There is a law in physics that objects, no matter the size, will fall to earth under the forces of gravity at the same rate.

Tell that to Tiger Woods.

The world's golfing icon cover boy, the $100 million per annum corporate endorsement king, with an 84 per cent approval rating, fell from grace faster than a lightning bolt from a southern thunderstorm. In a matter of two weeks, Tiger fell from his lofty perch to an approval rating of a mere 33 per cent. The scale of the fall was almost unprecedented, but the story had all the elements for the perfect storm of public scorn.

Woods guarded his private life more than his secret physical fitness workout routine. He was a child of a personal public relations machine that did not allow reporters, writers, golf commentators or the general public to see the real Tiger. From a toddling age of a few years, practicing his golfing skills on the Mike Douglass television show, Woods was a creation of the American stage parent: a life centered solely around becoming the best athlete one's parents desired to conceive for stardom. Woods has spent his entire life trying to please his parents quest for a golfing legend offspring. His entire life was spent on the golf course, in practice, in lessons; to create a golf machine that could consistently hit 300 yard drives, 200 yard wedge shots, and miracle birdies to win championships. On the cusp of breaking the sport's magical records of major championships, the private Woods was thrust into the very public sausage making machine called celebrity journalism.

It began on a Friday afternoon after Thanksgiving when the media bulletin merely said that Tiger Woods was involved in a car accident and was hospitalized in serious condition. The world was stunned by the news. It was later determined that that news alert was more then eleven hours old. That the car accident happened in the early morning hours, and that a shoeless Tiger backed out of his driveway running into a fire hydrant and then moving forward into a neighbor's tree. Was he careless, drunk at that hour? Then it was learned that his wife, Elin, used a golf club to smash one of the SUV's window in an attempt to get Tiger out of the driver's seat. But there was no airbag deployment, but Tiger appeared either semiconscious or dazed when paramedics arrived at the scene.

It would have been just another celebrity fender bender if not for the conflicting details that began to emerge as the days went by. The police wanted to speak to the parties about the incident, but they refused to cooperate. Reports surfaced that the National Enquirer was about to print a story about Tiger having an affair in Australia with a NY cocktail party hostess. Then the race was on to find out what really happened that night. Was there an altercation, a domestic dispute about the alleged affair? Were drugs or alcohol involved? The state police wanted to see Tiger's admission medical records, but the local state's attorney refused the subpoena. Later, when the police photographs of the vehicle were released, it clearly showed both back windows of the SUV smashed in - - - which makes no sense in the context of the initial story line. Tiger only made a web site statement denouncing the tabloid stories as lies, and demanded his privacy.

But then it came out that another woman claimed to have had a long term affair with Woods. And she had the text messages and voice mail to prove it. So the tabloid journalism machine went into over drive tracking down any lead or rumor. In a sudden avalanche, the papers began falling over themselves with one mistress after another. At it stands, there are between 14 to 16 alleged women on Tiger's tale of woe. The scale of the infidelity was unbearable to the conservative sponsors who paid Woods big money for his squeaky clean image.

In a game where the player calls a penalty on himself, Tiger has continually stonewalled the press and public about the story. He has yet to show in face in public, creating circumstantial evidence that there was a domestic altercation leaving some scar or facial injury to Woods. Having been sold to the public as the ideal athlete and family man, any charge of domestic violence would shatter that well crafted persona. In his third short statement on his web site a few days later, he finally admitted to his infidelity to the public. The admission showed that Woods lied about the basic aspects of the incident with his first public statements on the matter. It made people wonder.

Woods has not been used to the harsh limelight. Golf journalists are not really known for hard hitting investigative stories. In fact, most never really got to know Tiger as a person. Limited contact in the press tent or a shout out on the practice tee was about all the communication Woods desired from the press. Even his own fellow golfers remarked that he never hung around the locker room between rounds like others would tend to do. He was an intensely private person, but now, apparently for a totally different reason than the one public thought of the conservative family man.

