Rumors had been circulating that Tiger Woods and Nike were set to release a commercial advertisement to begin to implement Woods back in the spotlight of their marketing efforts.

Nike denied that any such add had been created, and the discussion ended there.  But the rumors were true, and the company debuted the advertisement that was shown on the Golf Channel and ESPN.

The ad opens in black-and-white, with Woods staring into the camera, virtually expressionless.  The voice of his late-father can then be heard speaking to Woods regarding responsibility and learning from experiences.

“Did you learn anything?” Earl Woods remarks with his son facing the camera.

Woods makes his return to golf this week at the Masters, after nearly five months away from the game stemming from  a sex scandal that revealed the top-ranked golfer engaged in multiple affairs spanning several years in some cases.

Following the events, Woods enrolled in a 45-day in-patient treatment center to an unspecified problem.

Nike is the first company who sponsors Woods to release a new ad campaign following the events that transpired over the last five months.

While Woods was dropped and down-scaled by several of his sponsors, Nike remained by his side through the saga.

“We support Tiger and his family. As he returns to competitive golf, the ad addresses his time away from the game using the powerful words of his father,” Nike remarked through a statement.

Nike is notorious for sticking by their sponsored athletes despite troubles that they may be involved in.  Former basketball player Charles Barkley was sponsored by the company when he famously stated that he should not be a role model.

John Sweeney, who is the director of sports communication at the University of North Carolina weighed in on the issue of using Woods’ father as a part of the advertisement, and remarked on the process of re-establishing Woods into a marketing role again.

“You’ve stayed with the man, how do you re-engage?” Sweeney remarked. “It’s not a question of what we would like to do under perfect circumstances, it’s like we’ve stayed the course, he’s back, how do we address it?”

In the new Nike ad, which is roughly 30 seconds, Woods simply stares into the camera for the entire duration, with the voice-over by his father.

“Tiger, I am more prone to be inquisitive to promote discussion. I want to find out what your thinking was. I want to find out what your feelings are, and did you learn anything?” Woods’ father remarked.

Woods begins the 2010 Masters on Thursday at 1:42 pm Est, where he will play with Matt Kuchar and K.J Choi the first two days.