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Tiger Woods: Is Being Perfect an Imperfection?

By: Paul Suess | 04/14/2010

Unless you've been living in a cave for the past six months, you know about Tiger Woods' "extracurricular activities." This portion of his life is not the focus of today's discussion. I believe a person's life is exactly that-a life-not mine or anyone else's. However, the topic of discussion DOES revolve around the perfect image Tiger created for himself.

Tiger spent his entire life, not only being one of the best golfers of all time, but creating the perfect image. Many of his lucrative sponsorships and promotional deals are based upon his almost mythical, flawless public image. The closeness of his relationship with his father, Earl Woods, is well documented; they embraced each other and shed tears after countless wins on 18th greens. Going back as far as his college days at Stanford, Tiger made it known to the public that his off-the-course life consisted of ping pong and video games.

All of this, combined with his Tiger Woods Foundation, which helps provide young people with opportunities, made him all but a saint.

On the other end of the spectrum, we have John Daly, a lightning rod for controversy. At times a chaotic entertainer, Daly is known as the bad boy on the PGA Tour. He openly admitted to not trying during PGA-sanctioned events, and the PGA fined him 21 times for "failure to give best efforts" and 11 times for "conduct unbecoming a professional." The association placed Daly on probation six times, yet we rarely hear any of these antics in media coverage. Daly embraces his bad-boy image and holds nothing back from the media.

Tiger hid his shortcomings. He built a massive fortune upon a foundation of perfection. So, is creating a "perfect" image actually a flaw?

My take on this question is, "No, having a perfect image is not a flaw." Tiger's unwillingness to open up to the public, combined with his lack of transparency, hurt him.  Now that Tiger has rejoined the tour with a strong showing at the Masters, will people forgive and forget or just forget?  What else does Tiger need to do to change the current state of his image?  What public relations tactics would best serve Tiger?

Posted in Public Relations, Reputation Management