Whether Tiger Woods' decision to return to competitive golf is a good one or bad one for him, one thing is for certain: I'm really looking forward to Woods' pre-tournament interview in the press room at Augusta National Golf Club. I assume it's going to happen. Woods annually fields questions from the press the Tuesday preceding the tournament. He's one of several interviews that day. And this one should be good.
That is as long as the Augusta members who run the tournament don't try to mute the media. It's not outside the realm of possibility that the member who moderates the interview tells the assembled, standing room-only media contingent that questions about Woods' marriage and personal life are off limits. Of course a reporter could always ignore the directive, but then there's always the threat that you won't spend the rest of the tournament week on Augusta National grounds. Credentials are awarded at the sole discretion of Augusta National.
It will be the most anticipated golf press conference in the 20 years I've been covering the sport, and hopefully it will live up to its potential. We'll have a chance to write some compelling stories if Tiger answers questions like:
Are you ashamed of who you became?
How did you win 25 tournaments over the past four years with all that going on in your life?
Do you think you'll be an even better golfer if you are able to achieve harmony in your personal life?
Are you really a sex addict?
How did the world's most famous athlete keep so many affairs a relative secret for so long?
Some pretty probing questions and some of them are probably Tiger's business. But if he answers them, the answers become our business. This could be quite a press conference.
