Golf
Tiger: Time to face the music
2010-02-03 13:55
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Dubai - Golf legend Tom Watson has joined the clamour for Tiger Woods to fully answer for his marital infidelities and called on him "to clean up his act".
Speaking on Wednesday ahead of the Dubai Desert Classic tournament, the 60-year-old said that Woods, who has not been seen in public since November 27, needed to face up to the public.
"It's going to be interesting to see how he handles his return to public life," the American said.
"He messed up. He knows he messed up. The world knows he messed up. And he has to take ownership of that.
"He must get his personal life in order. I think that is what he is trying to do.
"And when he comes back he has to show some humility to the public in the sense that if I were him, it wouldn't be at a golf tournament where I come out in public first.
"I would come out and I would do an interview with somebody and say, you know what, I screwed up. And I admit it. And I am going to change. I am trying to change.
"I want my wife and family back - I have to earn her trust back."
Woods's spectacular fall from grace followed a car crash outside his Florida home on November 27 after which more than a dozen women claimed to have had affairs with him.
Since then he has taken an indefinite leave from golf in a bid to save his marriage to Swedish wife Elin and Internet celebrity website reports say he is having treatment at a sex addiction clinic.
In the two months since the story broke Woods has gone to ground, but any criticism from his contemporaries has been muted at the very least possibly in recognition of his iconic status in the modern game.
But Jack Nicklaus, whose record of 18 major wins is the driving force behind Woods' career, spoke out earlier this month to say that the game of golf would survive without him and Watson's comments will add more pressure.
Taking his critique a step further Watson said that when Woods does come back, he needed to work at being a better ambassador for the game.
"I feel that he has not carried the same stature as the other great players that have come along like Jack (Nicklaus), Byron Nelson, Ben Hogan in the sense that there was (bad) language and club throwing on the golf course.
"You can grant that to somebody, a young person, that has not been out there for a while, but I think he needs to clean up his act there and show the respect for the game that the people before him have shown."