Tiger Woods is on the right path to recovery says Craig Gross, a minister with a special focus. He helps many in the porn industry and athletes who suffer from addictions to porn and other forms of sex addiction.Gross made it plain in a interview this afternoon that he wouldn’t have thought Woods was serious if he announced a time table for a return to golf.

Speaking from his base in Las Vegas, Gross said that phase one of Woods’ treatment consisted of breaking down the barriers to admitting he had a problem and taking full responsibility for the collateral damage. That had to be done all by himself.

Phase two will take Woods and his wife Elin through the grueling work of discovering if their marriage will survive and must be done with the couple spending time together but not necessarily living in one place.

“If he is really serious he’ll ignore golf for as long as it takes”, Gross told me. “If we hear about a quick return to the Tour it will coincide with the announcement that his marriage is over.”

This seems to parallel what the world heard from Tiger during his first public appearance. It also flies in the face of all the public relations pros and crisis managers who have droned on about why Woods was taking the wrong approach.

Even if the golfer is as diligent as he can be, he and his wife may be unable to stay together. “There is no more than a 50-50 chance of success for couples despite their good intentions”, Gross said.

The odds aren’t helped by the fact that Woods’ decision to seek treatment only came after he was publicly humiliated. “Forced recovery after being caught”, said Gross, “is not the best way to begin the process.”

Perhaps those who are judging Tiger Woods by standards best left for Toyota’s attempts to publicly rehabilitate itself or ball players who used performance enhancers should learn about how someone reconstructs a shattered life when he wants to fix himself, not just his image.

Gross explained that part of Woods’ recovery is to focus on the most important task at hand and live with the consequences of being judged on facts that might not be accurate. For a controlling personality that can be the most difficult part.

Paula Duffy is a national sports columnist for Examiner.com and the Huffington Post and regularly comments on sports/legal matters for radio affiliates of ESPN and Fox Sports. She founded the sports information site, Incidental Contact, is the author of a line of audio books designed for sports novices and in her spare time practices law in Los Angeles. 

In an atmosphere resembling a funeral more than a press conference, Tiger Woods read an apology from a written script today and by the time it was all said and done, he actually made George W. Bush look like an awesome public speaker.

The vast majority of the crowd was made up of Woods’ friends and a few family members including his mother who, in common funeral fashion, was dressed in black. Throughout the 13 minutes of the read, the ‘audience’ basically sat motionless staring ahead.

The delivery felt over-rehearsed and with no interaction with the audience, it was morgue-like.

It was hard not to imagine that the few times Woods looked directly into the camera to deliver a particular line, that there wasn’t a note on the paper saying ‘Look into the lens for several seconds now’; it felt that rehearsed and premeditated.

The question will be debated, ‘Was Tiger’s apology sincere?’ You be the judge, here’s the video here:

While this debate picks up steam over the weekend, the fact he hand-picked a few media members and basically held a closed-door meeting with instructions to the attendees not to ask any questions should come into play.

That in itself will have many people doubting Tiger’s sincerity and intentions.

During the speech Woods said he was sorry for the “irresponsible and selfish behavior I engaged in.” and referring to his friends said “Now, every one of you has good reason to be critical of me.”

Woods wife Elin was not in attendance and he explained that no personal questions about his wife and he will ever be answered.

He went on to say “I was unfaithful. I had affairs. I cheated. What I did was unacceptable and I am the only person to blame,” and “I do plan to return to golf one day. I just don’t know when that day will be. I don’t rule out it will be this year. When I do return, I need to make my behavior more respectful of the game.”

He closed out the address talking about the benefits of being brought up through his mother’s faith, Buddhism then after finishing at the podium he walked over and hugged his mother.

The sports airwaves are sure to be sizzling with this debate into next week and already got off to a hot start.

Skip Bayless on ESPN First Take questioned the sincerity of those few remarks delivered straight into the lens while Rick Reilly said he thought it was totally sincere.

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