Tiger Woods: His scandalous, tumultuous and redemptive decade, sparked by a car crash

Tiger Woods sped across a reservation, ploughed into a neighbours tree and collided with a fire hydrant along with kerbs, from his own Orlando drive.
For the worlds most recognisable sportsman, this incident through the hours of 27 November, 2009, started a scandalous, tumultuous and spectacularly redemptive decade.
Unlike any other participant Woods had mastered golf in the dozen years. He won majors – the championships that define professions – and – reeled tournament victories off all over the world.
In the past 10 years hes won just one important but that his life has become. He is his sports greatest ambassador, a dad and a player capable of winning at the highest degree.
Comparing the latest decade with the all-conquering interval that preceded it, Rory McIlroy, whos one of his main rivals, states:I think what he needed to go through to reach another side in the past ten years is equally impressive.
In the aftermath of the crash, Woods image plumbed shameful and painful depths prior to finally soaring to hit epic drops.
10 years back, he was groggy from a cocktail of painkillers and sleeping pills and was surrounded by crushed glass, that night. He then lost consciousness and was ferried to hospital in an ambulance.
We were about to discover this proud champion was, in fact, a deeply flawed person. The crash happened in the minutes following his wife Elin had found out that her husband had been cheating.
In it became clear Woods had been a philanderer. Sites and celebrity gossip magazines were over the story. They turned into an essential source for hard news, since the downfall of Woods made headlines.
Hed always jealously guarded his privacy. The entire world knew his speech 6348 Deacon Circle, Windermere, Florida 34786.
The crash occurred a week later Woods added another tournament victory. Colleagues from the National Enquirer were about his tail, although he won the Australian Masters in Melbourne. The American superstar magazine guessed Woods had a secret girlfriend at tow at resort and the luxury Crown Casino.
He warned his wife the Enquirer will be publishing a story, when he returned to America. He refused accounts say and its allegations that he set up a call between Elin and Uchitel to reassure his wife.
Subsequently on 26 Woods went to the nearby Isleworth clubhouse to invest Thanksgiving evening playing cards. He returned home, took an Ambien sleeping tablet and went to bed.
At this point Elin began to go through his mobile phone. She called her and texted Uchitel. In the method the affair was confirmed by her. I knew it, she is widely reported to have stated. Elin subsequently confronted a groggy Woods, who hurried to his driveway, crashed exiting his property and jumped into his own Cadillac Escalade.
No-one tracked than journalist Robert Lusetich in 2009. He was composing a book examining the personality of the most guarded of golfers, Unplayable.
Lusetich played golf November. The Australian reporter remembers:One of the men looked at his phone and he said:Tiger Woods was injured in a car accident and nobody knows how bad it is.
It was just likewow, that is amazing. So I sent Steve Williams [Woods caddie] a text. He had been in New Zealand.
Williams known as Mark Steinberg, Woods long-time representative from the International Management Group.
Lusetich heard back from Williams. Steinberg said everything will be OK, the author says. And he then said:Dont believe anything that you are gonna listen to . That is a strange thing to say. When we watched the story from the National Enquirer it became apparent that this was a scandal of a magnitude.
Many women came forward to say they had key relationships with the planets greatest golfer and fellow gamers amazed.
I have learnt a few of the newest sites this week, said Irishman Padraig Harrington, that had been one of Woods biggest rivals at the time. it is a phenomenal storythe spotlight is enormous.
When Woods was front page of the New York Post for 20 consecutive days, it beat a record set by the 11 September attacks on New York and Washington in 2001.
Im just amazed, confessed the 2006 US Open winner Geoff Ogilvy. Just how did nobody understand? Tiger Woods is quite recognisable.
Woods retreated – the sport he dominated 14 majors, second only to the games most prosperous player. Hed been on course. It seemed just a matter of time to get such a special player, one whod grown much bigger than just golf.
A man dominating a white mans game, he could flash a grin. Woods was the surface of transnational companies like Nike, Accenture, Gillette, Gatorade and Tag Heuer. He was the number one golfer in the world and Forbes produced him sports first billionaire.
There was a seemingly idyllic scene with a spouse and 2 kids. To the external world he had it all, but inside there was turmoil.
