Tiger Woods: An Issue of Privacy

Tiger Woods has been in the news lately. I have been feeling irked in reading events revolving around him that the news media has been struggling to push out there. Here are my reasons.

First, who is Tiger Woods? He's perhaps one of America's most successful professional golfers of all time. In 2008, he became the highest-paid professional athlete, having earned an estimated $110 million from winnings and endorsements. In a nutshell, Tiger Woods is a terrific golfer with a keen eye on the ball.

Though Tiger made his mark as a 'golfer celebrity', he held steadfast to his private life. This is a right that every celebrity is naturally owing to them. This is a right that everyone should have, no matter how rich or poor, famous or not.

Everyone that knows me, knows that I'm a strong advocate for 'privacy rights'. I've written about it, and I live by it. Lately, I've become mildly disturbed by the news media - once again - hounding people for every little morsel of information they can get their hands on. Not to virtuously highlight, but to feed themselves like hungry vultures in callous action without once thinking whose life they may be marring.

I never understood why some people really delude themselves into believing that it's their right to know about a person's private life. Even if they happen to be famous to the public eye. It's rather interesting to see them spinning out lame excuses to justify their obvious illegitimate reasoning on wanting to satiate their personal curiosities.

This time, Tiger Woods is in the media spotlight, involving an incident of a middle-of-the-night car crash outside his Florida home last week. Unfortunately for Tiger, one incident triggered off another - his 5-year-old marriage confronting Jamie Grubbs.

At this point, after reading several news tabloids, I have to wonder why Jamie Grubbs - a Los Angeles cocktail waitress - would want to add fire to the car wreck. Maybe she's been sipping too many cocktails. Maybe she's just a weight to the fact that one never knows what will come out of the woodwork to pitch a few obstacles trying to reach hole 18 on the swampy green, just because they want to have a few days of public fame and attention. Is Jamie feeling a little uneasy about Tiger's fame and his marriage - the latter moreso? Who knows. Who cares. I don't.

One thing is certain, she obviously wants part of the action. Claiming to the news media that she had a 31-month affair with the world's #1 golfer, she's definitely reached her hole.

Hey Tiger, live your life with your family at peace. It may be a little tough for a while, but personally, I don't think you've lost your values, even if you're there apologizing to supporters.