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Tiger Woods held his third press conference today since the Thanksgiving Day accident that sparked a sex scandal, and in addition to apologizing once again to his fans, he also apologized to his fellow Masters' players and thanked them for the warm reception he's received at Augusta.

"Coming in today, I didn’t know what to expect, in regarding to reception.  The encouragement I got, it blew me away," Tiger said. "The people here over the years have been extremely respecting, but today was something that touched my heart."

He went on to apologize to his fellow players for enduring the massive amount of attention he's brought with him to the tournament. "I know that the players over the past few months have been bombarded by all of you and the public as well.  But I want to tell the players that they can be left alone and focus on the Masters," said Woods. "I apologize for all of them for having to endure what they’ve had to endure."

Tiger also said that he "missed" the game and the players while he's been taking time off to "look at myself in a light that I didn't want to look at myself," and of course, spending time with his family.

"What I’ve done over the past years has been just terrible to my family," he began. "It’s the pain and damage that I’ve caused.  My wife, my mom, my wife’s family....my kids...I’ll have to explain all this to them.  I have to take full responsibility, I did it."

On taking the sleep aid Ambien:
    "Yeah, I did take that.  I took most of the Ambien when my dad was sick. When my dad died, it was a tough time in my life."


On his stint in rehab:
    "Just prior to Christmas, I made the decision to enter rehab.  Having spent Christmas day with my family was incredible, and then having to go to rehab from there. I missed my son’s first birthday, that hurt a lot, I vowed to never miss a birthday again. I was in there for 45 day and it was to take a hard look at myself. I've come out a much better person for it.  I’ll still continue with my treatment." However, Tiger declined to reveal exactly what that treatment was for, instead saying "It's personal, thank you."


On the reckless way he was living his life:
    "I was rationalizing, I was denying...in total denial at time.  I lied to myself, I lied to others, just because I won golf tournaments, didn’t mean a thing."


In fact, Tiger said he was at such a low point in February that "I had no intentions of playing golf at all. After hitting some balls since then, 'the itch came back.'"

Tiger also revealed that his wife, Elin, will NOT be joining him at the tourney which begins this Thursday in Augusta.