What Would Tiger Woods' Father Do?

He was his everything.

So here we are, nearly four years after the death of Earl Woods -- who famously was the lion involved with "Training a Tiger," which was the title of one of his three books -- and his son's life is suddenly a slice buried in the high rough.

The revelations of infidelity in his five-year marriage. That SUV crash near his Orlando home last November involving a fire hydrant, a tree, a broken back window, a golf club and a slew of questions. Sponsors bolting to trim more than a few pennies from his $1 billion in endorsements. Reported stays at sex-addiction clinics. A live news conference on national television featuring a visibly broken soul.

Plus, even though Woods has been spotted during the last few days working on his conditioning as well as his driving, chipping and putting, nobody knows when he'll return to the game that has been obsession.

This isn't close to the polished, disciplined and mostly perfect Tiger on and off golf courses that we saw when his father was around.

Coincidence? Not a chance.

"Yeah, his father would have been on top of everything. In fact, Tiger wouldn't have been anywhere close to this mess if Earl was alive, because Tiger, as a rule, wouldn't do anything that he thought would embarrass his father," said Don Slater, 71, pausing. Then he added, while thinking about Tiger's various issues out of nowhere, "Seems like to me, he just went off his rocker. That's why he needed Earl."

Who is Slater? For one, he has spent decades as one of the kings of community service in Manhattan, Kansas, where he does everything from running a tutoring program for children to delivering meals around town to the elderly. A few years ago, he was honored in Washington D.C. by the AARP's National Retired Teachers Association for his work with young people, and Slater wasn't even a teacher during his working career. He was a school custodian.

Here's the other thing: Slater still lives at the Manhattan home of his youth on Yuma Street, which is a block away from the house where "Squirrel," otherwise known as Earl Woods, grew up as the youngest of six children to Maude and Miles Woods. Both of Earl's parents died within years of each other when he was around 13.

Afterward, Earl was raised by a combination of his older sister, Hallie Belle, and the close-knit folks in that African-American community on the city's south side.

Said Slater, who was seven years younger than Earl, "We had a village back then, and the parents weren't selfish. They looked at everybody as their kids. It was during the time of segregation, so everything we did was within the block or so [in which we lived]. We had our grade school, the USO, the park. The high school was two blocks north. So we didn't have to go anywhere for entertainment. We all interacted with each other, and we all knew each other and everybody's personality."

According to Slater, Earl Woods was so introspective that "he'd rather have a good book than a friend." He also was a prolific athlete. He even turned down a contract to catch for the powerful Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro Leagues to become the first black baseball player in what currently is the Big 12 Conference. That was during the early 1950s when Earl went to Kansas State.

Later, Earl entered the Army, where he rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel. He served two tours of duty in Vietnam as a Green Beret. Along the way, while stationed in Thailand, he met and then married Kultida, his second wife. She gave birth to Tiger in 1975, and you know the rest of that story.

It was the Tiger story, with Earl in every chapter.

Earl exposed Tiger to golf at 10 months old. Earl rattled keys or started up the golf cart during Tiger's backswing to get his son used to distractions. Earl promoted the coming of Tiger's greatness early and often, which led to an appearance with his little golfing son on the Mike Douglas Show. Earl was there to hug Tiger after nearly every one of his victories as an amateur and as a professional.

Earl also kept Tiger from roaring during controversy. There was 1997, for instance, when Tiger won the first of his four Masters titles. With folks fuming, Fuzzy Zoeller claimed he was joking when he referred to Tiger as "that little boy" and that Woods shouldn't bring "fried chicken or collard greens or whatever the hell they serve" to the next year's Champions Dinner when Tiger would get to decide the menu.

Tiger accepted Zoeller's apology, but Tiger added that he didn't believe Zoeller was joking. That was before Tiger said he wouldn't discuss the matter any further -- and then gave way to his father (as in he was muzzled by his father). Since Earl saw advertising dollar leaving their universe if Tiger got into a racial debate involving the hugely popular Zoeller, Earl shrugged for cameras. Then he told anybody who would listen that he thought Zoeller WAS joking.

Just as Earl used his military training to leap on grenades for Tiger back then, he would do the same now.

"You have to remember that Earl was a very intelligent person, and you have to remember that his training was in psychology," said Slater, of Earl, who minored in psychology at Kansas State. "You also know something else, that he was good at brainwashing techniques, and that's what he did with Tiger, really, to make him such a great golfer. So there is no question that, during the night when Tiger had the accident [with his SUV], Earl would have been there telling him to handle it right away and to not wait around like he did. He would have called a press conference, and he would have been right by his side, calling the shots."

Slater, by the way, helped create the Wall of Fame at Manhattan High School, and he was responsible for Earl as a recent inductee. Nearly a decade before that, when Earl returned to town for his 50th high school reunion, Slater said he had a conversation with Earl involving the kryptonite for golfing's Superman.

"I said, 'Earl, what can bring Tiger down?' And that's when he flat-out told me -- women," said Slater, which brings us to this: Earl often urged Tiger in private and public to remain single as long as possible, because the father thought marriage would ruin the son's golf game.

Well, that and the son's life -- at least for a while.