The stories continue to spin wildly in cyberspace. And Tiger's reaction was mooted by design. If he could cheat on his wife and family, could he also be capable of cheating on the golf course? Then viewers and writers began to look back over the years: Tiger did bulk up dramatically into a weight lifters body mass. It was said that Tiger was a work-out-aholic. He was constantly in the gym. Then a Canadian physician's legal woes in Canada surfaced liking the doctor to unusual treatments and the use of HGH (human growth hormones.) When it was reported that Tiger's advisors called this doctor to treat Woods with a blood spin technique because Tiger was not healing fast enough from knee surgery (which in a self bias content that there would be less earnings if he was not playing golf), people speculated that Tiger's use of an unlicensed doctor with strange treatment routines totally out of place for a millionaire who could afford any FDA and AMA approved treatment in his home state. Tiger's camp says that Tiger has taken all the PGA Tour's drug tests (and we presume that he passed them all), but it begs the question if there is no test for HGH like in major league baseball, can any athlete attempt to skirt the rules? The whole baseball steroid scandal centered around a designer chem lab in San Francisco that were mixing doses of substances to mask the performance enhancing drugs for their clients.

Public relations mavens believed that if it was merely a personal matter, such as infidelity (even extreme infidelity or sex addiction), in time, the public would forgive and forget, especially if Tiger continued to dominate in tournaments. American society likes to build up its heroes, then tear them down back to earth, only to find some level of forgiveness if the fallen icon comes totally clean and sincerely asks for forgiveness and a second chance. Most people believe in mulligans in life.

But to date, Tiger has not seemed sincere about anything. He would rather hide as Howard Hughes Jr. than face the wrath of a prying public and press. He probably has no idea how to handle the situation because he has been a pampered star since he was a toddler. Athletes who have been spoon fed their own greatness cannot stomach the bitter taste of reality. In this case, Tiger never grew or matured because he never has had to grow up and mature as a person. All he was ever programmed to do was hit massive long drives and win golf tournaments.

Tiger was all about his legacy of breaking all of Jack Nicholas' professional records. A personal scandal involving his marriage and his private life would have had little impact in the hard numbers of his golf wins and championships. Being a wild frat party boy because you have all the money in the world to be foolish is sort of expected by certain levels of celebrity watchers. In some trash circles, bad behavior is actually a badge of honor. But if the story continues to poke around the his inner circle of advisors and physicians, with the whispers of HGH or PEDs, then the golfing numbers, his legacy, can be as tarnished as those records of Barry Bonds. And maybe that is the real reason for the Hiding; one of the first questions at any press conference would be “have you ever used steroids, HGH or any other performance enhancing substance?” And everyone will pick about his answer, his eye movements, and his response demeanor.

A few have speculated that Tiger may believe the glare of this media sun is not worth dragging himself and his family through the mud. He could just quit golf and retire: he has made hundreds of millions of dollars. He does not have to work another day in his life. But retiring at the peak years of being a competitive athlete would be something hard to swallow, unless the alternative is even harder to swallow. So Tiger has taken in indefinite leave of absence away from professional golf. The one question is when, or if, he will return to the tour.

It was reported that Tiger has turned off his cell phone and is in hiding at one of his houses. He sits at home eating cereal and watching cartoons. If true, it would be an ironic purgatory that he himself had created for the most photographed athlete in world is a prisoner in his own home from prying eyes of the press. The media has not been kind to him. He has been the butt of many late night jokes.

It will be different. By the end of 2009, Tiger has lost about half dozen of his sponsors. The PGA Tour is also losing several title sponsors because of the bad economy and corporate bankruptcies. The Tour had made Tiger its shining universe, and had grown the amount of money in the professional golf pot four fold since Woods turned pro. Two California university economists calculated that Tiger's sponsors had lost $12 billion in shareholder value since the scandal broke. It is well documented that when Tiger does not play on the weekend, television ratings are half of number of viewers when Tiger is playing the final rounds. Advertising dollars are tight so no one is willing to commit to pay for television spots if Tiger is not in the field. The loss of purses and prestige will hit all professional golfers as a result of Tiger's scandal. The Tour just has not publicly come to grips with the total situation.

2010 will be the Year of Tiger. When will he come back? Will he come back? Will he be able to save his marriage? What really happened that night? How dumb was he to leave text and voice mails with the harem of women? Did he pay these women off? Is there a tax or FBI investigation on whether payment of these women constituted a crime? Remember, Eliott Spitzer was charged for his adulterous behavior. Will the story grow around his Canadian doctor and/or the use of HGH? Which paper will pay $250,000 for the first post-accident picture of Tiger? What will Tiger say at his first interview?

There are so many questions that this story will not go away. Tiger may be too naive to realize that most times, a cover-up is worse than the actual events that one is trying to keep secret. Nixon was toppled from power not because of a break in at the Watergate, but the lies to official investigators to cover it up.