Tiger Woods STATEMENT: Admits Affairs, Taking 'Indefinite Break From Professional Golf'

Tiger Woods has announced on his web site that he is taking an "indefinite break from professional golf." He also directly admits to adultery for the first time, apologizing for the "disappointment and hurt that my infidelity has caused to so many people, most of all my wife and children." Here is the full statement:

I am deeply aware of the disappointment and hurt that my infidelity has caused to so many people, most of all my wife and children. I want to say again to everyone that I am profoundly sorry and that I ask forgiveness. It may not be possible to repair the damage I've done, but I want to do my best to try.

I would like to ask everyone, including my fans, the good people at my foundation, business partners, the PGA Tour, and my fellow competitors, for their understanding. What's most important now is that my family has the time, privacy, and safe haven we will need for personal healing.

After much soul searching, I have decided to take an indefinite break from professional golf. I need to focus my attention on being a better husband, father, and person.

Again, I ask for privacy for my family and I am especially grateful for all those who have offered compassion and concern during this difficult period.

More from the AP:

Tiger Woods said Friday he is taking an indefinite leave from golf to work on saving his marriage, using the word "infidelity" for the first time in a statement posted on his Web site.

"After much soul searching, I have decided to take an indefinite break from professional golf," Woods said. "I need to focus my attention on being a better husband, father, and person."

Woods and his wife, Elin, have been married five years and have a 2-year-old daughter and 10-month-old son.

The announcement came two weeks after a car accident that set in motion a shocking downfall for the world's No. 1 player, which has included sordid allegations of numerous extramarital affairs. One woman even shared a voicemail she said Woods left her two nights before his Nov. 27 accident.

Woods has not been seen in public since the accident.

"I am deeply aware of the disappointment and hurt that my infidelity has caused to so many people, most of all my wife and children," Woods said. "I want to say again to everyone that I am profoundly sorry and that I ask forgiveness. It may not be possible to repair the damage I've done, but I want to do my best to try."

The PGA Tour said it supported the decision by its biggest star.

"His priorities are where they need to be, and we will continue to respect and honor his family's request for privacy," PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said in a statement, the tour's first public comment since Woods mentioned his "personal failings" on Dec. 2. "We look forward to Tiger's return to the PGA Tour when he determines the time is right for him."

How long Woods will stay away from golf was unclear.

A year ago, he was out of golf for eight months while recovering from reconstructive knee surgery, and television ratings dropped 50 percent during his absence.

Women linked to Tiger Woods:

• NSFW pictures of porn star Joslyn James.
• NSFW pictures of porn star Holly Sampson.
• Mindy Lawton, who claims Woods is "very well endowed."

• Pictures of Jamie Jungers, alleged Tiger Woods mistress.

• The latest Jaimee Grubbs pictures.
• Photo and video of another alleged mistress, Kalika Moquin.
• More pictures of Jaimee Grubbs.
• Pictures of Rachel Uchitel.
• Additional pictures of Uchitel.
• Cori Rist, Woods' sixth alleged mistress.

• Pictures of Woods' ex-girlfriend, Joanna Jagoda.
• Pictures of Woods' wife, Elin Nordegren.
• Text messages Tiger Woods allegedly sent Jaimee Grubbs.
• The voicemail Woods allegedly left Grubbs.
• Photographs of the storied clients that Rachel Uchitel's attorney has represented over the years.

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Comments

[ThinkCreeps]

03:37 PM on 12/14/2009

Tiger's giving up golf to work on his marriage.

Given that he's great at golf and seems to be absolutely rotten at marriage, it might make more sense to do that the other way round.

[CaliHank]

04:41 PM on 12/14/2009

Exactly.

And in my opinion he shouldn't apologize to the public either, because he didn't do anything to the public. While Tiger may sincerely feel that in his private life he made mistakes and hurt people, I wish he didn't also come across as fundamentally ashamed of just being a horndog. God knows it's a common enough condition. It's the human condition actually. Ritual (career) suicide should not be required.

This country so desperately needs to grow up and get realistic about sexuality . Tiger just did what most men fantasize about, and many would do, given his opportunities. Why do people imagine that men try to acquire wealth and status anyway?

[NCAV2]

07:36 PM on 12/13/2009

He shouldn't quit, to h 3 l l with the jealous, envious haters. Politicians have done worse with tax payer money, and never resigned from office. His private life is none of our business. He never claimed he was an angel and shouldn't be held to that standard.

[SweetLemonPie]

06:59 PM on 12/13/2009

Had this been some one off drink fuelled one night stand on the spur of the moment he may get a chance. This however has been a long orchestrated series of affairs manipulated and pursued whilst stone cold sober and in full knoweldge of what he was doing. Surely a relationship is build on trust and love so how can she be sure when he gets the next text, the next phone call or the next overnight stop to some tournament that he's not straying again. The answer is she can't no longer take this and with that she should leave pronto. And that's my 2 cents about this.

