Tiger's first one-on-ones more of same

ESPN and Golf Channel both just ran  five-minute one-on-one interviews with Tiger Woods, in which he was contrite, as he was in his public apology, and offered no glimpse behind the veil, just as he did in his public apology Feb. 19.

      When Tom Rinaldi of ESPN asked Woods what happened on Thanksgiving night--the auto crash that set in motion the scandal that changed Woods' life--he said that would remain between him and his Wife Elin.

       Kelly Tilghman, the Golf Channel announcer who was suspended last year after a comment about Woods that was considered racially insensitive and who was forgiven by Woods, asked the same question and was told, "It’s all in the police report, they investigated it and they have it on public record, there’s a lot of stuff between Elin and I that will remain private and that’s about it."

     Tilghman said later in an interveiw with colleague Rich Lerner that Ari Fleischer, the former press spokesman in the George W. Bush White House, has taken himself out of the team advising Woods because he was becoming too much a part of the story. It was not clear if Fleischer had been the one who advised Woods to do the one-on-ones. Fleischer, now in private public relations practice, had advised Mark McGwire on his one-on-one with Bob Costas when he admitted his steroid use.

        The one-on-ones, limited to five minutes apiece, appear part of Woods' strategy for a comeback that will take place the week of April 5 at the Masters. It seems that the table has been set for that week also: Woods will not put any restrictions on what questions can be asked, but he won't answer the ones he doesn't want to answer.