I'll add to this that if he takes too much time off he is going to have problems with his sponsors.

To tell the truth I didn't read much about this whole Tiger Woods crap (don't really care about golf), but I just found this on google news:

http://msn.foxsports.com/golf/story/10513486/We'll-never-look-at-Tiger-the-same-way-again

when you get 900 million dollars from sponsors, 9x more then he makes from actually playing golf, he should be held to a high moral standard. Personally I don't care, but he built up the this type of image himself, and he has nobody to blame but himself for what is happening to him now.

So far there hasn't been much backlash from his actual sponsors.  However, if he takes an extended leave from golf, I guarantee that that his sponsors would be more pissed off at that than this controversy.

LOL! Thats just plain inaccurate. My child throws a temper tantrum in the middle of walmart. Thats not illegal, so there shouldn't be any consequences? What about cheating on school tests, thats not illegal either, so again, no consequences?

Gillette announced it plans to phase out Tiger Woods in ads while he takes time off. It did not say it was going to cut ties with him. Also, Gaterade annouced it was cancelling the Tiger-branded drink (the situation made a business decision easier).

Admittedly, the sports game by EA may be the easiest sponsorship to keep.  So far, only Nike (a sporting goods company) has said it publically it is standing with Tiger, despite efforts to get all the sponsors to make that statement. Essentially, it appeaers the others may have wanted Tiger for his good public perception -- which is now in tatters.

Mike from Morgantown

To those who note that Tiger's actions not being a crime, some states still have (unenforced) laws on their books in regard to moral behavior that actually would make it so. Plus, virtually every major religion has a prohibition against this type of action.

To those who note that the media is making a big deal out of it, if Tiger wanted to play the field, don't get married and have children. Then this would not be an issue. But when you try to present yourself a perfect family man and have a dozen women saying they had intercourse with you after you were married, that becomes a public perception issue.

I just heard about the Gillette announcement today.

The Gatorade announcement has been in the works for three months, although the timing of it is highly suspicious.

Guess he wont be sinking his balls in holes anytime soon

Wokka wokka wokka

I think its funny how people talk about tarnished image and focus on tiger when they forget about Nike's dark sweat shop secrets.

Its all about finding someone who is easy to hate and channel all of "your" problems on so "you" feel like a saint. As long as there is someone untouchable that "you" can see as a bad person it helps "you" forget about all the shitty things you do and helps "you" justify it.

Quotations for general not direct :)

so what? Sweat shops are arguably not even a bad thing, although that's not the issue here.  Nike took a massive PR blow when the news came out they were making their shoes in sweat shops, the popularity of Nike went down the tubes because of it. 

This isn't about channeling your problems on someone who is easy to hate, this is all about money.  The same way Nike lost loads of money from the PR hit, other sponsors will lose money because of tiger's problems.  It has nothing to do with whether you believe it is any of our business what Tiger is doing or not.  Bottom line is that there are enough people that care that it effects the bottom line for these companies that are using Tiger.  This is what Tiger signed up for, if he didn't want the responsibility of it then he shouldn't have signed hundreds of millions of dollars worth of contract from sponsors.  If he had no sponsors and he just played golf there wouldn't be a problem here.  Sure he would take a hit in the media but it wouldn't effect his cash flow from golf.