TIGER Woods’ marriage in 2004 was destined for failure and sparked his devastating decline, a new book about the golf legend’s tumultuous career has claimed.
Writer James Pattison has taken a forensic look at Woods’ incredible fall from grace in his new book Tiger, Tiger.
It details every major moment in one of the most storied of sporting careers, from the sensational highs of 15 major wins to the crushing lows of divorce, death-defying crashes and serial infidelity which left his reputation in tatters.
CRASH HORROR
Woods may have stunned the sporting world with his amazing rise to the top of golf following his breakthrough Masters triumph in 1997.
Yet it was the events of December 1, 2009 which signaled the start of shocking decline.
Pattison details the the dialogue between Florida police chief Daniel Saylor and an ESPN reporter after the sporting superstar was injured in a car accident outside his home Windermere.
“My two officers arrived at the scene and noticed Tiger Woods laying on the ground in front of his vehicle with his wife over him rendering first aid,” Saylor is reported as saying.
Woods had smashed into a fire hydrant, before his wife, Elin Nordergen, rushed out and used one of his clubs to smash the window and pull her husband to safety.
It was, as Pattison writes, a crazy situation.
Yet the storm clouds were already beginning to gather.
RECKLESS BEHAVIOR
Swedish model Elin, whom Woods met through fellow golfer, the Swedish player Jesper Parnevik, and married in 2004 in Barbados, had been made aware of tabloid reports set to reveal Woods had been having an affair.
Pattison said there had been a “simmering tension in the air” in the lead up to the car smash, although the high-profile couple were already very wary of the media spotlight.
“Tiger downplayed and denied the allegations,” Pattison continued. “Elin wanted to believe him. It made no sense at all.”
However the further she delved into the story, the more convinced she became about Woods infidelity.
Pattison says Woods had successfully managed to have an earlier National Enquirer story about another woman dropped in return for a cover appearance of Men’s Fitness – the publications were both owned by the same company.
There was no wriggling away with it this time, however.
BOMBSHELL TEXTS
Elin waited for him to go to sleep before scrolling through his phone and found “romantic and sexual texts” to “several women” including one to nightclub hostess Rachel Uchitel earlier that day.
“You are the only one I’ve ever loved,” he is alleged to have texted.
Elin then, according to Pattison, pretended to be Woods, sending a slew of messages to the Uchitel, before revealing herself.
“I knew it was you, I know everything,” Erin wrote.
Everything began to fall apart.
Pattison describes how a desperate Woods then locked himself in the bathroom and manically began contacting other women he’d been seeing.
Elin, however, had already left a voicemail with one woman, Jaimee Grubbs.
“You know who this is,” she is reported as saying, “because you are f****ing my husband.”
RELATIONSHIP BREAKDOWN
Their marriage was in meltdown, with Parnevik stating that he had “lost all respect” for the American he’d paired off with a woman he considered as a little sister.
It was a nightmare scenario which shamed Woods and destroyed his good guy image.
Yet Pattison claims their relationship was doomed from the start.
He says it was love at first sight for Woods. Elin, however, wasn’t so sure.
Pattison says she was “unimpressed” when she was asked out by a third party, claiming it was “weird and pathetic.”
Elin, just 22 at the time, had a boyfriend back home in Sweden and despite his prominence on the golf course, Woods “wasn’t her type.”
Her long-distance relationship finally ends although Pattison reports that photographer Bingo Rimer had said that ” she told me a million times ‘I feel so stressed about the whole celebrity thing, the media focus.’ ”
Tiger eventually gets his girl after “trying his luck for months” and the pair start spending time together.
Two years later, they were married and by 2009, had two children – daughter Sam and son Charlie.
Yet in August 2010, Elin’s $100 million divorce was settled.
In the spring of that year, Pattison writes, custody arrangements were settled and Woods moved to his Jupiter Island mansion purchased in 2006.
His ex-wife, meanwhile, settled in North Palm Beach, 30 miles away.
“Why we don’t live under the same roof is because Daddy made some mistakes,” Woods is reported to have told his kids.
FRESH DISASTER
What perhaps also stung the shamed sporting icon was son Charlie’s answer when quizzed on who his own idol was.
“Would you rather be Lionel Messi on the pitch or Tiger Woods on the golf course?” he was asked at an event staged by his dad.
The answer was the soccer maestro from Argentina.
“Well,” said Woods who had been out of action with injury, ” he’s right.”
The book also details the DUI arrest in 2017 and the shocking car crash in Los Angeles at the start of 2021, which Woods was lucky to escape from alive. The previous month, his fifth back surgery had been completed in another scrambling attempt to save his career.
The smash on February 21 left him with a screws, pins and stabilizing rods in his leg, as well as damage to his feet – the third time in a dozen years cops had been called to the scene of an accident involving arguably the greatest golfer in history.
While his rise to the top was unforgettable, the now 48 year-old’s demise was a chilling warning to anyone about just how quickly life can change.
Woods’ majesty on the greens will go down in legend, as will the reckless off-course behavior which will forever stain his legacy.
“His impact on the game is incalculable,” Pattison concludes by quoting USGA President Fred Perpall. “There’s no doubt that golf would not be the same without Tiger in it.”
