Thaindian News

By Madhuri Dey
Florida, Feb 21, (THAINDIAN NEWS) Tiger Woods finally chose to come out of the seclusion that he had imposed upon himself more than a month back, in a carefully prepared press conference on Friday. As was being expected, the return of the much criticized golfer did not happen without its share of unkind remarks. Even before he had actually attended the conference, criticisms raged at the mere mention of it, mainly owing to the fact that he had chosen the opportune moment of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship as his moment of truth.

Once the much awaited conference was over, the skepticism continued to rage, in fact, with renewed vigor. While some found the apologies presented by Tiger Woods moving and honest, most of the observers were of the opinion that it was too scripted to be true, and more of a staged comeback than a genuine attempt at clarifying and putting things right. Branding experts shared this view, their opinion all the more strengthened by the fact that at the press conference, the press themselves were not allowed to ask many questions, making the whole thing look like more of a press release than what it was actually meant to be.

More damage was probably done by the fact that Elin Nordegren herself was not present in Tiger Woods’ press conference. However, everybody did not feel the same way. Notah Bagey, for instance, who felt that he had never seen Tiger Woods in such an emotional state. He admitted feeling rather “choked up” while listening to Tiger Woods’ apologies. In most quarters, however, it is being expected that Tiger Woods’ press conference is going to do more harm than good.