Enough is enough: Let Tiger Woods play

There are certain rules in life and not even Tiger Woods is exempt, as he famously acknowledged a few weeks ago. When you mess up as badly as he did, it doesn't matter how many majors you've won.

Actually, his stature made things worse.

The tabloids stalked him. Many of his sponsors ran for cover. There was the inevitable trip to a rehabilitation clinic to treat sex addiction and continuing suggestions that his wife, Elin, remains distant from her husband and frosty enough to combat global warming.

When you're a star with the stature of Tiger Woods, though, even all that is not enough. We'll have proof of that this week at the Masters Tournament, starting today when Tiger holds his first public news conference since news of his multiple ribald romps became public grist.

I doubt seriously he'll say anything today that he hasn't already admitted in statements or those short, controlled interviews he gave to ESPN and the Golf Channel, but he has to say it anyway.

Once he does, it's over for me.

I'm curious to see how he handles this whole scene but, honestly, I don't need details of what he did, who he did it with, and when he did it.

It's especially none of my business where Elin is, nor do I really care whether she plans to stand by her man or exact her pound of flesh in divorce court.

I admire Tiger as an athlete, but it stops there. But I don't condemn him, either. He's not the only athlete who slipped to temptation; he won't be the last.

The longer I've been around the business of sports, the more I realize what a mistake it is to expect that excellence on the field automatically translates to everyday life.

It is not a myth that some athletes can be role models, especially for malleable young people in search of examples to follow for life. Gotta be careful, though. As Tiger has shown, there is danger in believing anything beyond what we see - and all we really knew about Tiger was what his image-makers fed us.

For me, it has come down to this:

Tiger got caught and admitted he was wrong. We don't know if he truly believes that, but he is getting treatment and has asked for understanding and forgiveness.

I'm not sure what else a guy has to do.

So I'll listen to whatever he says today, understanding that even this won't be a no-holds-barred event. The news conference is scheduled for the interview room at Augusta National, which has limited seating.

Choosing that location - instead of the larger auditorium close by - means many media members with credentials still won't be allowed inside.

Tiger will get this next stage of his mea culpa out of the way while still making at least some of the rules. Once this is over, he can pull the ol' "I'm not talking about this anymore" gambit. At some point, the questions will be back on comfortable ground.

"Take us through your thought process, Tiger, on why you chose 7-iron for that approach."

The circus will take place outside Augusta National anyway. Tabloids and paparazzi have been seeking out spots all over town. They have to do that because they couldn't get credentials to shatter the solemnity of golf's most hallowed grounds.

This is a big week for golf and everyone has to get it right. When Tiger is in the house, interest in any tournament goes way up. More people buy tickets, more people watch on TV, and more people talk about golf.

Without him, tournaments just aren't the same. Golf needs Tiger Woods, and now we find he needs golf just as much.

So this is where we came in. The next step in atonement demands that he does this today and gets it over with. It should be quite a show.

Once this day is over, though, that's enough.

Tiger Woods needs to do what he does best. And the rest of us need to remember that his golf game is all we should have cared about in the first place.