Eleven years ago, Tiger Woods was almost ruined when a sex scandal was revealed following a bizarre car crash. The day after Thanksgiving 2009, Woods drove his Cadillac into a tree yards from the driveway of his Florida home. Police did not test him for drugs or alcohol but he was unconscious on the ground when they got there.
The speculation about what happened led to an estimated $100 million in canceled endorsements. In an effort to save his five-year marriage to Elin Nordegren, with whom he had two children, Woods checked into a 45-day-long rehab for sex addiction.
However, by August 2010, the golfer’s wife had filed for divorce. “It was an awful, embarrassing, harrowing, time in his life”, says a close friend of Woods.
A new two-part documentary from HBO-Max called Tiger follows his life and career through people from his past. One of them is the former number 1 golfer’s ex-mistress, Rachel Uchitel, a cocktail waitress who had a six-month affair with him.
Friends say the 45-year old is very frustrated about the documentary. He has worked hard to put the past behind him including winning the 2019 Masters Tournament.
Woods has settled down and “is more mature”, says a source. He prioritizes his kids, Sam, 13, and Charlie, 11. He also has a stable relationship with ex-restaurant manager Erica Herman.
“He has re-built his entire life”, says a friend. Tiger had reportedly been happy that his name was not automatically synonymous with scandal anymore – until the documentary. (More than a dozen women came forward claiming to have had affairs with Woods when news of the scandal first broke). Even though he is now a changed man, he’ll have to endure the documentary coming out anyway.
