NEWS BLOG (WSAU) My interest in Woods ends at the 18th green. I only know who he is because he plays very good golf. The rest, including everything about his personal life, is beyond the scope of my what-I-care-about matrix.

A North Carolina radio station claims they have a copy of a draft of what Wood’s will say tomorrow. There will be three points. First, I’m sorry. It’s all my fault, no one else is to blame. Second, he'll reportedly announce that his marriage is broken beyond repair and that he and his wife will live apart. (There is no mention of a divorce.) Third, he’ll announce that he’s returning to competitive golf and will play in The Masters in April.

To me and my luke-warm interest, Tiger’s statement is 100-percent satisfying. A man with a dozen or so mistresses doesn’t want to be married. It seems like soon he won’t be. He’s made a public mess of things. An apology is appropriate, and he’ll make it. He certainly doesn’t need to apologize to me, but our media insists that fallen celebrities humble themselves in public. And the thing I care about the most – whether he resumes his golf career – is probably what everyone else cares about least.

But Tiger Wood’s news conference tomorrow is a bad idea. He won’t take questions from reporters, and this matter isn’t settled until all the questions are asked and answered. Among them: Exactly how many women were there? Did you pay for sex? Did you father a child with any of them? Did they extort money from you to keep quiet? How did your wife find out? What happened that night of your car crash?

The whole Tiger Woods story is overblown. (Certainly if he was an NBA star instead of a golfer, no one would bat an eye at any of this.) I’m ready to move on. The public isn’t.

Tiger won’t put this behind him until he plops himself down on Oprah’s couch.

Chris Conley
Operations Manager, Midwest Communications-Wausau
2.18.10