Scenes from Tiger Watch
Tiger Woods made his first public statement on Friday. The major networks interrupted daytime programming to take the statement live. Camera failures aside, we got to hear the message in its entirety and watched as the spectacle ended with a loving hug between Tiger and his mother.
Tiger basically executed Celebrity/Politician/Sports-hero in trouble plan 1B. For those of you unfamiliar with Big-name-celebrity-in-trouble Plan 1B, let give you the basic outline:
- Go into hiding.
- Which turns out to be in patient rehab for _________ malady that led to the trouble in the first place.
- Come out briefly in a staged press event.
- Beg forgiveness while admitting weakness.
- Tell us that their personal life is none of our business (in so many words).
- The family is strictly off limits.
- Then go back into rehab.
He didn't do it as well as others. But he did it bigger then most with live television coverage around the world. I'm certain he is sorry that he got caught. I'm relatively convinced that he is sorry that his family found out.
He did speak about the Thanksgiving night debacle that brought all this to a head.
Some people have speculated that Elin somehow hurt or attacked me on Thanksgiving night. It angers me that people would fabricate a story like that. Elin never hit me that night or any other night. There has never been an episode of domestic violence in our marriage, ever. Elin has shown enormous grace and poise throughout this ordeal. Elin deserves praise, not blame.
Transcript of Tiger's statement
That was true. However she did take a few penalty strokes on out that car. It comes down to the individual's definition of what constitutes domestic violence.
Who can blame her? Not me.
Like Tiger, I too praise her for standing up to him. Even in light of the life of luxury she stood loose, the public humiliation, a highly public and possibly muddy divorce followed by years at the mercy of know-nothing authors speculating about her relationship in tell all pieces, she let him know in no uncertain terms he screwed up.
Nice swinging, Elin.
Pictures from the media circus
This is part of the temporary uplink farm at the Marriott where we, the unwashed media horde complete with reporters that might ask embarrassing questions, were relegated. That place was the Marriott Sawgrass Conference Center, Resort and Spa in Ponte Vedra, FL. which is roughly a mile away from the place that Tiger actually spoke. We watched on a satellite feed in one of the ballrooms or in our trucks.
Bill from WABC in New York came down for the show. It was good to see him again.
One more live shot from "the hill" outside the conference center. The amount of attention this event garnered from around the world will puzzle me for all the rest of my days. However, I do appreciate the work and the overtime.
See what you can get when you are rich, famous and willing to play around?
These two provided a certain amount of entertainment for our photographers until Marriott security banished them from the property. It really is a shame they tossed her out.
And a good time was had by all…
These are issues between a husband and a wife.
- Tiger Woods