Oh what a difference a day made!
The day before Thanksgiving 2009, The National Enquirer published a lead story entitled “Tiger Woods Cheating Scandal” in which they detailed a prolonged affair that the golfer was having with New York nightclub promoter Rachel Uchitel.
The article described a number of dalliances between Woods and Uchitel and, when Woods fell asleep on Thanksgiving night, Nordegren checked his phone for Uchitel’s name and found a text from her husband saying “You are the only one I’ve ever loved.”
IT ALL KICKED OFF!
Cue Woods’ mobile phone flying at his mouth, chipping a tooth before Nordegren clutched a golf club and tried to go all Happy Gilmore on the disloyal golfer.
At 2:30 in the morning, Woods ran from the $2.4million Florida mansion and jumped into his 2009 Escalade. In his haste to escape his club-wielding soon-to-be-ex-wife he ended up hitting a curb, a fire hydrant and a tree which knocked him unconscious.
We told you it kicked off!
Two weeks later and the number of known mistresses that Woods had been with had risen to 14.
The number of sponsors who distanced themselves from Mr Unfaithful also continued to grow with AT&T, Accenture, Gatorade and General Motors all removing themselves from any involvement with Woods to great financial loss.
Sports Illustrated estimated that sponsors leaving him ended up costing Tiger $22million in 2009.
That drop in bank balance won’t affect him too much because Woods still has a little bit more pocket money than us.
The scandal left its biggest footprint on Woods’ golf game. Prior to 2009, he was something of an unstoppable force, being named PGA Player of the Year 10 times between 1997 and 2009.
After hydrant-gate, he was a different man when he took to the tee box.
In 2010, Woods recorded just two top 5 finishes and even missed the cut at the Wells Fargo Tournament. At the Player’s Championship the week after, Woods left the tournament after the third round due to his inability to live up to his previous levels of success.
Then came Woods’ relinquishing of his place as the world number 1 as Lee Westwood put an end to Woods’ 281-week stay at the top and, at one stage, Tiger’s ranking dropped to a career low of 58.
Since 2010, Woods has competed in 16 majors and recorded only five top-five finishes in them and not really being a serious contender in any of them.
He remains on 14 majors, the last of which came with his victory at the 2008 U.S. open.
While it’s impossible to definitively say that Tiger’s struggles in the last five years are 100% down to the scandal, it’s awfully coincidental that his form disappeared the second he woke up after his car accident.
Just goes to show you what happens when you’re a naughty boy.
WATCH: Liverpool BOTTLED the title race 🤬 | Who will win the Premier League?
