By TERRY NAU

Sports editor

Some things I think I think:
What if Tiger had cheated on the golf course instead of in the bedroom?
Golfers everywhere know the answer to that one. If people came out of the tall grass to verify 12 instances where the world’s greatest golfer moved his ball in the rough,  or dropped another one out of his pocket when a ball appeared lost, then the PGA Tour would have no other recourse than to ban its greatest player.
Fool around on your wife? No big deal. Rocco Mediate was quoted in a book last year that Tour players call their second wives “mulligans,” much like the do-over shot preferred by former President Clinton and many other people who don’t have a clue about the rules of golf. Tour players get divorced all the time, including Rhode Island’s own Brad Faxon (not his fault, from what I hear).
Most golfers, from the country club white collar golfers to the public course working man, abide by the rules of the game. To cheat is to risk disbarment from the fraternity of golfers at each club. In fact, there’s an old bromide that golfers often talk about at the 19th hole: “You can tell a lot about a man’s character by how he plays the game of golf.”
In the case of Tiger Woods, apparently not. We now learn that even his caddie, Steve Williams, had no clue about his employer’s off-the-course antics. That makes perfect sense. They both go their separate ways. It’s a rare PGA Tour player who actually lets his caddie into his life.
Tiger’s secret life was built around his old college pals. They are the ones who made sure Tiger’s women were sneaked up the back hallway to his room, or given the room next door.  It must have been a big joke to all of them, this idea of Tiger leading a double life and getting away with it.
Tiger’s agent, Mark Steinberg, had no clue. He just understood that when Tiger had a problem, the agent’s duty was to make a call to the L.A. law firm that “cleaned” up his problems.
It makes me laugh whenever athletes complain about the media being eager to tear celebrities apart. The media builds them up and then tears them down. Right. A guy like Tiger Woods makes his own reputation on the way up and on the way down. Only Tiger can restore our faith in him as a golfer (not as a person) by coming back to the PGA Tour early in 2010 and regaining his old form as the best golfer any of us have ever seen.
But will that be enough? I don’t think so. Tiger is always going to carry the baggage of his failings off the course. And I’m not even talking about cheating on his wife. It’s the lie that he set himself up as a family man and told anyone who would listen (including his wife)  that his family was the center of his life.
What bothers all of us who respected the man is The Big Lie, the idea that Tiger could play golf with the greatest integrity and then embarrass himself off the course. Of course, he’s not the first golfer to do this, and certainly not the first person to fool around. It’s just that he is Tiger Woods, Mr. Perfect, and now we find out he isn’t.
I actually met Tiger and his father, Earl, back in 1992 when they came to Wannamoisett Country Club for the Northeast Amateur. Tiger was around 16 then and his reputation as a young prodigy preceded him. It was a Tuesday afternoon when I got to the golf course and asked where Tiger was. The course was pretty empty, save for the adolescent phenom and his father. I found them on the 8th green. Tiger was hitting putts while Earl sat on one of those tri-pod seats 20 yards away, just watching.
It was pretty obvious that Tiger listened to everything his dad told him. That was a relationship we all became aware of over the years, especially as Earl grew weak from cancer and heart problems and eventually died in 2006. Tiger was heartbroken, took a month off from golf, then came back and missed the cut at the U.S. Open. We were all touched by his emotion and sense of loss. And when he won the British Open a few weeks later, his tears were easily understandable to any of us who loved their own fathers.
My guess is Tiger’s personal life started to go astray after Earl died. Dr. Freud would probably insert at this point the notion that Earl Woods also strayed in his two marriages, and lived apart from Tiger’s mom in the final years of his life.
Earl Woods taught Tiger everything he knew about mental toughness and keeping your composure during the heat of battle. And Tiger probably learned a few other things from his dad, too. Which makes him perfectly human.
Tiger will probably be more alone in 2010 than he ever has been in his life. It will be interesting to see how he uses golf to make his life better.
Will the golf course become his sanctuary away from the meddling of the media? Or will certain loud-mouthed fans never let him forget about The Big Lie he told us?
My guess is that fans like me will forgive Tiger at some point in the coming year. His wife is another story. But that’s none of my business. I’m only a golf fan. Just don’t expect me to believe anything that comes out of his mouth once the golf is done for the day. Nor should anyone else take the guy at this word ... unless he’s talking about winning golf tournaments. Then he’s still a man beyond reproach.