Tiger Woods: Surprise to Ridicule to Just Plain Sad

At first, the Tiger Woods jokes were funny. Don't pretend you haven't laughed at a few. But as more and more women come forward to admit, deny and cash in, it's just sad.

Woods, who spent a lifetime controlling his image, has completely lost control – and from the looks of it, not for the first time. An extraordinary golfer who built his brand with excellence in one area of his life will now be as well-known for his failures in another.

This story is indestructible, and there's no telling how much worse it's going to get, as my colleague Luisita Lopez Torregrosa suggests.

In this way, Tiger Woods is a bit like Michael Jackson, a giant in the field of music, dogged to his life's end by problems he brought on himself. Those scandals obscure, even diminish, his art to many.

Perhaps Woods will return to No. 1, playing his way out of trouble as he has done so many times on the golf course. But he is facing hazards of a different sort.

Already, Woods' ubiquitous advertisements are fading from view, even at his own Tiger-less tournament, as reported in The New York Times.

As the parade of "women of dubious provenance" continues, I would call it Shakespearean. But it's much too tawdry for that.

I would advise his wife to see a doctor.

And that's no joke.