My Unsolicited PR Advice to Tiger Woods

Within hours after Tiger Woods crashed his Cadillac Escalade into a fire hydrant then a tree early last November 28, contradictory details of Tiger's and his wife Elin Nordegren's account of the accident started trickling in.

Soon the trickle became a steady stream that grew and grew until it washed away Tiger's entire story along with his upstanding, good-guy image and, apparently, his marriage.

From what we've learned since that morning, Tiger's public persona as an honorable husband and family man was merely a facade that collapsed shortly after Elin shattered the Escalade's back window with a golf club.

As a public relations professional, I have advised many corporate clients as to how they should handle communications during times of trouble. Essentially, I've helped them adhere to the Golden Rule of crisis communications:

• Tell it first
• Tell it all
• Tell the truth.

By following this precept, many companies have weathered the worst crises with their reputations and bottom lines intact.

If Tiger Woods had come to me -- which I can't understand why he did not -- I believe I would have, at first, considered advising him to stick with the three-part Golden Rule.

But wait, Tiger is a person. And his mess is a personal issue.

In this instance I wouldn't be advising a company CEO to step forward and tell the world how his organization made a mistake, how he's going to fix the problem and how he'll make sure it doesn't happen again.

I'd be advising a private citizen to be the first to tell the world exactly what happened the morning of his accident. For Tiger, that would be an easy explanation. He and his wife had a nasty argument, and he crashed his SUV while fleeing the scene in order to let tempers cool.

The second part would be tough: telling it all. He'd have to explain to the world what led up to the argument with Elin and the resultant car crash.

Could I advise the guy to trash his image and reputation as an upstanding husband and father?

Let's see, how would that go? How would he tell it all?

I know, Tiger would hold a press conference.

He'd stand alone on stage in front of the gathering of reporters and cameras. The hurt and enraged Elin would have already taken herself and the kids back to Sweden. No simpering wife at Tiger's side providing support.

Tiger would open things up by dropping the bomb that for years he'd been a serial adulterer who had carried on affairs with more than a dozen women -- as far as he could remember.

He'd clarify things for the reporters with a slick PowerPoint presentation containing photos, names and backgrounds of each woman. As with any big-screen presentation, Tiger would use a laser pointer to focus on key points, such as each girlfriend's photo.

He'd include sound bites from voice mail messages exchanged with various women. He'd also include clips from steamy emails and other correspondence.

He'd distribute a print-out and a CD of his presentation and post a copy of everything on his website.

Then he'd open the press conference to Q and A.

After remaining on stage for however long it would take for each reporter to get a satisfactory answer to every question on his/her mind, Tiger would thank everyone for attending, then he'd go back to being Citizen Woods.

The reporters would use the trove of information, visuals and audio to write and broadcast their stories. And two days after the car crash, the entire incident would be completely forgotten.

I don't think so.

The reporters would launch into an insatiable feeding frenzy and demand more and more information. They'd camp out on Tiger's front lawn waiting for him to appear to answer more questions.

Every late night talk show host would make Tiger the punch line for jokes in their opening monologues.

Tiger's known girlfriends and a few we hadn't heard of would claim their 15 minutes of fame to tell their version of "Life With Tiger." And fair-weather friends would say they never really liked Tiger in the first place.

But hey! That's exactly what did happen! And more!

So what benefit would Citizen Woods have enjoyed by telling it first, telling it all and telling the truth? He'd probably gain no benefit at all. Maybe going silent and remaining out of sight as he did wasn't such a bad idea.

To be perfectly honest, I'd have advised Tiger to call each company whose products he was endorsing to let them know they should pull his ads.

After that, I'd have advised him to go fly fishing deep in the forests of Costa Rica, or otherwise disappear until people stopped asking, "Whatever happened to Tiger?"

And completely apart from rebuilding his public image, I'd advise him to begin the process of trying to earn back the trust of his wife and family.

Actually, they're the only ones who deserve an explanation and his attention.