Weeks before his highly anticipated return to the Masters, Tiger Woods finally answered questions about the sex scandal that tarnished his once unblemished reputation. However, Woods was very guarded in the two interviews that he conducted with ESPN and the Golf Channel.
When asked about the details of what took place before the accident on Nov. 27, 2009, Woods said, “You know it’s all in the police report. Beyond that everything’s between Elin [wife] and myself and that’s private.”
Woods also was mum about the women with whom he had sexual relationships, but he did discuss the embarrassment that was caused by the scandal.
“I hurt a lot of people, not just my wife,” he said. “My friends, my colleagues, the public, kids who looked up to me. There were a lot of people that thought I was a different person and my actions were not according to that. That’s why I had to apologize. I was so sorry for what I had done.”
While Woods was building a billion-dollar brand as the world’s most successful athlete, he admitted to living a dual life that very few knew about.
“I was living a life of a lie,” he said. “And I was doing a lot of things, like I said, that hurt a lot of people. And stripping away denial and rationalization you start coming to the truth of who you really are and that can be very ugly.”
By answering questions during two five-minute interviews, Woods provided a snippet of what he has dealt with in the last five months. But until he writes a memoir or sits on Oprah’s couch, the world will continue to ask questions. –amir shaw
