Actually, on your last point, you may well be right. Acts of sleeping around by men are all too often brushed off as being “part of what mother nature intended,” whereas women who participate in similar behavior are shamed.

That is wrong. Sleeping around is equally poor behavior regardless of whether one happens to be male or female.

Also, I share some of your feelings about Michael Voss. Maybe he should be forgiven, but he is not a hero and should not be treated like one.

But I cannot agree with your views about golf as a profession. Golf is an extremely challenging (and mostly, enjoyable) sport. To have the degree of control required to propel such a small object in the right direction at the right speed on such a consistent basis like all of the professional golfers do requires not only an amazing amount of skill and talent but also years of dedication, practice and hard work. Personally, I may have lost some respect for Tiger as a person, but I have enormous respect for his professional golfing ability.

Tiger Woods will be allowed back into golf and our pop culture because he makes money and people in this country have short-term memories. Pretty soon, he’ll be on Oprah and 60 Minutes and he’ll be the “comeback kid.” Do Americans still remember what Michael Vick did (convicted dog fighter who killed multiple dogs on his own estate?) Hardly. Now he’s a winner because he played okay for the Philadelphia Eagles. Remember Kobe Bryant from the LA Lakers? Remember the adultery and the rape charges (of which he was acquitted?) Probably not, because he’s a winner with the Lakers.

I also think that men are held to a lower standard than women. In my opinion, men sleeping around and cheating on their spouses (even with more women than you can count) are more likely to be forgiven for simply “being men” while women who sleep around on their spouses are more likely to be condemned as “whores.” But I suppose that’s my gender bias.

Certainly true – ‘tall poppy syndrome’ is alive and well.

People in fame have worked hard to get there but once they grab major attention they are pretty much used like tools for the companies to profit off and once they are not needed, they are thrown away.

Your last sentence here reflects a common-sense viewpoint about Tiger. He has his faults and he has let his family down, but he is still every bit a tremendous golfer with a fantastic work ethic. That much about him still commands respect from where I stand.

Exactly right – it’s all too easy to sit back and criticize, but we are all fallible and none of us are in any position to judge others, even if we don’t approve of their behavior.

To exercise discernment with regard to the behavior of others and to learn lessons (positive and negative) is a wise move. To cast judgment on others for their mistakes is not.

Yep, I’m pretty sure those sponsors will be back alright – although they may choose to wait until Woods returns from his recently announced break from the game.

A few years ago down here in Australia, we had a much publicized case whereby cricketing legend and national hero Shane Warne was dumped from the Channel Nine commentary team following allegations of extra-marital affairs and a subsequent separation from his wife. Five years or so later, Warne has been fully reinstated as a member of the commentary team and he is back at Nine in full swing.

Corporate sponsors/employers, it seems, do not stay away forever.

I don’t really see this as unfair. He didn’t break the rules of golf, so he can still play golf. He did break the rules of sponsorship deals with family oriented brands and so they are gone. He’s human. But even if he wasn’t famous there would be repercussions for his alleged behavior.