Last week I wrote about how I thought Tiger would ride through this storm. I thought that the big sponsors would stick by him. Granted, some would fall by the wayside but others, surely, would stick by him.
Tiger’s biggest mistake/s are his indiscretions with what now seems to be a string of women. He has jeapordised his relationship with his wife and family and now his fan and sponsors. As I advised last week, Tiger’s second mistake after the indiscretions was to keep quiet and hope it would all blow over. That was never going to happen. The media have jumped all over this and, for all we know, made it even worse than it actually is.
Could this have been managed better? Undoubtedly. One would have thought Tiger would have had a conclave of media figures who he could trust to go to with HIS story. Surely his PR team could have been making calls to uncover the extent of any forthcoming revelations? He could and should have come out before he was dragged out of his hole by the pack of terriers, blinking in the glare of an unwanted media spotlight.
I’m not suggesting he could whitewash the situation or spin his way out of it. That isn’t how it works. What he could have at least attempted to do though was to beat the media to his own story. To trump each sordid revelation by getting there first.
The cash and appetite for stories that are already confessed is far less than that on offer for secrets that fuel an already ravenous fire. He couldn’t have stopped this storm but he could have at least seen where the lightning bolt would strike next.