And it came back to the end with the revelations that detailed his behavior leading up to that infamous vehicle crash.
Woods was discharged from hospital the following day and led to Arizona where he had plastic surgery to repair his lip that was cut in the crash. His whereabouts were considered to his closest confidants.
I could not feel that Tiger Woods would be reckless, says Lusetich. He had basically convinced himself that he had been bulletproof due to previous incidents and being in a position to cover up them.
On 11 December Woods published a statement which said that he was taking an indefinite break .
Im deeply aware of the disappointment and hurt that my infidelity has caused to so many folks, all my spouse and children, he published on his website.
After Christmas, he checked into Pine Grove Behavioural Health and Addiction Services, a facility in downtown Hattiesburg, Mississippi. It was reported he registered on theGratitude program to deal with sex addiction.
Woods hasnt confirmed the nature of his treatment. Gratitude was created by Dr Patrick Carnes, who introduced the word sexual dependency into clinical circles in 1983.
What seems certain is that Woods confronted a savage regime of self evaluation well from the external world. It meant he missed his son Charlies birthday.
I cant return to where I had been, he explained. I want to be part of my kids own life and also my daughters life moving forward.
Not everyone was convinced of the knowledge of Woods remedy. A prospective president weighed in on Fox News:Id recommend Tiger just call it a bad encounter, said Donald Trump.
Say bye-bye, go out, be a wonderful playboy, win championships and have a good life. The thing Tiger may do is triumph and also return on the golf course. This whole thing with sex rehabilitation, Im not sure I am a believer.
Woods returned home into Isleworth about 15 and it was time to address the world.
Four days after, surrounded by friends and his mother Kultida, he stood at PGA Tour headquarters in Florida in front of a television camera in a room. TV programs in america interrupted schedules to broadcast Woods statement. Never had this champion looked so vulnerable.
He also apologised for hisreckless and selfish behaviour and his mother stated:Im so proud to be his mother, period. He didnt do anything illegal. He didnt kill anyone.
The Open winner at the moment, Stewart Cink, commented:It was probably among the most difficult things he has ever had to perform.
The evening before the apology Woods went to strike on his golf balls because the scandal broke. I hit them strong, he is reported to have advised Hank Haney, his mentor at the time.
He received criticism from Billy Payne and returned to action at the first major of the year, the Experts, a bit under two months later.
He disappointed us all, Payne said at a notable chairmans news conference. And more importantly, our children and our grandkids. Our hero didnt fulfill the expectations of this role model we saw for our kids.
Remarkably, Woods ended fourth at the championship, a result from the best players on the planet after four months away in the match.
Within days Woods split with Haney, who wrote a tell-all book, The Large Miss.. It given and detailed his hugely successful time coaching Woods insights on somebody so close of his life on and off the program.
Haney revealed Woods obsession with the army, the participant had trained with Navy Seals and undergone punishing regimes that place strain.
During his career he has had multiple surgeries to correct spine, neck and knee problems. A few of those accidents, I believe, didnt come from golfing, states Lusetich.
He moved through this crazy phase of needing to become a Navy Seal and did a few harmful things that hurt both his back and his knee
But to the surface of the world rankings of golf Woods returned by 2013. He was dominating the PGA Tour but didnt add to his important tally. Emphasized in the manner he had been pre-scandal, he appeared a drive that was weaker on weekends.
What occurred 10 years ago, I believe there was always the air of invincibility about Tiger, so I presume that revealed a tiny bit of a vulnerable side , says Rory McIlroysaid
It humanised him a tiny bit. Its obviously very tough to come back from something like this from a psychological standpoint.
However, McIlroy is impressed with the harms that jeopardized his career were dealt with by Woods. He has been through the wars just with what hes needed to go through emotionally, states the current world number two.
I remember to this day the dinner we had in 2017 and that he had been kind of speakingperhaps this really is it? Perhaps I can not play anymore. Then 15 months after he is winning the PGA Tour again.
Weeks then supper date, on April 20, 2017, Woods had what proved to be a career-saving back mix performance. It was the final throw of the dice, surgery. That would be a bonus, if he could compete again as a golfer. its difficult to say how much better I feel, Woods wrote a month after the process, his fourth and most important back operation.
