The golf legend should take a page from "The David Letterman Handbook on Extramarital Affairs" and come clean. By refusing to speak out publicly, he’s inflicting even more pain on his family and allowing the media circus to escalate.

I can see the TV Movie of the Week: We open as a beautiful blonde woman brandishing a golf club chases her handsome husband around their lavish mansion, shouting expletives. He flees to his Cadillac Escalade, as she follows, swinging at the SUV with so much force that she smashes the rear window. The man, shaken, crashes into a hedge, a fire hydrant, and finally a tree. We flash back to happier days, as the movie tells the story of a billionaire golf pro’s fall from grace.

The American public loves to see the rich and mighty fall. Even a popular athlete like Tiger Woods—a child prodigy who began playing the sport at the age of two, and grew up to be one of the most successful golfers of all time—couldn't escape the public’s insatiable appetite for every bit of gossip about his marital strife and infidelity.

I’m surprised that a man who is smart enough to parlay his career into $100 million a year in endorsement deals could so grossly underestimate the damage that would result from insisting the matter was private. When you’re a public figure, your personal life is not private. Has it been easier on his wife Elin Nordegren, who married Tiger in 2004, to have a new woman step forward each day claiming to have had an affair with Tiger Woods? The number of “other women” is now in the double-digits—and counting.

This past week Elin has been out of sight. She's hiding out with their two young children—-daughter Sam, 2, and son Charlie, 10 months. Yesterday reports swirled that Elin's mother fainted, prompting Elin to call 911. Clearly Tiger Woods isn't lessening the stress his wife and family are going through by allowing the media to take the lead with his story.

In his only public statement, Tiger didn’t talk about his desire to put his wife’s needs first but insisted that his privacy was his top concern: "No matter how intense curiosity about public figures can be, there is an important and deep principle at stake which is the right to some simple, human measure of privacy.”

News flash, Tiger: your refusal to speak has turned every detail of your private life into fodder for the tabloids. You haven't succeeded in protecting your privacy, and you have subjected your wife and family to additional suffering and embarrassment.  ??Tiger also chided the media in his statement, saying: "The many false, unfounded, and malicious rumors that are currently circulating about my family and me are irresponsible.” I believe Tiger is being irresponsible by putting his unrealistic desire for privacy above his wife’s need for dignity. Put an end to this circus, Tiger. Sure, everyone doesn’t have their own TV show like David Letterman to tell their side of the story. But Letterman avoided what could have been a tabloid feeding frenzy by coming clean on his show about the affairs he had with his staffers. Letterman’s willingness to cop to what he called his “creepy” behavior allowed his viewers to move on.

Sit down with a reputable newscaster, Tiger. Tell your story and finally, put your wife first--give her some peace.