Jay Busbee interviews Kelly Tilghman about her Tiger interview and also shares a transcript of the Golf Channel chat. Tilghman says she learned about the interview Saturday afternoon.

Larry Dorman and Richard Sandomir share this on the timing:

The networks were each contacted last week by representatives of Woods offering the opportunity for the interview. The ground rules were simple, and the two main restrictions concerned time.

“The understanding was no restrictions on the questions,” said Vince Doria, the senior vice president and director of news at ESPN. “We were able to get the person we wanted to do it, Tom Rinaldi, and they wanted to place a five-minute limit on it, and an agreement that we wouldn’t air it until 7:30.”

Doria said that he tried to argue for more time and that there was no negotiating room. “The alternative was not to do the interview, and that wouldn’t serve our viewers,” Doria said. “Obviously, you’d like to have more than five minutes.”

CBS turned down the interview because of the time restriction.

John Paul Newport looks at the timing this way:

The interviews Sunday were clearly part of a broader, planned strategy for easing back into the public eye. They had the feel of being trial balloons, as if Mr. Woods were testing—in a highly controlled circumstance—how he, his interlocutors and the public would respond to public questioning.

John Strege suggests that "the unfortunate timing was the result of weather delaying the end of the Transitions Championship. Furyk won by a stroke over Choi."

Of course no one made Tiger and his people do these interviews on a PGA Tour Sunday.

Steve Elling says of the interviews:

Given the staggering amount of news relating to Woods and his behavior over the past few years, which has all come to light since his solo car crash on Thanksgiving night, this was like giving a crouton to a starving man. If not a village.

As for the police report answer Tiger gave, Elling writes:

“It’s all in the police report,” he said, claiming the rest is between he and his wife, Elin.

Actually, it isn’t all in the report. He never talked to the Florida Highway Patrol about what happened, his blood-test results (if any were taken) were not made available and he wasn’t asked about whether he had taken sleeping pills before the crash, which means he dodged a possible DUI charge.

The SI boys had lots of interesting stuff to say. A few highlights:

Jim Herre, managing editor, SI Golf Group: He stayed on his talking points tonight, but overall he is winning me back. Surprisingly, I thought Golf Channel's Kelly Tilghman did a much better job than ESPN's Tom Rinaldi. Woods seemed much more comfortable with Tilghman and was more expansive with his answers.

Charlie Hanger, executive editor, GOLF.com: I keep thinking of something Mr. Garrity said a few Confidentials ago. Until he really lays out the night of the crash, people will assume that the Chinese computer animation version of events is truth. He avoided the details again tonight.

Farrell Evans, writer-reporter, Sports Illustrated: He gave two five-minute interviews that ran concurrently. He's still not conceding anything to the media.

Reuters' Simon Evans thought Tiger was "looking jaded and despondent."

Lawrence Donegan says no one would have turned down this chance to interview Woods.

After four months of revelations, each more outlandish than the last and all of them met with silence from the man at the centre of the maelstrom, there is not a media outlet on earth that would have turned down an audience with Woods, however truncated.

So it was that Tom Rinaldi of ESPN and Kelly Tilghman of the Golf Channel, both of whom have long had friendly relations with Woods (though, like every other journalist, could in no way be described as a friend), found themselves on a porch in Isleworth, near the scene of the infamous (and still unexplained) car crash of 27 November last year.

Bob Harig notes that little was learned, just as Tiger wanted it.

Woods would probably rather three-putt the 72nd hole to lose a major championship than face an interview room full of inquisitors, but dealing with the uncomfortable questions -- as he should have done much sooner -- is far better than the alternative of being hounded from Augusta to Charlotte to Ponte Vedra to Pebble Beach.

Sunday's interviews -- while admittedly a start -- are but water torture, with information dripping out.

And finally, Jim McCabe at Golfweek.com writes:

First reaction to the dueling one-on-one interviews with Tiger Woods that aired Sunday night on Golf Channel and ESPN:

What a coincidence, he was able to find a spare TW hat and Nike swoosh sweater. Surprised he wasn’t holding an EA game, too, just to pay complete homage to those are still sticking by him.