Timing of Tiger’s Statement Inspires Ire, Curiosity, and Predictable Frustration for Media

After a few weeks during which it was all (basically) quiet on the Tiger Woods front, the world’s most famous golfer and philanderer is right back at the epicenter of the news this week.

As you undoubtedly have heard, Woods has scheduled a press conference for tomorrow to make his first public comments since his Thanksgiving weekend car accident and the subsequent flood of allegations regarding his extramarital excess.

He is rumored to have participated in a sex rehab program in the interim, but it has never been confirmed. Woods and wife Elin remain together but most reports have indicated that they are far from any kind of reconciliation.

So how has the sports world responded to the news that Tiger will finally talk?

Well let’s see…

• Some of his golfing peers are not happy
• One former sponsor has to be pissed off
• Many still revel in mocking him
• His fans and the sports world at large are certainly curious about what he will say
• The media is frustrated and disappointed, but shrugging its shoulders at Tiger’s insistence on controlling every aspect of the situation.

Let’s break each of these down.

First, real quick, here is the need-to-know info for those of you who want to watch Tiger make his statement live:

• Tiger Woods statement date: Friday, February 19th
• Tiger Woods statement time: 11:00 ET
• Tiger Woods press conference location: TPC Sawgrass in Florida
• Tiger Woods press conference TV: ESPN (and all of the major networks presumably)
• Tiger Woods press conference online streaming: UStream

Tiger’s golfing peers are not pleased with the timing of his Friday press conference

Ernie Els is not surprised by the timing of Tiger’s announcement. According to Golfweek magazine (via ESPN), Els is unimpressed that Tiger would upstage a tournament in progress this weekend.

“It’s selfish,” former U.S. Open and British Open champion Ernie Els told Golfweek magazine. “You can write that. I feel sorry for the sponsor. Mondays are a good day to make statements, not Friday. This takes a lot away from the golf tournament.”

Sergio Garcia also commented that the timing of Woods’ announcement is “not the best.”

Accenture, despite their public stance, cannot be please with the timing of Tiger Woods’ Friday statement

In the same ESPN article linked above, Tiger’s agent Mark Steinberg is quoted as saying that there is a very good reason why the statement needs to be tomorrow and why Tiger could not wait until Monday or next week, when the Accenture Match Play Championship is over. Steinberg claims that they notified Accenture and the company “could not have been more supportive.”

Fellow golfer Rory McIlroy is quoted saying what everyone is thinking regarding the timing of Woods’ first public statement:

“He’s got to come out at some point,” Irish golfer Rory McIlroy said. “I suppose he might want to get something back against the sponsor that dropped him. No, I don’t know. It just went on for so long. I’m sick of hearing about it. And I’m just looking forward to when he’s getting back on the golf course.”

Though Tiger would never admit it, reasonable minds everywhere are wondering whether he did indeed schedule Friday’s statement to get back at the first sponsor who dropped him. If he didn’t, it’s a remarkable coincidence. I guess we’ll have to wait and hear the statement to find out why it had to be done Friday.

Despite the lack of recent news, Tiger is still being mocked

Though the blog posts and viral videos making fun of Tiger have died down in recent weeks, Tiger was the subject of a pretty detailed (and funny) Mardi Gras float. According to Sports by Brooks, the float made its one-and-only appearance at Mardi Gras last Friday. Follow the link to see a few more pictures of it.

Tiger’s fans, critics, and generally everyone is curious about what he will say

Regardless of how you feel about Tiger Woods, it’s a safe bet that you are at least curious to know what he will say. With so much hearsay and so many accusations presented over the past few months, it will be nice to actually have the words of Tiger himself enter the narrative of this story.

Update: Regarding the rest of this section, Sports by Brooks updated their post from this morning with a report that Tiger Woods’ PR team has debunked what you will read below as “absolutely false.”

And if the Clear Channel radio stations in Asheville, North Carolina have it right (via Sports by Brooks with a hat tip to Rick Chandler), Tiger may have leaked a portion of the statement he plans to read tomorrow.

“Directly to the point there is no one to blame but me for the mess I have put my wife and family through. I accept total and complete responsibility. My wife and I have been trying to work things out but sadly things have not worked out.

Again all the blame is upon me. We have decided to live apart with me having mutually agreed upon times when I can be with our children. I know that the world wants all the details of what transpired in our marriage but that is between my wife and I and will remain that way. I have to get on my life and that means playing golf again.

I have contacted The Masters and have informed them that my plan is to resume The Masters and they have said that they would welcome me with open arms. For that I am most grateful for I deserve nothing. Finally I want to thank all my fans around the world for standing by me when I let you down horribly. I failed all of you about as badly as a person can.

I apologize to everyone of you. I promise all of you that you will see a new Tiger Woods, a better Tiger Woods and I will not let you down. Now I’d like , by the grace of God and with His help, to get back to what I do best and that is playing golf. See you all at The Masters. God Bless you all. Tiger Woods”

We’ll see if anyone can confirm the veracity of the above statement, with the obvious big news being Tiger’s purported announcement that he’ll be entering this year’s Master’s. The rest of it is pretty much what we’d expect based on what has happened over the past few months. We know that Tiger is not going to get into any specifics about any of the allegations or stories.

An undoubtedly frustrated and disappointed media is ultimately shrugging its shoulders at Tiger’s insistence on control

One aspect of Tiger’s planned Friday statement that probably surprises no one is his clear insistence on being in control of everything. Tiger has allowed the major wire services, one camera, and some select writers to be in attendance; that’s it. There will be no questions, just his statement.

It has also been reported that the location of Tiger’s statement – TPC Sawgrass – is being put on virtual lockdown to ensure that Tiger does not have to deal with any surprises or unwanted distractions.

I follow a lot of sports media members on Twitter and most of them have criticized Tiger for not having a more open proceeding. While obviously it is self-serving of the media to want this, their ultimate collective reaction seems to be a shrug of the shoulders because it never was going to happen. We may indeed see “a new Tiger Woods” when it comes to his nightlife, but the buildup to his first public statement shows that we most certainly will not be seeing a new Tiger Woods when it comes to his desire to control everything around him.

If nothing else, tomorrow will be interesting and take the Tiger Woods story in a direction that will get us one step closer to seeing him on the golf course again. Ultimately, I think that is what most people are now concerned with. He and his wife obviously have a lot to work out, if they ever can, but we’ll never get those details and are not entitled to them. And there are really no new developoments that could make this story more salacious or sensationalized than it already is.

All that is left now is the golf. How will Tiger perform upon his return? Will he pick where he left off on his quest for 19 Majors? How will the galleries respond to him?

Finally, tomorrow, we’ll get to start wondering about those questions again.

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* – Tiger Woods photo credit: EverdreamRadio.com

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