Woods to make first public appearance since scandal

Tiger Woods will tomorrow speak publicly for the first time since his bizarre car accident, beginning what his agent called “the process of making amends” for the sex scandal that sent him into hiding for three months.

“While Tiger feels that what happened is fundamentally a matter between he and his wife, he also recognises that he has hurt and let down a lot of other people who were close to him,” Mark Steinberg said in an email.

“He also let down his fans. He wants to begin the process of making amends and that’s what he’s going to discuss.”

However, Mr Steinberg said Woods will not take any questions from the small group of media present. “This is not a press conference,” he added.

It will be the golfer’s first public appearance since November 27, when he crashed his vehicle into a tree outside his Florida home. Woods’s only comments since then have been made through his website.

Woods is to speak at 11am local time (4pm Irish time) tomorrow from the clubhouse at the TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, home of the PGA Tour.

Mr Steinberg described the gathering for his address as a “small group of friends, colleagues and close associates” who will listen to the star apologise as he talks about the past and what he plans to do next.

A small number of reporters will also be present, while one camera will be in the room to provide live coverage.

“The first time out, he’s better controlling it,” Padraig Harrington said from the Match Play Championship in Arizona. “Over time, there will be questions. At the moment, the best thing is a more controlled environment and gradually ease his way back into it.”

Analysts questioned the timing of his appearance as it will take place during the third round of the Arizona tournament and is sure to steal attention away from what is the first big golf event of the year.

“He’s got to come out at some point,” Rory McIlroy said. “It just went on for so long. I’m sick of hearing about it. And I’m just looking forward to when he’s getting back on the golf course.”

PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said he did not think Woods’s appearance was going to undermine the World Golf Championship event.

“We have tournaments every week,” Mr Finchem said. “I think it’s going to be a story in and of itself. A lot of people are going to be watching golf this week to see what the world of golf says about it, my guess is. So that will be a good thing.”

Mr Steinberg said only that Woods’s appearance during the championship was “a matter of timing”. Asked if it could have waited until Monday, he said: “No.”

But not everyone agreed, including some of Woods’s fellow professionals.

“It’s selfish,” former US Open and British Open champion Ernie Els told Golfweek magazine. “I feel sorry for the sponsor. Mondays are a good day to make statements, not Friday. This takes a lot away from the golf tournament.”

Woods had a spectacular fall from his perch atop golf. He was believed to have been the first athlete to gross $1bn (€736m) in earnings and endorsements and with 14 majors, was closing in on golf’s record of 18 majors held by Jack Nicklaus.

It all collapsed in the early morning hours after Thanksgiving.

Over the last few months, Woods has been on the cover of gossip magazines and the butt of jokes on talk shows.

In the days before Woods’s accident, a National Enquirer story alleged the world’s number one golfer had been seeing a New York nightclub hostess. Following the crash, a stream of women came forward to claim they had romantic relationships with him.

One woman provided Us Weekly magazine with a voicemail she said Woods left her three days before the crash, asking her to take his number off her phone.

Woods admitted to “infidelity” in a statement on his website in December and has been on an indefinite break from golf ever since.