Uncovered: Once more the open learned of Tiger Woodsâ untruthfulness prior todayâ¦
The life and career of the world’s greatest golfer fell apart with the swing of a club — and it wasn’t even his swing.
Four years ago this Thanksgiving, Tiger Woods’ wife, Elin Nordegren, chased him out of the house with a golf club after learning he’d been unfaithful.
She thought there was another woman, maybe two. Nordegren — along with the rest of the world — had no idea. In the years since, details have trickled out about what really happened that night.
Less than two weeks prior, Woods had won his first event in Australia, the Masters, by two strokes. Since 1999, not a year had gone by without him winning at least one golf major championship, and he won 14 majors from 1997 to 2008. In April 2009, he was photographed in the Oval Office meeting President Obama. On Oct. 1, Forbes named him the first athlete to earn $1 billion.
Woods was considered the greatest golfer of all time and a uniquely American success story, a multi-ethnic superstar dominating a historically white sport. He had a beautiful wife, a former model in Sweden who had been working as nanny to golf star Jesper Parnevik when she met Woods at the 2001 British Open. They had two children — daughter Sam, then 2, and newborn son Charlie — and a wholesome image that netted him $110 million in endorsements. He was 33 years old.
On Nov. 26, 2009, Woods and Nordegren, then 29, were hosting his mother for Thanksgiving at their $2.4 million mansion in Windermere, Fla., near Orlando.
The day before, at the Albertsons supermarket around the corner, the new edition of the National Enquirer was freshly slotted in the checkout racks. The banner headline read “Tiger Woods Cheating Scandal.” Inside was a spread detailing Woods’ months-long affair with a New York City nightclub hostess named Rachel Uchitel. She’d been photographed checking into the same hotel as Woods during the Australian Masters and was quoted as telling a friend: “It’s Tiger Woods! I don’t care about his wife! We’re in love!”
