Those who were there had the look of employees attending a required staff meeting with the boss.)

"I was unfaithful, I had affairs. I cheated,'' Tiger said unwaveringly. "What I did is not acceptable and I am the only person to blame."

He also chivalrously defended his wife, saying "Elin deserves praise not blame." Which was out of place because even a blind man can see that she is the one figure who has maintained her grace and dignity during Tiger's public relations debacle.

We learned that Tiger's going back to treatment; that he wants his save his marriage; that he will return to golf, maybe even later this year.

And though, as usual, he played this game superiorly, he also rightly said that we can't trust his words alone. "As Elin point out to me, my real apology to her will not come in the form of words. It wil come from my behavior over time."

Already, there are those who smell calculation. "Sorry, but I didn't buy it,'' wrote the Washington Post's Sally Jenkins. The New York Times praised Tiger's disciplined delivery, saying, "His apology may have seemed out of sync with his button-down public demeanor, but it was very much in line with his sportsmanship." And Richard Laermer, the author of Full Frontal PR, told the New York Daily News: "This was so rehearsed, he looked like a cartoon character." And the former PR chief for the New York Yanks dismissed the apology as an "infomercial."

"What I saw was arrogance," Rick Cerone told CNN.

My theory: the jury's still out. No one knows yet if Tiger is sincerely sorry or just handing in a cynical performance. But I read a passage today that defines the difference between winners and losers:

"A winner is one who responds authentically by being credible, trustworthy, responsive, and genuine, both as an individual and as a member of society,'' wrote James Jongeward, author of Born To Win.

"A loser,'' Jongeward asserts, "is one who fails to respond authentically."

If he's faking, the public won't bear the brunt. Tiger will, for having to live with himself.

Read "Deconstructing Tiger: Vanity Fair Delivers Satisfying End To Woods' Downfall" here.

Read "Tiger Woods: Not Black Like Me here.