Here's the very first photo of Tiger Woods since his staggeringly stupid adulterous shenanigans were revealed for the world to see thanks to the National Enquirer. Tiger went into hiding at a “sex rehab” to let things cool off for a while, during that time there has been not a pip from him. His wife Elin Woods on the other hand has been the picture of doting scorned mother staying strong, taking care of her children while weathering the storm gracefully.

Now, we get to watch the very fascinating, very strategic, Global Star Image Rehabilitation^TM game plan unfold. The plan has been dusted off awaiting the perfect timing for the return and now we get to see how its rolled out. Will it succeed? His PR team so shockingly under-served Tiger when the scandal broke that I'm not so sure how successful this PR Recovery Game^TM is going to work out for Tiger. I hope he fired all his advisers, PR etc and hired a new team for the image rehab he needs to do now. Sucky team not withstanding , the PRRG started today with the photo above of Tiger jogging, the photos were released by Getty Images which means they were staged for release today, to coincide with the announcement of Tiger's Mia Culpa on Friday when the PRRG kicks into high gear. He apparently plans to apologize for his behavior he plans to do this by:

take it way… Bloomberg:

Tiger Woods will be speaking to “a small group of friends, colleagues and close associates at 11:00 a.m. EST Friday at the TPC Sawgrass Clubhouse in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida,” a statement from his agent said , adding, “Tiger plans to discuss his past and his future and he plans to apologize for his behavior.”

No questions or cameras will be allowed, but a pool of reporters will be at the event.

That's right, Tiger will read a statement in-front of “friends” but will not be man enough to withstand media questioning? Does he plan to keep hiding for the rest of his life? He WILL have to answer some questions from the press, this press/statement reading, would have been the perfect opportunity to seat there and take all the beating he can from the press and be done with it. He could have answered the questions, been contrite without revealing too much, infact he could have done what politicians do and accepted questions but answered them with prepared “talking points” that would have sufficed, rather than the “I ain't talking” strategy that invites more questions and more scrutiny. May be this is all strategic, say little, come back to the game and WIN then answer questions.

Notice in the new pictures, he's clad in NIKE gear, somewhere out in NIKE World they're holding their collective breath for Tiger to return to the game. On Friday Tiger will no doubt announce his return to the golf course, whichever tournament he picks as the first one for his return, the PGA will immediately start auctioning off ad space to the highest bidders who'll be falling all over each other racing to buy ads because that tournament will be the most watched Golf tournament of this decade. Don't believe me? just watch, I'll certainly be watching too.

So the world waits for Friday and the game begins. I'll be live blogging the “statement” read and following this story closely.

Will Tiger Woods successfully roar back? 

Click below for more Tiger photos released today.