Tiger Woods has counted the first damages when a nearly $10 million mansion in Los Angeles burned down. Among them, many memorabilia were burned down, he shared.
For the world’s most recognisable sportsman, this incident during the very early hours of 27 November, 2009, began a scandalous, tumultuous and spectacularly redemptive decade.
In the previous dozen years Woods had dominated golf like no other player. He won multiple majors – the championships that define careers – and reeled off tournament victories all over the world.
In the past 10 years he has won only one major but his life has turned around. He is a doting father, his sport’s greatest ambassador and still a player capable of winning at the very highest level.
Comparing the most recent decade with the all-conquering period that preceded it, Rory McIlroy, who is one of his biggest rivals, says: “I think what he had to go through to get to the other side in the last 10 years is equally as impressive.”
In the wake of the crash, Woods’ image plumbed shameful and painful depths before eventually soaring again to hit epic highs.
That night, 10 years ago, he was surrounded by shattered glass and was groggy from a cocktail of painkillers and sleeping pills. He then lost consciousness and was ferried to hospital in an ambulance.
We were about to discover that this proud champion was, in fact, a deeply flawed individual. The crash occurred in the moments after his wife Elin had found out that her husband had been cheating.
In the days and weeks that followed, it became clear Woods had been a serial philanderer. Celebrity gossip magazines and websites were all over the story. They became an essential source for hard news, as the downfall of Woods made headlines everywhere.
He had always jealously guarded his privacy. Now the whole world knew his address: 6348 Deacon Circle, Windermere, Florida 34786.
The crash happened a week after Woods added yet another tournament victory to his glorious career. He won the Australian Masters in Melbourne, but reporters from the National Enquirer were on his tail. The American celebrity magazine suspected Woods had a secret girlfriend, Rachel Uchitel, in tow at the luxury Crown Casino and hotel.
When he returned to America he warned his wife the Enquirer would be publishing a story. He denied its allegations and multiple accounts state that he set up a call between Uchitel and Elin to reassure his wife.
Then on 26 November, Woods went to the nearby Isleworth clubhouse to spend Thanksgiving evening playing cards. He returned home, took an Ambien sleeping tablet and went to bed.
At this point Elin started to go through his mobile phone. She texted Uchitel and then called her. In the process she confirmed the affair. “I knew it,” she is widely reported to have said. Elin then confronted a groggy Woods, who ran to his driveway, jumped into his Cadillac Escalade and fatefully crashed exiting his property.
No-one tracked Woods closer in 2009 than journalist Robert Lusetich. He was writing Unplayable, a book examining the character of this most guarded of golfers.
Lusetich was playing golf with friends on 27 November. The Australian reporter recalls: “One of the guys looked at his phone and he said: ‘Tiger Woods has been injured in a car accident and nobody knows how bad it is.’
“It was like ‘wow, that’s incredible’. So I sent Steve Williams [Woods’ caddie] a text. He was in New Zealand.”
Williams called Mark Steinberg, Woods’ long-time agent from the International Management Group.