[federika]

01:04 PM on 12/13/2009

Why the American people and media are so hateful, spiteful and hypocritical?

Mr. Woods’s pristine media image was created by the American media and corporations
for their own profits nor by Mr. Woods. His personality is too sedate and introverted off the course to be followed by anyone, therefore no one cared what did or didn't do.
To the rest of the world (other countries and cultures) the only thing we cared about is,
was and will be HIS GOLF.

I have followed Mr. Woods’s career since he was a young man and never hear him telling anyone how to live their lives, what right you have to judge him?

I want you to answer a question posed by Latin America's first great poet, the seventeenth-century nun, Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz:

“Who is guiltier, the one who pays for the F.... or the one that F. for the pay?”


Bogota, Colombia

[maori]

05:27 PM on 12/14/2009

I think people are mostly shocked and horrified to discover golfers have penises.

[CNYObamaFan]

10:39 AM on 12/13/2009

Tiger is taking a break from golf, but I'm pretty sure that golf wasn't his problem...

[moonflowerjewelry]

09:57 AM on 12/13/2009

I really don't care about this young man, any more than I have concern with the Gosselin's. Americans are encouraged to focus attention and energy on celebrities and video games to keep our minds off the fact that our country is in big trouble:

hungry and homeless children, a POTUS who is committing our money and lives to Karzai's personal coffers, a crumbling infrastructure, a climate gone haywire... need I go on?

[NoFooling]

09:13 AM on 12/13/2009

Quitting? He should take a page from Ensign's & Sanford's books. They refuse to step down from their positions, even though they've actually breached the public trust by using tax dollars to fund their fun & games.

[Teresa201]

09:48 AM on 12/13/2009

Tiger is not a member of 'the family'......
And apparently doesn't stay on C Street.......Thank goodness.

[AristotlePA]

08:44 AM on 12/13/2009

I was listening on NPR to an interview with an author who wrote years ago about some of the worst kept Tiger secrets in professional golf - his skirt-chasing and his propensity for nasty off-color jokes. Back then the author(his name escapes me - sorry) got slammed for it and the huge and ever-present marketing campaign surrounding him did their best to isolate him and whatever he was up to from the wider audience. It's a shame as he is so good at what he does but then most of his huge money comes from endorsements, not so much from golf wins.

[Keith Mayass]

08:16 AM on 12/13/2009

why does he do that?

just go play on the European or Asian tours for 5 years...

he will see something different..

[RogHol]

07:51 AM on 12/13/2009

Tiger Woods is an extremely ambitious and successful golfer.
He is also a prisoner of his own success.
He has fairly recently lost his father.
A very few of you have the fainstest idea how it is, being a human, living under such conditions.
Your sources is the Tabloid press.
With such circumstances noone can honestly jugde this guy.
He has asked to be left alone trying to save his family.
I have no reason to question that.

[PrairieView]

06:25 AM on 12/13/2009

Rich Americans are corrupt and immoral, yet they are trusted to run our country and the world. There should be limits to how much wealth someone can have. Too much is no good. Their wealth is the reason for other's poverty. Tiger Woods like most rich add nothing to society. They only take and do not give back. Obama is no different he takes from the poor to give to the rich.

[respected]

04:23 AM on 12/13/2009

There are some things that are more important than Tiger's infidelity.

http://www.10tv.com/live/content/local/stories/2009/12/11/story-boy-brain-cancer-christmas-cards.html?sid=102

[jeffgolin]

01:39 AM on 12/13/2009

Poor guy was only following the forty mile rule. You know, you 're married up to forty miles away from home. Every guy knows that rule. A few refuse to follow it though. Shame on them.

[jeffgolin]

01:48 AM on 12/13/2009

I speak of this academically rather than personally of course.

[DeniseD]

06:27 PM on 12/13/2009

Right (wink, wink).

[cycle3man]

12:57 AM on 12/13/2009

Betcha' dollars to donuts, that Tiger's magic is gom\ne that is if he ever returns>

[Altoids]

12:15 AM on 12/13/2009

The media and other sharks will never give Tiger Woods's family the privacy they deserve. They've all got dollar signs in their eyes.

[MarcusT]

12:36 AM on 12/13/2009

Yeah, it's not like Tiger has pulled any $$$ out of his media packaging. :)

[AsISaid]

05:45 AM on 12/13/2009

The media didn't start this - Tiger did. Tiger has been portrayed as a saint for years. He's been untouchable. His accident was a self-inflicted controversy brought into the public eye with a call to 911 and a trip to the hospital. Worse, he decided to stone wall the whole thing.

[Altoids]

01:33 PM on 12/13/2009

Therefore we should strip his family of their privacy?