…or is it? Forget the 24-hour coverage of the Winter Olympics. Yesterday’s worldwide top news story was Tiger Woods’ public apology for cheating on his wife–repeatedly. While many could care less, this was a huge ordeal! Could you imagine having the whole world tune in to your admittance of guilt and promising change and recovery? Yeah, I didn’t think so. It would be mortifying! This is soooooo a modern day “scarlet letter” classic! But did Tiger’s apology come too late? I mean, come on. It’s been about two months since the story broke and he became the new poster child for the show Cheaters. Does the old cliche “better late than never” apply here? Is there still hope?

For Tiger, we all get that he had a lot to lose. And being a public figure requires a formal statement, which is probably part of the reason why it took so long. But for the rest of us, or most of us, waiting this long would be too late, let alone accepting the apology at all. Why? Because the idea of “trust” is completely thrown out the window. Trust is one of the fundamental foundation blocks to any relationship. Regardless if one chooses to accept the apology and forgive, that’s a tough comeback! While there are a multitude of layers of trust, this wasn’t an “I spent the money on a new pair of shoes instead of paying the cable bill,” type of situation. This was an “all you can eat assorted sushi Tiger roll” type of situation. How do you come back from that? While Tiger’s wife, Elin, is willing to support his path to recovery, do you really think she’ll ever trust him again? She had it right when she stated “[his] apology will not come in the form of words, but will come in the form of action and [his] behavior.” That still doesn’t answer the question though.

In most matters of infidelity, apologies are nothing more than an ask for another chance. This, of course, is a slippery slope if the chance is granted. “I’ll give you another a chance. But that means I get the passwords to your email and voice mail, you have to be home by 6:30PM everyday, have lunch with me everyday, and call me every hour on the hour.” What idiot would accept those terms? (I could actually name a few, but I won’t.)

Apologies can also be a closing statements to end the relationship all together. “Sorry, I f’d up. Didn’t mean to hurt you…but I refuse to give you my email and voice mail password, have no idea what time I’ll get home everyday, can’t take you to lunch with me daily, and will most likely forget to call you every hour on the hour.” I’d say this is a much more honest and sincere apology.

To each his own, I guess.

Good luck Tiger! Hope to see you back in full schwing! (I meant “swing.” Full Swing!)