Tiger Woods: "For All That I Have Done, I'm So Sorry"

At a carefully stage-managed public appearance Friday in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, TIGER WOODS told friends and supporters, “I’m deeply sorry for my irresponsible and selfish behavior…I am aware of the pain my behavior has caused. I have let you down. I have let down my fans.”    Speaking in public for the first time since his infamous November car crash, the golfer apologized repeatedly during his remarks, saying, “For all that I have done, I’m so sorry.”

Speaking from the TPC Sawgrass, home of the PGA tour, Tiger, dressed in jeans, a sportcoat and a blue button down, confirmed that he has spent 45 days in therapy, doing a lot of soul-searching and even turning back to Buddhism, the religion he was raised in, for answers.  He plans to return to therapy, and, at some point, to the golf course.  Said Tiger, “I do plan to return to golf one day.  I just don’t know when that day will be. I don’t rule out that it will happen this year.”

Tiger insisted that the question of  whether or not he and his wife ELIN will remain together will be kept private, and sternly rebuked the media for stalking Elin, his mother and his kids, saying, “Please leave my wife and children alone.  He stated, “They didn’t do these things, I did. I was unfaithful. I had affairs, I cheated. What I did was not acceptable.”  He also shot down the rumors that following the November car crash that set the scandal in motion, Elin attacked him or beat him up.  He stated, “She never hurt me, ever. There has been no domestic violence in our family.  She has showed enormous grace and poise throughout this ordeal.”

Attempting to explain why he had affairs, Tiger said, “I knew my actions were wrong, but I had convinced myself that normal rules did not apply…I thought I could get away with whatever I wanted to. I felt I was entitled to all the temptations.  Thanks to money and fame, they were not hard to find. I brought this shame on myself.”

Tiger offered a special apology to parents, saying, “They used to point to me as a role model for their kids. I owe all those families a special apology.”  He vowed to begin living “a life of integrity,” and ended by saying, “I want to ask you to find room in your heart to one day believe in me again.  Thank you.”

Many wondered if there was ulterior motive in Tiger’s decision to speak on Friday, since his speech came right in the middle of the Match Play Championship, sponsored by Accenture, the first company to sever its endorsement deal with the golfer.  But PGA Tour commissioner TIM FINCHEM explained in a letter obtained by the Associated Press that that there was “little flexibility in the date for the announcement,” since he only had a one-week break from therapy and he needed to spend some of that time seeing his two young children.