Tiger Woods, most likely on the advice of his BFF Michael Jordan, has decided to step off the public stage for an "indefinite: time.  He admits his infidelity (shocking!) and wants to work on improving life with his family.  Yeah, right, give me a break. 

This is a cowardly act on the part of Woods who could handle this situation a lot differently if he wasn't a mini-corporation.  First, I would ask Elin "how much" and send her on her way. 
Why not?  Whatever he offers her would be a drop in the bucket to his mass fortune which he would protect, including his future earnings.  He might as well cut bait now while he still has a significant amount of worms left.

Then, I would simply post a note on my website "Ladies, Tiger is open for business."   The ship on his marriage has sailed (most likely soon for Sweden) and the odds of him ever getting things right with Elin are the same as those of an overweight, little old man coming down your chimney on December 24th. 

The fact is, if Tiger were single, no one would care.  But because he is married, has kids and tried to portray himself as a loyal family man he got burned with his own lie.  He can paddle all he wants, but it's six feet high and rising and not going to stop anytime soon.

It will take time and his army of public relations hacks to try to turn this situation around.  His golf won't suffer, but his ability to garner endorsements will.  Nike won't give up on him because he sells a lot of golf equipment and they are far more interested in that than who he sleeps with.  Men will continue to purchase Tiger endorsed golf products because they want to hit the ball like Tiger.  Most middle aged, out of shape men would like to hit other things like Tiger, too, but that just doesn't happen to average Joes.

However other companies may dump him.  AT&T is considering dropping him.  Gatorade has already dropped him.  I'm sure his car endorsements will dry up as well as women will refuse to drive them. Other companies are having discussions on what to do with the fallen idol.  After all, who wants the NOW gang perched on their front step?

Tiger is going underground until the storm settles. He'll resurface in a couple of years, play like Tiger and people will, as they did with Michael, Kobe, Rush and Bill Clinton, forget what all the fuss was about.  But unlike Kobe, Rush  and the former President, Tiger will go in hiding for awhile.  Kobe, to his credit, continued to play.  Bill Clinton continued to run the country.  Rush continued to broadcast. What they did is irrelevant, the fact that they continued to function in the face of embarrassing allegations is significant.

Tigers advisers obviously believe that the best thing for him is to cool his heels until the heat is off.  Seriously, do you think he'll ever sleep in the same bed with his wife again?  Do you think she is willing to forgive him?  Hell no.  She's willing to co-exist with him because he's worth a gazillion dollars and he'll pay her handsomely to stick around with the kids.  That's not sexist, that's reality.  Perhaps Elin should have a talk with Jenny Sanford, who is divorcing her philandering husband despite the fact that he is a sitting governor.  She doesn't care about his money or stature, she cares about what's right.  And what's right is the moment your husband dips his pen in foreign ink, you leave him.

I don't judge Tiger Woods.  I wish I was that rich, that powerful, that good at what I did to have women throwing themselves at me.  There is no man, except maybe the Pope, who could resist that.  And before you go right wing on me, remember Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart?  Tiger was enjoying being Tiger, something none of us could possibly comprehend.  His only failings were that he wasn't careful enough, he hurt his family and he was naive enough to believe the press would support him.

There is a long history of men who have cheated on their wives while having public lives.  The difference was back in the day, no one talked about it and no one profited from it.  Today, bringing down the rich, powerful and entitled has become a cottage industry.  One wonders what would have happened if the media were this vicious or if the Internet had been in existence when JFK had been President.

While Tiger is underground, golf ratings and golf in general will garner less attention because most people on the outside (non golf fans) watch golf to watch Tiger.  He'll be back, in time, but right now he says he'll be keeping his driver in his bag.  In a lot more ways than you would think.