Tiger Woods Courts Followers On Twitter

Tiger Woods is embracing Twitter and courting followers, a bit less than a year after his affair was revealed to everyone. His golfing since then hasn't been the best, after an extended stay in rehab, and he is happy to have found friends, even if they are online. He sent out his first tentative tweet to tell people that he decided to try Twitter out.

Two hours after that post, he sent out a tweet in gratitude. He said it was, in fact, the Tiger Woods, and that tweeters are awesome. He thanked them for all their love, too.

Recently, Tiger gave an apology to Newsweek, saying that he is healing slowly emotionally, in the months after his affair was revealed. He admitted that he will never be able to really repair all the damage he did, especially to his family. But he says he'll keep trying. He let people know that the car accident pain healed a long time ago, but the pain in his soul seems to be more unsettling and complex. He said that the emotional pain has been harder to understand, and harder to ease. He admitted to making repeated mistakes and terrible choices, and to hurting the people he loved the most.

The Twitter account and Newsweek article were the first indications that Tiger Woods is healing and wants to heal his formerly golden reputation. Some, perhaps most, of the public is not so easy to forgive, but his welcome at Twitter buoyed his spirits.

Tiger Woods realizes by now that for people to believe that he has indeed changed, that he needs to stop stage-managing his life the way he did his ascent into stardom. Most people don't wish any ill will on Woods, and they don't feel that he deserves a life sentence for the mistakes he has made. But he needs to be more impromptu and off the cuff, like he was on Twitter, to be more believable. He can't just walk away from the quagmire he has made of his life.

After nearly a year when much has been written about Woods' carrying on with life after his fall from grace, we don't really know what he learned, or what he now stands for. And even after he did the apology, the exile and the re-entry into golf, he still leaves behind doubts in the minds of most people about how much he has actually changed.

Twitter was welcoming, though, and it probably gives Tiger hope that someday he will feel the love of fans, that he misses so much.