Tiger breaking silence or is he?

The announcement this afternoon Tiger Woods will meet with “a small group of friends, colleagues and close associates” with no questions allowed and a few media people in the room is not…repeat not…the way to start building back the image, trust and relationship with the public he caused to end with his behavior.

Tempest in a teapot you say? Could be, but for the next day and one-half the tempest will be all the speculation by us media types about when he will return and indeed, if he will return.

Just another example, as if more were needed, how not to work through this kind of devastating situation. Woods handlers and managers, particularly those at IMG that allowed him, not dissuaded him, should be shown the door and if you think that’s overboard read the text below of Woods’ statement, it’s unbelievable.

Tiger Woods will be speaking to a small group of friends, colleagues and close associates at 11 a.m. (EST) Friday at the TPC Sawgrass clubhouse in Ponte Vedra Beach, FL. Tiger plans to discuss his past and his future and he intends to apologize for his behavior. This will not be an open media event. However, it is understood that there are many media who are interested in what he has to say. In order to accommodate as best we can, we are working to arrange pool coverage of Tiger’s remarks. There will be a network pool camera providing coverage of his talk. The feed will be available live to any network or station that wishes to air it. A limited number of print and wire service reporters will be in attendance and will share their notes, color and background on a pooled basis. We are working with the Golf Writers Association of America to arrange for pool coverage.