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Ian Parker questions the factors feeding the over-top criticism of Tiger Woods and looks forward to return of the great player to world-class golf.

If half of what we have read and heard about Tiger Woods' off-course habits prior to his fateful disagreement with a fire hydrant outside his home a little over three months ago is true, then he undoubtedly has reason to apologise, if only to his family. It is apparent that the ultimate sporting perfectionist allowed a shamingly reckless and compulsive pattern of behaviour to assume an undue prominence in his personal life.

Given that he had long traded on his wholesome, family-man image for commercial gain from innumerable corporate sponsors, it was not surprising that his very public fall from grace attracted criticism. The volume and intensity of the hostility directed towards him has, however, been grotesquely disproportionate, particularly from conservative sections of the American media.

The risibly sanctimonious decision by the Golf Writers Association of America to boycott Woods' televised apology at TPC Sawgrass was just the latest example of this, which leads one to the conclusion that much of the recently expressed resentment towards the 14-time Grand Slam winner had been simmering long before last November's revelations came to light.

Over the last couple of years, Woods has come in for some deserved criticism of his increasingly irritable on-course demeanour, and his long-standing inability to conceal his impatience with the team dynamics of the Ryder Cup is a sore point for some American golf fans. But it is fanciful to believe that the recent orgy of Tiger-bashing isn't fuelled, at least in part, by something much uglier than a sense of betrayal by a revered, heretofore untouchable sporting icon.

It is a useful mental exercise to imagine what the US media reaction would have been to a similar controversy involving, say, Phil Mickelson. Would there be the same emphasis on the need for the offending party to "show some humility", to demonstrate "respect" for the game of golf? Doubtful in the extreme, and not just because Mickelson hasn't been the unchallengeably dominant force in the global game for a decade and a half.

The uncomfortable reality is that acceptance of Woods' pre-eminence in the deeply conservative milieu that is professional golf in America has never been as universal as people like to think. The traditional perception of golf as the quintessential white man's game is simplistic and, at this stage, probably unfair but it still contains more than a grain of truth.

The most remarkable aspect of Woods' career, apart from his obvious greatness, is the fact that no other African-American has followed him into the upper echelons of the sport since his breakthrough success at the Masters in 1997.

Whatever this may tell us about golf's demographic constituency in America (overwhelmingly white and middle-class), the fact remains that TV ratings have plummeted in Woods' absence, ample tribute both to his huge commercial importance and the hold which he has on the casual sports fan's imagination.

The realisation of how helplessly reliant the American tour is on one player may also be a source of some of the anti-Tiger bias in the golfing press, and the presence of tour commissioner Tom Finchem at Woods' press conference was an unwelcome reminder for some, of the PGA's desperation to have him back.

So what of that famous apology? Though the event was clearly carefully choreographed, no one who witnessed the extraordinary spectacle of Woods prostrating himself before the world could doubt the sincerity of what he had to say.

That he felt it necessary to go to such lengths to demonstrate his contrition is perhaps a comment on the celebrity-obsessed age we live in, where a man who has broken no laws feels honour-bound to apologise to millions of people he has never met for actions which, in the end, have hurt only himself and those closest to him.

Although he gave no firm indication of when he is likely to return to golf and is set to return to sex-addiction therapy in the immediate future, it seems likely that Woods will make a comeback to the course at some stage in 2010, if not in time for the Masters at Augusta in April then perhaps for the US Open at Pebble Beach in June.

If and when he does decide to return, it will undoubtedly be to a changed relationship with his peers, and it will be fascinating to see if his aura of invincibility as a player has been compromised by the exposure of his very human frailty away from the course.

Long before the present controversy derailed his career, Woods' pursuit of Jack Nicklaus' tally of 18 Major titles was arguably the most gripping ongoing narrative in world sport. Though it appeared a formality at one time that he would equal and then surpass the Golden Bear's venerable record, 2009 was Woods' first year without a Grand Slam triumph since 2004. At 34, it can hardly be said that age is against him but there is no knowing what the long-term effect his current difficulties will have on his playing capacity in future and the achievement of 18 or more Majors before his powers erode, may prove more elusive than seemed likely a short time ago. 

In any case, all true sports fans will be hoping fervently that he does return in the near future to demonstrate to his critics just why he became a household name in the first place. They'll miss him when he's gone for good.

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