• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer @eriksass1, April 6, 2010

I've always prided myself on not giving a darn about celebrity infidelities, and I have just about zero interest in golf -- but I will admit to being morbidly fascinated by the priapic saga of Tiger Woods: I guess it was something about the bizarre, inept lie at the beginning (your wife was trying to rescue you by breaking the back window of your SUV with a golf club after a walking speed collision? Really? Really?) and then of course the sheer scale of Wood's catastrophic fall.

And if I was paying attention, I can only imagine that people who actually care about golf were riveted, considering Woods' complete dominance of the game. So it's interesting to note that the world of hardcore -- er, serious -- golf fans appears to be "over" the scandal, according to a social media study by LBi Atlanta using Sysomos, which provides social media analytics. The findings, just ahead of the Masters in Augusta, also suggest Woods retains a powerful promotional vehicle for sponsors and advertisers.

When the scandal first broke five months ago, online conversations were unsurprisingly dominated by talk of the infidelity, LBi found; as time went on and more mistresses came forward, the volume of conversations decreased but a high proportion were still about his cheatin' ways. In quantitative terms, the impact of the infidelity revelations was quite dramatic: before the scandal broke, LBi's study showed over 80% of social media conversations focused on his golf game, while in following months that percentage dropped to almost zero.

But the last two weeks finally brought a break in the scandal storm, as the proportion of conversations about his golf game started rising again. The proportion grew especially quickly after Woods announced that he planned to play at Augusta this week.

One interesting issue: I'm wondering what proportion of social media conversations concerned both Woods' infidelity and his golfing ability? I'm personally curious whether the scandal will have shaken his confidence and affected his golf game, and I imagine other people are speculating about that online too.