A reformed Tiger Woods debuted his new image at Monday’s Masters press conference, shedding some insight on his improved self: “When you live a life where you’re lying all the time, life is not fun,” he told reporters. “Now that’s been stripped all away and here I am. And it feels fun again.”

There he was indeed, looking calm, cool and collected…with a Larry the Cable Guy-esque whisp of facial hair.

As the golf legend prepares for Thursday’s first round at Augusta National, we couldn’t help but wonder if the trendy, bad-boy goatee, not to mention the noticeably lighter and brighter Nike ensembles he has sported during practice rounds this week, were simply part of the new “fun” Tiger — or was this just another ill-fated publicity attempt by Woods’ camp to craft a less arrogant, more mature and “relatable” Tiger?

One that says: “I regret sleeping with porn stars — sort of?” in an effort to garner cheers from the galleries when he tees off tomorrow?

Because, in our humble opinion, the whole look just isn’t working.

We would be more understanding if Tiger’s new half-beard was in fact a means to boycott Gillette, which was one of the first brands to bench Woods after news of his extra-marital affairs surfaced. Apart from that, there is no legitimate excuse for the weird facial hair. It looks contrived and even a bit dirty, which makes us think of all the dirty things that the old Tiger was up to.

And frankly, it just makes poor Tiger look too much like the man he is trying so hard to not be.