Eldrick's next move

So far Eldrick has stayed in seclusion and offered a couple of well crafted written statements that have been reactive in nature to things that have come up against him.

His statement was an apology, but not an admission. In response to Grubbs statement and issuance of the voicemail allegedly of Tiger, Woods issued a carefully worded apology that admits nothing, only his regret that he "let [his] family down." Indeed, most of the statement is devoted to excoriating the media for creating the firestorm that now surrounds him and his family. "Personal sins should not require press releases, and problems within a family shouldn't have to mean public confessions," Woods said. An admirable sentiment, but Woods' apology is likely only fuel for the fire.

I pulled excerpts from a CNN article on what Eldrick should do.

Tiger Woods really needs his wife. And his A-game. That's the advice of experts in the art of getting people through media crises such as the one the golf champ faces after his single car crash led to multi-woman pileup of infidelity allegations. If Woods can persuade his wife Elin Nordegren not only to stick by him, but to opine in the presence of a large media outlet or two that she has forgiven her imperfect husband and that everyone else should feel free to do likewise, then resurrecting his image is easier than nine holes of putt-putt.

Being in the room while he makes a statement of contrition (see playbooks by Spitzer, Silda or Bryant, Vanessa) is a close second.
(See the top 10 apologies.)

"What Tiger and his advisers have managed to do so far is make this a much bigger story," says Michael Sitrick, CEO of crisis management firm Sitrick and Co. "There's this mindset that if you hunker down and take the 'high road,' it will go away." The publicist points to Bill and Hillary Clinton as exemplars of the "wife-first" approach; once Hillary said it was between Bill and her, the heat lowered. "If he can get his wife to support him, I'd pick one print and one broadcast outlet and then never talk about it again."

Again, as I have been saying, he should have just come out and made a brief apology and statement early on. No need to field questions and try and move on. His approach so far has not worked. The story has snowballed and become SO MUCH bigger than it ever should have.

Good luck, Eldrick!