Will the real Tiger Woods please stand up?

As a hyperactive media plays Six Degrees of Tiger, we begin to wonder if the whole world has been tainted by Woods’ fall from grace.

Reports of the arrest of Canadian doctor Anthony Galea have provided a convenient way to drop Tiger’s name into a slew of local bi-lines across North America.  Galea treated Woods and a laundry list of other pro athletes in the past, so charges that the doctor smuggled growth hormones across the US/Canada border draws fuzzy (but buzzworthy) lines between Tiger and the likes of Chris Simms and Huston Street.

Simms (Broncos QB), Street (Rockies Reliever) & Woods were likely treated with the doctor’s unique plasma-therapy method for rapid healing, and have almost assuredly never had contact with human growth hormones.  But a vague connection to post-scandal Tiger is yellow-journalism gold.  The two-degree tie-in has warranted headline stories on local Colorado TV news outlets.

The obsession with Tiger’s personal life is, of course, not puzzling at all.

He is one of the most widely recognized people in the world, and yet so little is known of him beyond his amazing golf game and mountains of endorsement deals.  So when reports circulated that Tiger was a fallible, imperfect human… the game was on.

Alternate and conflicting messages have sprung up since the depth of Tiger’s extramarital affairs broke.  Some called for media to back off from what is surely a very personal matter for the Woods family, while others openly celebrated a falling star crashing to earth so rapidly and brilliantly before the eyes of the world.

Had this story broken relative to a moderately popular blue-collar athlete, we would have blinked once and looked away.  But Tiger is playing a gentleman’s game, and his face is recognizable to the far reaches of civilization.

For his part, Tiger has stepped forcefully out of the public eye.

What started with a withdrawal from his own tournament turned into a complete denial of his pro career until family matters are resolved.  Whether this is a publicity stunt or an honest attempt by a mostly good man to clean up his life is pure opinion.  But what is certain is that Woods’ handling of this saga over the coming weeks, months & years will speak as much to the man’s character as his apparently habitual cheating ever did.

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