Tigers Woods had another tough day today. But this one was designed by his handlers — though, really, it was of his own design when he decided to have multiple affairs — and was meant to provide long-term benefits to his career.

Woods, looking tired and ashen, gave a lengthy and very public apology to the world today, almost saying sorry to everyone imaginable: his wife, his kids, his mother, friends, business partners, journalists, staff, fans and admiring youth across the globe.

It was a carefully scripted speech that lasted approximately 14 minutes, and while it covered a lot of ground, it did one thing very well: allowed Woods to take full responsibility for his actions. Woods was unequivocal that he was accountable, he was to blame and he disappointed everyone in his life. He was rightfully very critical of himself using words such as selfish, irresponsible and foolish. He said his behaviour was wrong. And he said all this repeatedly.

He even made promises to never repeat his mistakes again and to continue to seek help. But the promise that will irk the media the most was his promise not to talk about the status of his relationship with his wife, Elin, and the details of his many affairs. And he did this while lashing out at the media for hounding his wife, children and mother, and for reporting false stories about his use of performance-enhancing drugs.

In those moments of his speech, his voice rose and he was clearly angry. He was the same when denying reports that his wife attacked him on the night of his bizarre car accident. In fact, he strongly defended his wife saying she has never been violent and has only acted with “enormous grace and poise” throughout their whole personal nightmare. This was clearly the most emotional point of the speech as Elin, as a wife and mother, has earned the most sympathy.

But after this painful, cathartic release should the public feel sympathy for Tiger? Should the people who trusted him and looked up to him forgive him?

Before moving off the stage slowly and awkwardly, Woods asked people “to one day believe in me again.” His long and very clear apology was a step towards that. But this will depend on how he leads his life off the links from now on: with his family, his foundation and the community at large. Woods surprisingly talked about being raised as a Buddhist by his Thai mother, and how he has drifted away from his religion in recent years. That was an understatement. Moreover, it is unlikely that core Buddhist tenets of elimination of craving and focus on morality were ever core to his personality. Just before he won his first Masters in 1997 and rocketed to superstardom, he gave an interview to Vanity Fair in which he said less than perfect things:

“What I can’t figure out is why so many good-looking women hang around baseball and basketball. Is it because, you know, people always say that, like, black guys have big dicks?” At another moment, during a photo shoot where four women attended to his every need and flirted with him as he flirted back, he told a joke: He rubbed the tips of his shoes together and then asked the women, “What’s this?” They were stumped. “It’s a black guy taking off his condom.”

He offered lesbian jokes that day too.

It’s clear though that Woods doesn’t want the real Tiger Woods in the public. His speech makes it clear that he wants to return to the controlled, marketing-friendly image that his management team at IMG has worked on for over 12 years. He wants us to believe that he is the focused, hard working, good guy.

Perhaps, he should just accept who he is. Or should we believe that therapy, support groups, Buddhism and a now all-powerful wife (plus incredible public and personal failure) can turn Tiger Woods into the perfect icon that IMG projected for so long?

See Tiger Woods’ full apology here.