Today marks the start of the Quail Hollow Championship in Charlotte, North Carolina.  It’s the second tournament Tiger Woods is playing since Tigergate or whatever buzzworthy name you want to attach to his infidelity, and he’s been met with far less fanfare than in his Master’s debut.  Why?

A 24-hour news cycle is a gift and a curse; we now have far greater access to information that would have taken forever to dig up, but we also become inundated with the same story, occasionally with a different tilt.  When Tiger crashed that Escalade, we became privy to the fact that this mythical, dominant figure was in fact, fallible.  That he had his own 99 Problems, and indeed a b*tch was one (or 12, but who’s counting?).

Tiger was devoured in the press.  A man that notoriously protected his private life was suddenly open to ridiculous amounts of scrutiny, and a laser-intense media focus.  We’ve *possibly* seen pics of him in rehab, heard his public apology, seen the segments highlighting the paparazzi posted outside of his child’s school… and now that he’s back doing what he’s most famous for, he’s no more than a highlight.

“If it bleeds, it leads” is the timeless saying that comes to mind.  While everyone was up in arms, outdoing themselves to vilify Tiger, he was a constant fixture on the news, blogs, SportsCenter.  Cats were shocked that a professional athlete would have extramarital affairs, even though history has shown us that his behavior was more the norm than an anomaly.  Most folks who are profanely wealthy are only as faithful as their options; this applies to CEO’s, lawyers, athletes, everyone.  Add in celebrity status as the “it guy” in your given profession, you’ll be pressed and tempted every time you leave the house.  Temptation lurks and when it’s tapping your shoulder 365, you’re gonna look at least once.  Tiger looked (a few times, yes), and he was essentially the scum of the earth in the eyes of some.

Now, Tiger’s troubles are almost as removed from the collective mind as Haiti (yeah, I went there).  After ad nauseam reporting, the public has finally digested the last morsel and no one seems to care that Tiger Woods is a “broho.”  Fair enough, everyone is certainly entitled to their views, but all that’s left is a feeling that the initial “news” was met with faux-outrage.  How is it possible to rail against a man, show the utmost contempt for his existence, and then simply not care after a month or so passes?  A gut reaction is partly to blame, but we’re brought back to the 24-hr news machine.  Someone else was bound to screw up and divert our attention; after all we can only hate one thing at a time, right?

Tiger Woods is back on the golf course, and he still counts a rather large number of supporters.  Undoubtedly there are more than a few folks who were ready to give him the Jesse Jackson treatment (see: Jesse and Obama’s nuts) in the ranks.  It’s cool, though; those folks really hate Ben Roethlisberger.