Posted on 02/19/2010 9:16:23 AM PST by MaestroLC
Many of you in this room are my friends. Many of you in this room know me. Many of you have cheered for me or you worked with me or you supported me. Now, every one of you has good reason to be critical of me.
I want to say to each of you simply and directly: I am deeply sorry for my irresponsible and selfish behavior I engaged in.
I know people want to find out how I could be so selfish and so foolish. People want to know how I could have done these things to my wife Elin and to my children, and while I have always tried to be a private person, there are some things I want to say. Elin and I have started the process of discussing the damage caused by my behavior.
As Elin pointed out to me, my real apology to her will not come in the form of words. It will come from my behavior over time. We have a lot to discuss, however what we say to each other will remain between the two of us. I am also aware of the pain my behavior has caused to those of you in this room. I have let you down and I have let down my fans. For many of you, especially my friends, my behavior has been a personal disappointment.
To those of you who work for me: I have let you down personally and professionally.
My behavior has caused considerable worry to my business partners, to everyone involved in my foundation, including my staff, board of directors, sponsors, and most importantly the young students we reach. Our work is more important than ever. Thirteen years ago, my dad and I envisioned helping young people achieve their dreams through education. This work remains unchanged and will continue to grow. From the learning center students in Southern California to the Earlwood stars in Washington, D.C., millions have kids have changed their lives and I am dedicated to making sure that it continues.
But still, I know I have barely disappointed all of you. I have made you question who I am and how I could have done the things I did. I am embarrassed that I have put you in this position. For all that I have done, I am so sorry. I have a lot to atone for, but there is one issue I really want to discuss. Some people have speculated that Elin either hurt or attacked me on Thanksgiving night. It angers me that people would fabricate a story like that. Elin never hit me that night or any other night.
There has never been an episode of domestic violence in our marriage. Ever.
Elin has shown enormous grace and poise throughout this ordeal. Elin deserves praise, not blame. The issue involved here was my repeated, irresponsible behavior. I was unfaithful. I had affairs. I cheated. What I did was not acceptable. I am the only person to blame. I stopped living by the core values that I was taught to believe in. I knew my actions were wrong, but I convinced myself that normal rules didn't apply. I never thought about who I was hurting, instead I thought only about myself. I ran straight through the boundaries that a married couple should live by.
I thought I could get away with whatever I wanted to. I felt that I had worked hard my entire life and deserved to enjoy all the temptations around me. I felt I was entitled. Thanks to money and fame, I didn't have to go far to find them. I was wrong. I was foolish. I don't get to play by different rules. The same boundaries that apply to everyone apply to me. I brought this shame on myself. I hurt my wife, my kids, my mother, my wife's family, my friends, my foundation, and kids all around the world who admired me. I've had a lot of time to think about what I've done. My failures have made me look at myself in a way I have never wanted to before.
It's now up to me to make amends and that starts by never repeating the mistakes I made. It's up to me to start living a life of integrity. I once heard, and I believe it's true, It's not what you achieve in life that matters, it's what you overcome.
The achievements on the golf course are only part of setting an example. Character, and decency are what really count.
Parents used to point to me as a role model for their kids. I owe all those families a special apology. I want to state to them that I am truly sorry. It's hard to admit that I need help, but I do. For 45 days – from the end of December, I was in in-patient therapy receiving guidance for the issues I'm facing. I have a long way to go.
But I have taken my first steps in the right direction. As I proceed, I understand people have questions. I understand the press wants to ask me the details and the times I was unfaithful.
I understand people want to know whether Elin and I will remain together. Please know, that as far as I'm concerned, every one of these questions and answers is a matter between Elin and me.
These are issues between a husband and a wife. Some people have made up things that never happened. They said I used performance-enhancing drugs. This is completely and utterly false. Some have written things about my family.
Despite the damage I have done, I still believe it is right to shield my family from the public spotlight. They did not do these things. I did.
I have always tried to maintain a private space for my wife and children. They have been kept separate from y sponsors, my commercial endorsements. When my children were born, we only released photographs so that the paparazzi could not chase them.
However, my behavior doesn't make it right for the media to follow my two and a half year old daughter to school and report the school's location. They staked out my wife and they pursued my mom.
Whatever my wrongdoings, for the sake of my family, please leave my wife and kids alone. I recognize I have brought this on myself and I know above all I am the one who needs to change. I owe to my family to become a better person. I owe to those closest to me to become a better man. That's where my focus will be. I have a lot of work to do, and I tend to dedicate myself to doing it.
Part of following this path, for me, is Buddhism, which my mother taught me at a young age.
People probably don't realize it, but I was raised a Buddhist and I actively practice my faith from childhood until I drifted away from it in recent years.
Buddhism teaches that the craving for things outside ourselves causes an unhappy and pointless search for security. It teaches me to stop following every impulse and to learn restraint. Obviously, I lost track of what I was taught.
As I move forward, I will continue to receive help because I have learned that's how people really do change. Starting tomorrow, I will leave for more treatment and more therapy. I would like to thank my friends at Accenture and the players in the field this week for understanding why I'm making these remarks today. In therapy, I have learned the importance of looking at my spiritual life and keeping it in balance with my professional life.
