ON April 6 (Manila time), Tiger Woods will meet the press.
That’ll be 140 days since Woods last held a press conference.
It happened on Nov. 15, after Woods won the Australian Masters in Melbourne for his 82nd career victory since he turned pro in 1996.
On April 6, Woods will have his presscon at the real Masters—the Masters in Augusta, Georgia.
The Masters (April 12-15, Manila time) is the first of four majors in golf held annually preceding the US and British Opens and the PGA Championship.
On April 6, Woods will face a room full of reporters since Nov. 27, the day he crashed his SUV into a tree that sparked shocking revelations of his infidelities with more than a dozen women.
After the crash, Woods was crushed like a pumpkin--a priest defrocked, a lawyer disbarred, a man reduced from saint to sinner.
So humiliating it was that Woods avoided the press like the Sars plague, in the process earning loads of criticisms that resonated around the world.
After admitting his sex escapades, he went to a sex rehab clinic, and next ran to Budhism for “guidance.”
If Woods went to Phil Jackson for a crash course on Zen philosophy, I wouldn’t be surprised, too.
As head coach of Chicago and Los Angeles, Phil has won nine or so NBA championship rings with the help of Zen.
Perhaps, with Zen and Budhism beside him, will Woods emerge unscathed after the April 6 face-to-face with the media?
Given the stigma and trauma that had befallen Woods, I guess there remains still a shred of truth to that Tiger mystique: With Woods, nothing seems impossible.
But again, what could be the reason behind Woods’ sudden decision to face the media?
His innate intelligence, I guess.
This was what Arnold Palmer told reporters by way of giving advice to Woods: “…The best thing Woods could do would be to open up and just let you guys shoot at him.”
It’d be a gunfight at the OK Corral all over again?
I covered the Masters in 1991, the year Ian “Popeye” Woosnam won it, the year Tiger Woods was barely five years old.
My question if I were in that April 6 press con?
“Mr. Woods, will you make the cut?”
Any answer would spark another column or two.
(alsol47@yahoo.com)