Tiger Woods' infidelity is now the punch line of the first three jokes on "The Tonight Show" nearly every night. But I am finding it hard to laugh. Woods' tendency to get himself in trouble on the golf course and his uncanny ability to make unbelievable recovery shots are the only reason I occasionally watch golf. But I can do without golf on TV as I always have before. What makes it hard to laugh at Conan O'Brien's Tiger jokes is the other thing that made Tiger special: Though often obsessively focused, he has always seemed like a decent guy. An athlete who chose to keep his private life private and seemed to recognize his celebrity was about more than his talent on the golf course.
So, what went wrong? Did we misjudge Tiger or are we indirectly responsible? Is he simply another self-absorbed guy who feels entitled to enjoy sex on the side simply because his celebrity affords it? Or is celebrity itself the elephant in the living room of American life? I am hoping that, as he nearly always does on the golf course, Tiger has a great recovery shot in his repertoire that will at least put him back on life's fairway. He may never reclaim the adulation he had prior to his peculiar car accident, but in some ways, that could be a blessing in disguise.
STEPHEN HARLAN-MARKS, ROBBINSDALE
