Guarded Tiger takes a few more baby steps

GOLF: THOSE AROUND Tiger Woods have formulated a strategy aimed at easing him back into the public eye, and the decision on Sunday evening to give two television networks limited access – five minutes apiece with a slight spill-over – at least allowed him to take some baby steps, at his own pace, into the public domain ahead of his scheduled reappearance on tour at the US Masters in a fortnight's time.

Yet, although The Golf Channel and ESPN were given the access and their interviewers fired in as many questions as possible in the time allotted, Woods – who used words like “disgusting” and “brutal” to describe his behaviour over the course of the time he had a series of extramarital affairs – was also sending out the message that certain matters will remain “private” and off-limits.

If Woods can help it, whatever happened the night of November 27th last when he crashed his car through two hedges and into a fire hydrant will never be divulged. Neither will he talk about his string of liaisons, other than to exonerate those who work for him.

On this point, Woods put his hands up and took the blame in totality. It was him, and him alone. The two five-minute interviews – which were run simultaneously at an agreed time on the two US networks, ironically clashing with Jim Furyk’s win in the weather-delayed Transitions Championship which didn’t please the title sponsors of that tournament – presented Woods in a more favourable light than his televised statement of last month.

Still, he sought to keep control, politely but sternly informing the interviewers if a matter was “private” or between him and Elin. And, surprisingly, there was no question from either questioner regarding Woods’s relationship with the Canadian doctor Anthony Galea, who is facing charges of importing illegal drugs into his homeland and who helped Woods recover from knee surgery.

What we got was a somewhat remorseful but nevertheless guarded Tiger Woods, who was very careful with his words and managed to get across the message that he is still on the early part of a long journey to full recovery.

The two interviews – offered by his management to The Golf Channel, ESPN and CBS (who refused to conduct an interview because of the restrictions on time – form part of the golfer’s strategy to return to the public eye ahead of the Masters and all that will entail.

But part of the strategy too could be to warn that certain matters will remain off-limits when the tougher questions are put his way in two weeks’ time.

'There were a lot of people that thought I was a different person and my actions were not according to that. That's why I had to apologise'

The following is the transcript of Tiger Woods' interview with ESPN's Tom Rinaldi.

Q:What's the difference between the man who left Augusta National a year ago and the one who is about to return?

Woods: A lot has transpired in my life. A lot of ugly things have happened. Things that . . . I've done some pretty bad things in my life.

And uh, all came to a head. But now, after treatment, going for inpatient treatment for 45 days and more outpatient treatment, I'm getting back to my old roots.

Q:For a lot of people, the spark of those bad things is November 27th. Early that day, what happened?

Woods:Well, it's all in the police report. Beyond that, everything's between Elin and myself and that's private.

Q:Why did you lose control of the car?

Woods:As I said . . . that's between Elin and myself.

Q:If it's a private matter, why issue a public apology?

Woods:Well, I owe a lot of people an apology. I hurt a lot of people. Not just my wife. My friends, my colleagues, the public, kids who looked up to me. There were a lot of people that thought I was a different person and my actions were not according to that. That's why I had to apologise. I was so sorry for what I had done.

Q:You've said you've made transgressions. How would you, in your own words, describe the depth of your infidelity?

Woods:Well, just one is . . . is enough. And obviously that wasn't the case, and I've made my mistakes. And as I've said, I've hurt so many people, and so many people I have to make amends to, and that's living a life of amends.

Q:You said you were in treatment. The simple question is, for what?

Woods:That's a private matter as well. But I can tell you what, it was tough, it was really tough to look at yourself in a light that you never want to look at yourself, that's pretty brutal.

Q:What'd you see?

Woods:I saw a person that I never thought I would ever become.

Q:Who was that?

Woods:Well, I had gotten away from my core values as I said earlier. I'd gotten away from my Buddhism. And I quit meditating. I quit doing all the things that my mom and dad had taught me. And as I said earlier in my statement, I felt entitled, and that is not how I was raised.

Q:Why not seek treatment before all of this came out?

Woods:Well, I didn't know I was that bad. I didn't know that I was that bad.

Q:How did you learn that? How did you learn it?

Woods:Stripping away denial, rationalisation. You strip all that away and you find the truth.

Q:How do you reconcile your behaviour with your view of marriage?

Woods:That's living a life of amends and that's just working at it each and every day.

Q:Given all that's happened, what's your measure of success at Augusta?

Woods:Well, playing is one thing. I'm excited to get back and play. I'm excited to get to see the guys again. I really miss a lot of my friends out there. I miss competing. But still, I still have a lot more treatment to do, and just because I'm playing, doesn't mean I'm gonna stop going to treatment.

Q:What reception are you expecting from fans?

Woods:I don't know. I don't know. I'm a little nervous about that to be honest with you.

Q:How much do you care?

Woods:It would be nice to hear a couple of claps here and there. But I also hope they clap for birdies, too.

Q:Eleven months ago, here at Isleworth, I asked you, 'How well does the world know you?' What's your answer to that now?

Woods:A lot better now. I was living a life of a lie. I really was. And I was doing a lot of things, like I said, that hurt a lot of people. And stripping away denial and rationalisation you start coming to the truth of who you really are and that can be very ugly. But then again, when you face it and you start conquering it and you start living up to it. The strength that I feel now, I've never felt that type of strength.

Q:In the last four months, Tiger, what's been the low point?

Woods:I've had a lot of low points. Just when I didn't think it could get any lower, it got lower.

Q:An example?

Woods:When I was in treatment, out of treatment, before I went in, there were so many different low points. People I had to talk and face like my wife, like my mom.

Q:What was that moment like, either one?

Woods:They both have been brutal. They've both been very tough. Because I hurt them the most. Those are the two people in my life who I'm closest to and to say the things that I've done, truthfully to them, is . . . honestly . . . was . . . very painful.

Q:What was your wife's reaction when you sat down and had that first conversation?

Woods:She was hurt, she was hurt. Very hurt. Shocked. Angry. And, you know, she had every right to be and I'm as disappointed as everyone else in my own behaviour because I can't believe I actually did that to the people I loved.

Q:I ask this question respectfully, but of course at a distance from your family life. When you look at it now, why did you get married?

Woods:Why? Because I loved her. I loved Elin with everything I have. And that's something that makes me feel even worse, that I did this to someone I loved that much.

Q:How do you reconcile what you've done with that love?

Woods:We work at it.