Even as Tiger Woods remained hidden from public view on Tuesday in his home, or somewhere else, he has also begun to fade from view in his role as ubiquitous corporate pitchman for an array of products.
When last seen in public, Woods was lying on the pavement in front of his home near Orlando, Fla., on Nov. 27, moments after driving over a fire hydrant and crashing his Cadillac Escalade into a neighbor's tree. The last time his corporate persona appeared on television was two nights later when, according to Nielsen, he was in a 30-second spot for the Gillette Co. that aired Nov. 29.
Since then, Woods has had plenty of television face time, but not the type he or any of his sponsors could have enjoyed.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday morning, his mother-in-law was taken from his home by ambulance after a 911 call at 2:36 a.m. from the house. She was treated and released from a hospital in Ocoee, Fla.
Barbro Holmberg, the mother of Elin Woods, had been staying with the couple over the Thanksgiving holiday and was on the scene at the time of Woods' crash.
Dan Yates, a spokesman at Health Central Hospital, told The Associated Press that Holmberg was suffering from stomach pain and was released Tuesday afternoon. He said her condition was not serious, but he would not elaborate, citing privacy laws.
Woods was the butt of jokes on a "Saturday Night Live" skit and has been on the receiving end of barbed humor from every late-night network host. But he was nowhere in evidence in commercials televised during the Saturday or Sunday NBC broadcasts of the Chevron World Challenge - the tournament he has hosted since 2001.
The networks said no ads featuring Woods had been pulled by marketers after a week filled with reports of more extramarital affairs linked to him. But no ads featuring Woods ran, either - even during the Chevron tournament, which benefited his foundation.
"There's still an opportunity for Tiger to stop the bleeding," said Mike Paul, the president and senior counselor at MGP & Associates public relations in New York. "But he cannot just remain silent, out of sight. He should have done a one-on-one interview within the first 24 to 48 hours. He should have done something like Oprah, and he needs to do that type of interview - and soon."
Because the number of reported extramarital affairs involving Woods quadrupled from the two alleged at the start of the crisis, and because there has been neither acknowledgment nor denial from the Woods camp, the void has been filled with ridicule, a toxic element that crisis managers fear more than most.
Jokes about Woods, skits about Woods and a Taiwanese television computer-enhanced video that gave its version of the car crash and became a viral sensation with more than 2 million views in a matter of days all have created a heretofore unthinkable image of the golfer, whose aura of control has been overarching.
The game between the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Houston Texans featured a bizarre halftime bit featuring a man in a tiger suit dressed in Woods' trademark Sunday outfit of red shirt and black cap being chased around the field by a blond woman wielding a golf club.
The maelstorm of publicity has even ensnared publications like Golf Digest. Its January cover features Woods standing behind President Barack Obama, who is lining up a putt. The headline reads, "10 Tips Obama Can Take From Tiger."
Every late-night host has made a staple of Woods ridicule. Monday night started with Jay Leno joking that it was nice of Oprah Winfrey to offer her couch to Woods as a confessional but that the invitation should have come from Jerry Springer. David Letterman, in the midst of his own affair-driven repair job, made Woods the focus of the Top 10 List (How Tiger Can Improve His Image). Jimmy Fallon did an impression of a whispering golf announcer keeping track of Woods' progress, and Craig Ferguson took his swings on "The Late, Late Show."
In a devastating line that would not have been imaginable two weeks ago, George Lopez linked Woods with O.J. Simpson by joking that the only way Woods could improve his standing in the black community would be to get in a slow-speed chase involving a white Bronco.
Every joke, every skit and every ridiculous comparison serves to strip away the veneer of control and leave Woods exposed. Paul said he believed that if Woods was to salvage a marketable image, he must do a complete about-face. He contends that the carefully crafted on-course image and off-course marketing image built on the indomitable, invincible dominator must go.
"The whole point is that he needs to do the opposite of what he's been doing. The opposite of privacy is you have to be transparent," Paul said.
"The opposite of clamming up your heart and not showing your emotions is to have a repentant heart and allow us to see you vulnerable.
"Ideally, he should have his wife with him when he does the interview. And if she can't be there he should still do it. And he should say, 'We're going through a very difficult time right now. My wife does not want to get a divorce. She isn't comfortable standing alongside me right now. She's very upset and rightly so. I breached our marriage in a very significant way and I had dozens of relationships with women.'"
Unless Woods gets in front of the public, and soon, Paul believes he will continue to be diminished in their eyes and, perhaps more important, in the eyes of the sponsors who pay him more than $100 million a year.