This morning, Navigator Chair Jaime Watt was interviewed by Canada AM’s Seamus O’Regan:

O’REGAN: After days of denial and evasion, Tiger Woods has admitted that he let his family down. The surprise apology appeared on his website just hours after a woman claiming to be Woods’s longtime mistress released an incriminating audiotape.

So far, the scandal has not cost the Tiger Woods brand, with Nike, Gillette, Gatorade saying they are standing by their star. But with word of another woman speaking out and a press conference scheduled for today, how long will that last?

With his opinion on the story, public relations and crisis management expert Jaime Watt is with us in Ottawa.

Good morning, Jaime.

WATT: Good morning, Seamus.

O’REGAN: How’s he doing right now? Give us your appraisal. Pass or fail?

WATT: Well, I have to say it depends. He’s got two audiences he’s got to make things right with. The first is his family, his wife and his kids and his parents. I have no view on what he’s done them.

The other of course are the people that made him rich, and those are his fans. And on that one it’s a big fail. The golden boy missed a golden opportunity.

I actually think he had a spectacular opportunity to take advantage of that pedestal that people had put him on, that special place that his fans reserved for him, to actually apologize in an exemplary way, to man-up and to do it in a more forthright, more forthcoming way than anyone had done it before. I think if he’d actually done it that way he’d be in a lot better shape today.

O’REGAN: It was in stark contrast to David Letterman who not that long ago appeared on his show and just came right out and said this is what’s going on, folks, before anybody even knew about it. Is that the gold standard compared to what Tiger Woods is doing right now?

WATT: Well, it’s certainly a better approach. At the end of the day, clients always hope against hope that these things won’t come up. They hope against hope that they don’t have to go and make that fateful apology [overtalk] –

O’REGAN: And if they ignored it it’ll go away.

WATT: If they ignored it it’ll go away. They hope against hope they don’t have to have one of those horrible interviews with their long-suffering partner sitting beside them and so on.

But at the end of the day, these things don’t go away until you do that. That’s the price you’re supposed to pay. It’s sort of like a celebrity who gets in trouble for drugs or alcohol. The only way you make those stories go away is by saying you’re going into rehab.

I mean, we sort of have an expectation of what comes next. And Tiger hasn’t done it.

But the real question is that Tiger is also a big business. And Gillette and Nike and those brands have got an awful lot invested in him. So, they’re aligned as well with this thing going away and getting fixed up pretty fast, because they don’t want to part company with him. That’s a disaster for them.

O’REGAN: Yeah, and just let me add to that point, because when you look at the numbers they are astounding. He makes about $10 million a year from the PGA, but he makes $100 million a year on average from endorsements from Nike, Gillette, Accenture, Tag Heuer, Electronic Arts, Gatorade. I mean, he is the first billionaire, according to Forbes magazine, the first billionaire pro athlete. There is a lot of money on the line.

If you were a part of one of those companies, you’ve got a lot of money on the line based on his reputation. Do you stick by him?

WATT: Well, you stick by him but I think you’re having a pretty stern phone call with him, like saying, “Look, sport, you’d better deal with this and you better deal with this fast. It’s in no one’s interest for us to cut and run.”

Remember what happened to Kellogg’s when they cut and run with Michael Phelps on the dope smoking issue. It killed Kellogg’s. It was a big mistake for them.

So, these brands, these companies, want to be aligned with Tiger, they want him to recover. Everyone’s interests are in line. He’s just got to do a little better job.

I think, for example, cancelling his appearance at his own golf tournament was ridiculous.

O’REGAN: Yeah, but some of them are saying we don’t comment on future marketing strategies, what they may do in the future. They are standing by him right now. What if we get more voicemails? What if they get more e-mails, more text messages and more women coming out and saying, “Well, me too.”?

WATT: Well, exactly. And that’s the whole problem. And that’s where you’re not going to see anybody make a definitive statement. Any company would be crazy to make a definitive statement when they don’t have all the facts.

And it looks like there’s a lot more. Usually in these situations where we see one — I mean, this isn’t the only time. I don’t know specifically with Tiger, but in most cases these things aren’t just one-offs. This is part of a pattern of behaviour. And when one person starts it others become emboldened and all of a sudden you see a big parade. So, I imagine there will be more. And I imagine it will get a bit rough.

The thing that companies will have to make is a calculation. As much as they’ve got invested in him, you know, which way should they go? And I think you’re going to see them fight like crazy to preserve their relationship with him and help him preserve his reputation.

O’REGAN: There is a lot on the line.

WATT: No kidding.

O’REGAN: Jaime, thank you so much. Good to talk to you.

WATT: Always good to talk to you, Seamus.