adminIt is exactly a decade since one of the most spectacular public falls from grace ever seen exploded into life with a sensational sequence of events, starting with a minor car crash in a quiet, gated community in Florida during Thanksgiving.
The journey to redemption has been an arduous one for Tiger Woods, a path that took him 10 years to trawl. It was such a long and torturous way down from the top.
The world’s first billionaire golfer — who Nike built their entire golf business on — was perhaps the most famous sportsman in the entire world at this point. A mixed-race man from modest beginnings had taken on the rich, privileged and very white world of golf and beaten it into submission.
He became the darling of corporate America, trading off not only superhuman feats on the golf course, but also a squeaky-clean reputation as a doting family man.
This was to be exposed as a staggering lie. His wife Elin was to be humiliated by the revelations that would follow of his scarcely believable double life, so well had he hidden his secrets from her for so many years.
But he could not hide forever. Elin had become suspicious over his erratic behaviour and her worst fears were confirmed after spotting a text on her husband’s phone while he was unconscious, dosed up on sleeping pills.
She found other texts to the unfamiliar number, including one that read: “You are the only one I’ve loved.”
Elin replied, impersonating her husband: “I miss you. When are we seeing each other again?” She received a prompt reply and decided to call the number.
Rachel Uchitel, a nightclub hostess, answered. Elin said: “I knew it was you.” Uchitel replied: “Oh f . . . .”
Then all hell broke loose. Elin’s fury woke Tiger from his painkiller and sleeping pill-induced slumber and, in a daze, he tried to desperately flee her wrath in his SUV.
He was so drowsy and sluggish, however, that he veered into his next door neighbour’s yard, driving over a fire hydrant and colliding into a tree. Elin followed enraged, smashing the windows with one of his golf clubs before police were called and an ambulance arrived.
Woods’ mother Kultida was staying at his home at the time. As she went outdoors to investigate the commotion, she saw her son being taken away by paramedics.
According to Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyian’s comprehensive biography “Tiger Woods”, his eyes were rolling into the back of his head.
There was now no going back. The National Enquirer soon broke a story of an affair Woods had been having with Uchitel.
But unbeknown to both women, the story was the catalyst for a long succession of other women — porn stars, strippers, prostitutes, hostesses, waitresses and more — to come forward claiming they had slept with Tiger.
The revelations would not abate. At the latest count, it was claimed Woods had cheated on his wife with 121 different women. He had been leading an extraordinary double life, winning tournaments so prolifically — including 14 majors — that he was sure to go down as the greatest player of all time, while maintaining a carefully constructed surface image . . . yet also while behaving promiscuously, relentlessly, away from the public eye.
Who, in his circle, knew the truth? Michelle Braun, who once ran an escort service and claimed to have set Woods up with women, told Vanity Fair that his friend Bryon Bell would usually orchestrate the trysts, but sometimes Woods would call her saying: “I’m going up to L.A. for a meeting.
“You got anybody in Orange County today?”
John Merchant, a former advisor to Woods, who was dismissed by the golfer in the early stages of his career after a row with his father, believes meeting people such as Michael Jordan was a mistake and contributed to him being led astray.
Merchant said to Vanity Fair: “I told him, ‘Stay away from that son of a b* * *, because he doesn’t have anything to offer to the f * * * world in which he lives except playing basketball, which he did yesterday.”
Jordan for his part, has said he thinks Woods regrets his behaviour, but has never commented on suggestions that his influence was a bad one.
Woods’ long-serving caddie, Steve Williams, was insistent that he had no idea about the American’s behaviour. It was, in fairness to those who thought they knew Woods well, incredibly well hidden, even from those closest to him. And even when Woods was asked about the morality of what he was doing, remorse did not seem to exist. — Dailymail.
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