With all the questions that surround Tiger Woods, how do you look at him?

The first question that comes to mind is, of course, "What was he thinking ...?"

That is the billion dollar question and one that can only be answered by Tiger Woods.

How compelling, timely and complete the answer to that question is will go a long way in determining how quickly this cascading dark adventure will tumble to an end and a new chapter can begin to unfurl. Until Woods makes an appearance of some sort to describe in detail, once and for all, what the daylights was going on, for what appears to be years, he will continue to be a punch line.

What took AT&T so long to make a decision in dropping Tiger as a sponsor, yet remain as a sponsor to the AT&T National PGA Tour event, a tournament that Tiger had hosted? And what is to be made of the quote from PGA Tour representative Ty Votaw, who said that Tiger will not serve as host for the 2010 event to be held at the Aronimink Golf Club outside of Philadelphia (the City of Brotherly Love no less), June 28 through July 4, due to his indefinite leave from professional golf?

Does that mean that Woods will be on his indefinite leave from professional golf through this event? And if Woods does indeed come back to play, say, at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March, where he is the defending champion and the course literally lies in his backyard, as a tune-up for The Masters beginning April 5, will he not be welcome to play in his own event where he is the defending champion?

After all the money he has made for sponsors, agents, retailers and of course the PGA, does the Tour believe it can tell Tiger that he cannot play in an event created for him?

What about the sponsors that have bailed so far? Accenture was the first of the big ones to go, saying that Woods is "no longer the right representative" of the consulting firm's company values. OK, how many of us use a consulting firm?

Then Gillette, a unit of Proctor and Gamble, said it would not air ads for its razors that include Woods or include him in public appearances. OK, how many of us use razors? Swiss watchmaker Tag Heuer also announced that it would "downscale" its use of Woods' image in ads for the foreseeable future. OK, how many of us can use our outrageously expensive Swiss time piece to tell when the foreseeable future arrives?

There is no question that Woods's actions have long-lasting financial ramifications, both for himself and the companies he "represented." There is no way to repair the damage. There is time to move forward and move on, but for any of that to occur, Woods has to first reach out to the general golf public and (gasp!) to the golf media that he has been able to keep at arm's length for almost his entire professional career.

In certain instances, absence make the heart grow fonder, but if things are as they appear right now and you believe reports that are flying in from various sources, what kind of "work" can Tiger be doing with his marriage when he is AWOL and his wife is being spotted all over the globe?

If Tiger had never married and ran around the world winning tournaments with different blonde on his arm at every Tour stop, he'd have been the George Clooney of golf; everybody digs him, everybody gets it, women want to be with him and men want to be him. Now, there is a group of guys who jump every time their cell phone lights up.

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