I need to regain my balance and be centered so I can save the things that are most important to me: my marriage and my children.
That also means relying on others for help. I learned to seek support from my peers in therapy and I hope someday to return that support to others who are seeking help.
I do plan to return to golf one day. I just don't know when that day will be. I don't rule out that it will be this year. When I do return, I need to make my behavior more respectful of the game.
In recent weeks, I have received many thousands of e-mails, letters and phone calls from people expressing good wishes. To everyone who has reached out to me and my family: Thank you. Your encouragement means the world to Elin and me.
I want to thank the PGA Tour, commissioner Finchem, and the players for their patience and understanding while I work on my private life. I look forward to seeing my players on the course.
Today, I want to ask for your help. I ask you to find room in your heart to one day believe in me again. Thank you.
To me, it seems a sincere and forthright apology, that I don’t think he even owed anyone. He has to answer for his choices, but he doesn’t have to answer to me for that.
Everyone, and I mean everyone, deserves a second chance.
I can’t wait to see how he recovers.
An observation: everyone lies. Everyone sins.
This could not have been easy. As for his faith, that too is also his own deal. He has Buddhism as a philosophy. If he doesn’t have God yet, well, he doesn’t have God yet. I think its a shame too, but everyone arrives at it in their own time, if they arrive at salvation at all.
I think the thing that puts people off about Christianity is that Christians mistake salvation for perfection. Christians are saved. That’s it. Many are still the same miserable a$$holes they were prior to finding Christ.
I’ll blame Elin if she doesn’t DUMP HIM.
I thought tigger was a douchebag before all of this happened.
Bruinator,
You know what, it really annoys me when people say stuff like what you are saying because this complete misinterpretation of the Bible has raged in modern Christianity.
There is no place in Scripture where judging is seen as bad. In fact, we are told to practice godly judgement and are told we will be part of the “jury” so to speak in NOW heaven later.
It IS a Christian’s place to judge some things. Not a person’s soul because we can’t know that. But, we are to judge actions.
“By your fruits you shall know them.”
And furthermore, those who use “let him without sin cast the first stone” have no idea what that verse is really saying.
It is a cautionary tale against judging others for a sin you have never repented on yourself but is also tied to the Old Testament requirement that to execute required just witnesses. Jesus knew that those in question were all hypocrites who were sinning in their motive to stone the woman...they wanted to get Jesus.
As for there being no difference in sins, the Bible makes it clear in multiple places there IS a level of sin, with sexual sins pretty serious.
No, we are not talking about mortal v. other sins....that isn’t real. But, some sins ARE worse than others. There is a reason why some carry weightier penalties this side of heaven.
If there is something I can’t stand, it is people spouting off this holier-than-thou crap that is simply a twisting of what the Bible really says.
Yes, Christian, we are to discern right from wrong and condemn what is wrong, not tip-toe around and say it doesn’t matter.
The same people who've been writing his material since he got caught, corporate lawyers. Tiger's proven that he's a prolific liar and could care less about hurting people. His words carry no weight whatsoever.
“Christians are saved. That’s it. Many are still the same miserable a$$holes they were prior to finding Christ.”
A Christian is a new creation battling that old self.
But, I would agree with you one one point....ALL Christians are still in that old self the same miserable selves.
Paul admitted correctly....as I hope I honestly do in my heart....that though he loved Jesus, he was the chief of sinners and hated it.
Every believer still has a large part of that fallen nature that keeps trying to keep us corrupt.
I thought he did a good job. He’s going to come back anyway; too much money invested in him.
I guess I am hoping that maybe that “knowledge sometimes make a bloody entrance” smacked him into doing something right. He is an extremly immature young man; but he is the best golfer ever as he can do it all.
Needs to be repeated. Too many people today gleefully cast judgment on others mainly because it makes them feel better about their own failings. FReegards.
Fool me once, shame on you.
Fool me twice, shame on me.
True. Yet, most of us would never make a public apology for something Tiger has cried is a private issue. You don’t keep a private issue private by making a public apology.
The man screwed up. It happens to the best of us. And honestly, the only way he will clean up his image is to start playing golf again and stay out of trouble. It will take a while, but this is the only way.
It’s sad that in this day speculating on the sincerity and motivation of someone apologizing for extramarital affairs qualifies as news.
"I'm sorry," he says in public. In private this equates to, 'Now can we get back to signing some more lucrative sponsorship deals now that an apology has been made.'
If he pays back the money he received for endorsements based on his squeaky clean, family man image, then I might start to believe he is sorry.
Based on my 53 years of experience on this Earth I'm betting that the majority of those on FR judging this man call themselves Christian.
Nope, he throws them away like the trash they were.
sw
“If he pays back the money he received for endorsements based on his squeaky clean, family man image, then I might start to believe he is sorry.”
Are you under the impression whether you believe him or not matters in any way?
Here's a pre-Tiger tidbit: CBS anchor Katie Couric posted on her Twitter account this morning:
"Getting ready to cover tiger's statement. Being at the epicenter of such humiliation, and judgement must be very painful."
ABC reporter Jake Tapper, a much more frequent Tweeter, wrote back:
"@katiecouric i assume you're talking about the pain his wife and children feel, not him."
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