There are two sports that I absolutely love - football and golf. Because many of my friends know that I played golf competitively many, many years ago and still have tremendous passion for the game, I have been asked several times over the past two weeks what I think about the Tiger Woods "affair."
I confess that I listen to sports talk radio a lot when I am in the car, and I have heard the male take on the biggest sports story in recent memory. It is because everything I have heard is so predominantly male based, that I would like to toss in a female viewpoint from both a business and personal perspective.
When Woods was at Stanford, he was an amateur athlete. When he left to turn pro, he became an entertainment product. There was no doubt that when Woods went on the PGA tour he had one of the best, if not the best product to offer the marketplace.
So, to achieve maximum earnings for his product, he had to craft the most desirable image for it, which he and his staff very carefully did for the better part of 15 years. Winning wasn't good enough, you had to like Woods, want him to win, buy into his persona which translated into lucrative endorsement deals.
That is why it makes completely good sense to me now that a loving wife and two beautiful children would be the icing on the "image" cake, so to speak. Well done, for a time. We believed that he needed his privacy, because he was so focused on his golf game, his perfect swing. Distractions could not and would not be tolerated, because again, they interrupted the tireless pursuit of golf perfection.
We bought into this, media driven, marketing scam that had us believe this guy was indeed more than just golf's greatest player, and the world's most recognizable athlete. He was actually a good guy working hard, doing charitable works, and spending what little time he took off from the game with his family when in actuality the privacy he craved so publicly was the tool he needed to sequester a life of infidelity with porn stars, hostesses, and escort services.
Now that so much has come to light the last two weeks, it is clearly apparent that the real Tiger Woods has cost the corporate Tiger Woods a whole lot of money. But more than that, he has lost the respect of a legion of women who supported and followed his career with as much or more passion than their male counterparts.
I will never tell my children again to emulate Woods' strength, resolve and competitiveness for he is not worthy. As the mother of two daughters, the lesson they will learn from him is an old one - if it's too good to be true, it probably isn't true. In retrospect, all of the signs were there. He was just too good to be true.
As for the real Tiger Woods, he might as well just put on a smoking jacket and hang out with Hugh Hefner, if he hasn't already. I think it would suit him to a tee.
I confess that I listen to sports talk radio a lot when I am in the car, and I have heard the male take on the biggest sports story in recent memory. It is because everything I have heard is so predominantly male based, that I would like to toss in a female viewpoint from both a business and personal perspective.
When Woods was at Stanford, he was an amateur athlete. When he left to turn pro, he became an entertainment product. There was no doubt that when Woods went on the PGA tour he had one of the best, if not the best product to offer the marketplace.
So, to achieve maximum earnings for his product, he had to craft the most desirable image for it, which he and his staff very carefully did for the better part of 15 years. Winning wasn't good enough, you had to like Woods, want him to win, buy into his persona which translated into lucrative endorsement deals.
That is why it makes completely good sense to me now that a loving wife and two beautiful children would be the icing on the "image" cake, so to speak. Well done, for a time. We believed that he needed his privacy, because he was so focused on his golf game, his perfect swing. Distractions could not and would not be tolerated, because again, they interrupted the tireless pursuit of golf perfection.
We bought into this, media driven, marketing scam that had us believe this guy was indeed more than just golf's greatest player, and the world's most recognizable athlete. He was actually a good guy working hard, doing charitable works, and spending what little time he took off from the game with his family when in actuality the privacy he craved so publicly was the tool he needed to sequester a life of infidelity with porn stars, hostesses, and escort services.
Now that so much has come to light the last two weeks, it is clearly apparent that the real Tiger Woods has cost the corporate Tiger Woods a whole lot of money. But more than that, he has lost the respect of a legion of women who supported and followed his career with as much or more passion than their male counterparts.
I will never tell my children again to emulate Woods' strength, resolve and competitiveness for he is not worthy. As the mother of two daughters, the lesson they will learn from him is an old one - if it's too good to be true, it probably isn't true. In retrospect, all of the signs were there. He was just too good to be true.
As for the real Tiger Woods, he might as well just put on a smoking jacket and hang out with Hugh Hefner, if he hasn't already. I think it would suit him to a tee.