Can Tiger Win Back Women Fans?
While men may hope today marks the return of the world's greatest golfer, women seem to be focusing more on what Tiger Woods might say about his marriage.
"Early Show" National Correspondent Hattie Kauffman observes that the brief glimpses the public has had of Woods provide clues of the trouble in his marriage: Woods and his wife, Elin Nordegren, are living apart, and neither husband nor wife is wearing a wedding ring.
Maxine Page, senior editor of RadarOnline.com, said, "He's asked her to move back in with him and she's refused. She's basically very hurt and is going through the process of working out if she wants to make their marriage work."
But while Woods is working on his relationship with his wife, his public relations team might want to work on his badly damaged image with female fans.
Kauffman asked Susan Platski, a golfer, what the first word she thought of when she said Tiger Woods.
Platski responded, "Scoundrel."
But should Nordegren take back her husband?
Gail Bliff, another golfer, told Kauffman her husband would be "out the door" if she'd caught him cheating as much as Tiger has.
People.com asked readers, "Do you think Elin should support Tiger's public apology?" Twenty-five percent responded "yes," but 75 percent said "no."
Annalisa Frasca, a mother of four, said she's not buying that Woods is a sex addict. She said it's just too soon to go back and support the golfer.
"I can't stand the guy," she said. "He just makes me feel ill."
On "The Early Show," Joumana Kidd, basketball star Jason Kidd's ex-wife, said infidelity seems to come with the territory of celebrity.
"You just wish that the success, that their character can measure up to their success," she said. "(But) sometimes that success gets so up there, and the character just doesn't sustain."
Kidd added, "Who doesn't want believe? They want it to be their truth, but again being, you have to get to know someone's character, their family, their upbringing, their values. I hate to throw every athlete under the bus because there's CEOs, there's lots of powerful men out there -- it's just pretty relative depending."
Cooper Lawrence, radio host and the author of "The Cult of Celebrity," said there's nothing Woods can say to change her mind about him.
"It's funny because as women stand by these men, and the reason they do it is because they figure, 'Why should I change my lifestyle because you screwed up,'" she said. "I think that's a lot what we're seeing here, because the truth is this isn't one affair, he didn't fall in love with somebody else. This is pathological. And it's egotistical and it's because he's a narcissist, now because he's an addict."
Lawrence called Woods' diagnosis a "pop culture trend."
"I don't see any evidence of it. And we heard about him in rehab is that he wasn't participatory, that he upset the other people there and now he's coming for ready for what? A photo-op. I don't believe this is one of the 12 steps. I don't believe that he's really coming forward. And she's staying for her own reasons. And if she wants to stay that's her thing, but not because he's apologizing.
"She's stay to go keep her family together and because she thinks it's the right thing for her children," Lawrence continued. "And that is a good reason to stay if that's her reason -- if it's not a war zone there and the kids will be raised in a lovely loving environment. But if there's going to be fighting and it's not going to be happy, she should get out. And I think all of her friends would say he's not going to change. And I think I agree with them."
Kidd added that when her marriage ended she felt like a failure. However, "I wanted to do anything to keep it together," she said.
However, in hindsight, looking at her success despite her divorce, she says she wishes she would have left sooner so her kids would have dealt with the shift better.