I Am Tiger Woods...But Who Am I?

Who is Tiger Woods, really? Is it a question that any of us - anyone at all - can answer with any certainty?

I don't mean for this to turn into a People-style expose on all that has happened in TigerWorld of late. Rather, this will be my take on the bizarre and meticulous crafting of Tiger's image and persona.

More than any athlete (I would even say more than any celebrity figure) since Michael Jordan, what we know about Eldrick "Tiger" Woods has been both obsessively controlled and crafted. Part of this is due to the careful handling of Tiger's myriad sponsors - with Nike leading the charge - who have a vested and extremely moneyed interest in making Tiger good for all demographics. While no one will come out and say it, there is a fine promotional tight rope to walk when you are responsible for selling the image of a bi-racial guy dominating what has historically been a white man's game. I was always struck by what the late Earl Woods, Tiger's father, thought about his son's anticipated impact on the world, famously saying that Tiger would transcend race. This must have been music to Nike's ears - here was a black (or, at least, black-looking) kid they could sell to the inner-city kids who had never before been exposed to the sport, but he wasn't so black that he would scare off the average golf fan: white, male, and middle-aged.

As Tiger slowly but surely took over the sport, and then the world, a phenomenon occurred that I can only describe as a reverse getting-to-know-you. By the time Tigermania hit critical mass, we had already learned everything we needed to know about him: his father put a club in his crib, he was the bi-racial product of a Thai mother and black father, he could play by age 2, he had a swing and follow-through designed by God himself. We didn't need to know anything else, and when new information became available - Earl's illness and eventual death, Tiger's marriage to Elin Nordegren, the birth of Tiger's first child - it was always in the context of his impact on the sport and how it would affect his next tournament, never about the man himself.

Lost in all of this were things we take for granted about those we know, those we consider our friends or welcome into our lives: Is he funny? Does he prefer cats or dogs? What's his favorite ice cream flavor? Now, this isn't to say that we should (or much less want to) know all of this about our celebrities. Much to the contrary, there is usually a backlash that follows whenever celebrities try to be too much like "us" - it comes across as forced at best and opportunistic at worst. But what is fascinating about Tiger's image is that there seems to have been little to no effort made by his handlers (or the man himself, much less) to share this information with us regular people. Sure, Tiger will appeal to the average sports fan in all of us by appearing at the occasional Stanford basketball game - but, remember, he didn't even graduate. Then, there he is courtside at an Orlando Magic game if for no other reason than he lives nearby.

So, what does this all mean? It's a big question, but it might be the most interesting part of this entire Tiger-based fiasco. When you know nothing about a person, can you really express shock or outrage at their engaging in behavior you never would have expected from them? Even Tiger's peers, his fellow PGA golfers, when pressed for their opinion on the issue, could only speak to it in terms of how Tiger reacts out on the course. His focus, his determination - never, "Well, Tiger's a big family man, so I'm just blown away that he'd do this or that".

In many ways, Tiger is the most well-known athlete in the world without us knowing very much about him at all.