'I WAS LIVING A LIE'
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LONDON - In his first interviews in four months since he smashed his car on Nov 27 outside his Florida home, Tiger Woods said that he has been "living a lie" until a sex scandal shattered his image and made him the butt of jokes on talk-shows.
In the two separate five-minute interviews with ESPN and The Golf Channel, which were shown simultaneously on Sunday (yesterday morning, Singapore time), Woods said he had to face up to the "ugly" truth of his affairs after doing some soul searching with a therapist's help.
"You strip away the denial, the rationalisation and you come to the truth," he said.
"And the truth is very painful at times, and to stare at yourself and look at the person you've become, you become disgusted."
Why marry in the first place?
Woods announced his return at the Masters next month after four months of self-imposed exile, which included 45 days in a southern US rehabilitation clinic.
He has not played since winning the Australian Masters in mid-November after a sex scandal in which he admitted having several affairs behind the back of his wife Elin, with whom he has a two-year-old daughter and a one-year-old son.
In Sunday's interviews, which were taped near his home in Windermere, Florida, Woods was far more relaxed and animated than he was during his live 15-minute apology a month ago.
That Feb 19 appearance was a tightly controlled and scripted show, with only a few handpicked reporters in attendance and no questions allowed.
Though the questions from Tom Rinaldi and Kelly Tilghman of The Golf Channel were as probative as the format allowed, Woods did not reveal a great deal more than he had in his original apology.
But he did reveal some.
After asking about the events of Nov 27, and following up with a question about what specifically Woods was treated for - "That's a private matter," the golfer replied - Rinaldi threw the equivalent of a fastball high and inside.
The ESPN reporter asked Woods why he got married in the first place.
"Why?" Woods said. "Because I loved her. I loved her with everything I have. That's what makes me feel even worse, to do this to someone I loved that much."
Woods also described the painful process of coming clean to Elin and his mother.
"I had a lot of low points. Just when I didn't think it could get any lower it got lower," he said.
"There were so many different low points. People I had to talk to and face like my wife, like my mom.
"I hurt them the most. Those are the two people in my life who I am the closest to and to say the things that I've done, truthfully to them, is ... honestly ... was ... very painful."
An uncertain future
Woods visibly perked up in the interviews whenever the questioning turned to golf.
"I'm excited to get back and play," he said.
"I miss the game. I miss playing. I miss competing ... I'm starting to get my feel back. I know how to play the golf course and that helps a lot. I've just got to play it."
As he is going to continue with therapy, Woods said, his post-Masters schedule is uncertain.
"I will have more treatment, more therapy sessions," the 34-year-old said.
"As far as my schedule going forward, I don't know what I'm going to do ... That to me is a little bit bothersome, too, in a sense that I don't like not knowing what to do.
"But what I know I have to do is become a better person, and that begins with going to more treatment." Agencies
From TODAYOnline.com, Tuesday, 23-Mar-2010----------
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