Tiger’s Crash/Cheating – Whats the REAL Story?

Yesterday at about 2am, Tiger woods was exiting his driveway and struck a fire hydrant, then swerved into a tree. His wife heard the noise, grabbed a golf club and ran out, breaking a window and rescuing her hubby from his Cadillac SUV. At least, that is what we are meant to believe. As a friend told me as we heard the news – “Nothing good happens after midnight…”

What really happened? It’s still uncertain, and we may never know the whole story. However, Tiger’s wife Elin Nordegren seems to have confused her story. She first told an officer on the scene from the Windemere Police that she went inside the house after the crash to get a golf club and then hit the car in an attempt to free her husband. It was a low speed crash and the airbags didn’t even deploy, and one wonders why she would need to beat the car to get him out. Wouldn’t opening the door suffice?

Well, It seems that she told a very different story subsequently to the Highway Patrol. According to internet gossip site TMZ.com, Tiger told a friend that his wife went nuts at around 2am yesterday and scratched up his face. It may have been because of various tabloid reports that he allegedly had cheated on her with a woman named Rachel Uchitel. He then left the house, started driving away and she attacked the SUV with a golf club, Tiger told the friend. He got “distracted” and hit the hydrant. Now that story makes more sense.

Tiger has not talked to the police yet, and there is a press conference scheduled for Tuesday. If the scratches on his face are anything like the scratches John Daly suffered at the hands of his wife a few years ago, they will be hard to hide, since he’s also supposed to be playing in his off-season event called the Chevron World Challenge next week. The event benefits the Tiger Woods foundation.

Charges may be pending, if he was indeed on prescription painkillers as he told a friend (according to TMZ.com) or even domestic abuse against his wife, should he choose to persue them and she did indeed attack him.

Tiger’s life is in the public focus, and as such he is subject to a level of scrutiny that few other celebrities have to deal with. His situation is similar to that of Michael Jordan when he was in hot water over gambling and his marriage some time ago. Tiger is such a role model to so many that he’s not supposed to screw up, to cheat or drink. But even if he is a celebrity and ambassador of golf to the world, he’s human. If he cheated on his wife, she has every right to leave him, no matter who he is or how public it is. If it happens it’s a shame, and either way he may end up with one thing Jack Nicklaus never had – Messy marital issues. Let’s see how this all unfolds in the coming weeks.

Update – 11/30/09 15:00

Tiger will not play in the Chevron World Challenge this week, and won’t be there for his hosting duties either. No official announcement by the tournament, the PGA Tour or Woods, but several sources, including the Golf Channel’s, are leaking the decision by him not to attend. The Golf Channel reported, “According to sources, doctors have advised him that he should not travel due to headaches and soreness.”

Check out this crazy foreign news outlet’s animated “re-creation” of the events that may or may not have happened. I couldn’t stop laughing.

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