'He Is Beyond PR Redemption'

It's almost to the point where Plaxico Burress can laugh at Tiger Woods. OK, well, Plaxico will have to get out of jail first. Seriously, have we ever witnessed the total collapse of a sports and media icon as quickly as Tiger has sunk? A mere two weeks ago he was a ubiquitous presence on commercials during sports and primetime programming and now he's radioactive.

"He is beyond PR redemption. He is in public relations hell right now. There is not a PR man on Earth who can restore his image," said public relations maven Howard Rubenstein.

Holed up for nearly two weeks, Woods has not once emerged from his home into public view. He has addressed the public only through his Web site, issuing a vague apology days after the bizarre Nov. 27 car accident that raised questions about a fight with his wife and spurred nearly a dozen allegations of marital infidelity.

"Last week he had a big PR problem. I think it's really changed this week," Howard Bragman, CEO of Fifteen Minutes Public Relations, told "Good Morning America" today. "Now my gut is that he's got a life problem. There are some major issues he has to confront."

As the tabloids continue to add names to Woods' scorecard of alleged sex partners, each further tarnishing the golfer's once-squeaky-clean image, there is little the world's leading golfer can do to staunch the bleeding, Rubenstein said.

If Rubenstein thinks you've got a bad image, rest assured you most certainly do.

"He's hemorrhaging; even a transfusion won't help. He can never re-establish that perfect image of a happily married family man. Never," said Rubenstein. The best he can hope for is to re-establish his image as a golfing champion. If he wins consistently and doesn't sink to 4 or 5, he'll be applauded again – but just for golf. There will still be plenty of snickering behind his back."

But even a return to the golf course could turn into a public nightmare for the man many competitors once feared.

"The aura of invincibility that Tiger had -- how does he ever get that back?" ABC News sports consultant Christine Brennan told "Good Morning America" this morning. "Now he's a laughingstock."

Golf is a very unforgiving game. Coming off surgery Woods failed to win a major last year and one thinks he'd be hard pressed to even be able to focus on playing a single practice round of golf, let alone a major. Not only that, the gold landscape is littered with formerly great players who got the yips and vanished from the radar. Could the mushrooming scandal surrounding Woods undo his game as well?

His fall from grace is breathtaking and still far from over. Every day another woman pops up and his image sinks further. It's now gotten to where a British tabloid is openly soliciting stories from women.

Americans can be very forgiving when someone has an indiscretion or two or a run-in with the law. Yet this avalanche of bad news for Woods could well ruin him permanently.