A Great Performance: Tiger Finally Speaks

Well, he finally did it. Tiger Woods came toward the light and confessed his sins in a dramatic and somber presentation today.

His handlers staged it well. They packed the room with close family and friends. Only a few, carefully selected press were invited. No questions were allowed. Like so much of Tiger's life, it was totally controlled. From this man who was both so in control in his career and so out of control in his private life, observers got a solid and touching performance.

Tiger expressed verbally a deep disappointment in himself as a man, a father, a sports hero. His physical bearing supported his words.

He perked up and raised his voice as he expressed outrage at the media stalking his family. He looked humble as he vowed to be a better man. When he said “I'm sorry,” he peered right into the camera in a plaintive effort to make eye contact with people around the world who were so let down by his actions.

When it was all over, he went to his mother for a hug and a photo opportunity that could only have been better if we could have seen her face. When she knew the camera was on her, she was serene. But her face was very tense and sour whenever the camera caught her off-guard as Tiger spoke. Maybe, like so many of his fans, she was really ticked off at his actions. Or, because she had to suffer the public pain of playing the key supporting role in this mea culpa press conference, maybe her best efforts to maintain her serenity failed.

From a PR/media training perspective, Tiger did everything right this morning. He looked the beaten man and played his part well. But how much more effective would it have been if he had held this press conference months ago? Mitigating circumstances made today the only choice, say his handlers. But we'll all be wondering about the timing for a while.

His performance certainly touched the hearts of The Golf Channel, some of whom were moved to tears. But, then, so much is riding for them on a Tiger redemption.

The network news teams reported as if they believed the words he spoke. No skepticism there.

How the media filters Tiger's message and reports it out to the world is as important as the words the man spoke himself. Many who did not see the event (and many who did) will reach their opinions about Tiger's sincerity after nearly endless hours of watching and reading both the traditional media and posts on the Web.

No matter what conclusion you reach about Tiger's sincerity, today's sad and somber PR event was a strong first step toward rehabilitating Tiger's image and, with it, his fortune.