay longer than most other patients.  Desperate to save his marriage, he will do whatever they request.

ORLANDO – I walked the floor of PGA Merchandise Show for hours this morning and never found a thing that is turning heads this year.

 

Yes, there are new offerings by club manufacturers, as there are every year, but nothing is taking the 2010 show by storm.  Most years, there is a buzz about something; not this year.  No giant technological leaps forward this year, no new breakthrough products.

 

This is my first time at the show in four years.  I came for five or six straight years, until several of the top manufacturers began to pull out one by one, costing the show a lot of its luster and appeal.   But after hitting bottom a couple of years ago, when attendance was way down and new product buzz was zilch, the annual confab seems to be on a slightly upward trajectory again.  It’s still not what it once was, and probably won’t be again anytime soon, maybe ever, but the buzzards are no longer circling overhead.

 

During the boom years, the anchors of the show were mammoth million-dollar "booths" erected by Titleist, Nike, Callaway, TaylorMade, Ping and several others.  TaylorMade and Nike aren’t even here this year – at least not their club divisions. 

 

If you’re in the golf business, however, the PGA Show is still a place to see and be seen, to catch up with friends and colleagues from around the industry.