But, though he had been mended there was shame to be endured. To handle the rehabilitation and pain, Woods has been dependant on a cocktail of painkillers and sedatives. Within days of that assessment that was upbeat, he swallowed a lethal concoction of medication.
There has been Vicodin for pain relief – a controlled chemical to fight severe anxiety – Xanax to alleviate anxiety – the active ingredient in marijuana and Ambien to help sleep.
We all know this since he had been found by Jupiter police slumped at the wheel of the Mercedes automobile that was parked up using tyres May, 2017.
Video footage of an shambolic Woods being questioned by police, handcuffed and put in cells to the night moved viral. His first mugshot that was puffy-eyed stared in nearly every newspapers front page.
His DUI (driving under the influence) detain led to prosecution for reckless driving. The episode jeopardized uneasy echoes of his calamitous collapse of 2009 although there was no alcohol in his system.
The biggest aspect of his comeback and also the one that will get least attention fromCamp Tiger is that DUI, insists Lusetich. I feel that has been rock bottom.
When everyone noticed him slurring, not able to walk, the great Tiger Woods and that video, there was a sadness to it. It turned out to be a terrible vision of a great but dropped star.
Woods had to place his life back together. He got clean and also discovered he managed to swing a golf club together with freedom. It was a revelation and meant he would do what he always did best – compete.
The next month he came near to winning the 2018 Open. Then he won the season-ending Tour Championship, then eclipsing his acting partner in the last round, McIlroy.
And quickly forward another seven weeks after that and hes won another major, McIlroy says. I think its been incredible.
I think it shows his personality, his mental capacity, his grit that he can come back after all these mishaps, whether it be personal life or the bodily injuries hes had to endure.
Woods has rebuilt his entire life . Elin divorced him at the wake of the revelations that followed. He obsolete US skier Lindsey Vonn, someone of the needs of life. The golfer is at a long-term relationship with Erica Herman. She was there to greet him at Augusta after Woods won the Masters of this year.
For the winner, the simple fact that his children were there to witness his 15th key title, his first as the pre-scandal US Open of 2008, was the most exciting aspect of that extraordinary triumph last April.
I believe he achieved more as a individual in the past decade, says McIlroy. Consider the wonderful job hes done as a daddy to Sam and Charlie.
That takes up a huge chunk of his time now, trying to be together as far as you can. He does not travel much because he doesnt want to be apart from picking them up watching their football games or any of that.
That side of him has blossomed due to all the stuff hes had to go through, adds to the Northern Irishman.
Woods obtained. The Zozo Championship in Japan provided his PGA Tour success, equalling the record.
The championship spilled into a day because of weather delays. On the final morning English golfer Ian Poulter heated up along with Woods.
Hes amazing, states the 43-year-old, who has played during the Woods age.
It was as good as Ive noticed Tiger Woods ever hit it. Ever. It was as controlled as Ive ever seen him Poulter adds.
To listen to this strike, see the ball flight and also to see him end off that championship, Tiger has got it. He doesnt want his A game, his A game that is minus is still great enough to get the business finished.
His image has softened although woods stays deeply private and into his own life he enables more people at a manner. On Golf TV, where he provides advice for readers, he shows charm and humour.
He did a excellent job of not letting the human being to come out and be noticed, Lusetich says of Woods previous life.
Its not like he is an open book nowadays but things such as that he does now with Golf TV, and I know they pay himopen him up more and there is more depth to him.
It has been a journey throughout the last ten years. From stone, Woods rides high again. He is a redeemed, restored champion still vital to his sport than any other player.
He returns to Australia a man that is different next month. He also captains his nation in the Presidents Cup, a Ryder Cup equal against the rest of the world outside Europe. Hes currently playing well he needed to pick himself as a selection.
44 is turned by him in the end of the calendar year, a leader and player, fighting and fit and a champion of more substance than the figure who had been hiding secrets in the very first portion of his livelihood.
As McIlroy states:He is a terrific ambassador for our match. Everyone involved you at the media, ourselves as players, equipment manufacturers – everyone benefits from Tiger Woods being in the very top of golfing.
I think we should count ourselves very fortunate hes still in that place.

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