He may not be the most suitable choice for delivering an after-dinner speech on the secrets to a long and happy marriage, and he might be advised to steer clear of jokes about the mother-in-law. But Tiger Woods could nevertheless be set to come out of hiding to be best man at a schoolfriend’s wedding, it emerged today.
The troubled golfer, said to have been spotted by neighbours at his Florida home on Sunday, but still shunning the public limelight 11 days after the car crash that brought his personal life into the open, is due in South Carolina this weekend for the marriage of Bryon Bell, who heads Woods’s golf course design company.
It was unclear whether Woods - who has known Mr Bell since they were 12 years old and played together on their school golf team in Anaheim, California - would be honouring his commitment as he recovers from his crash injuries and continuing revelations about his multiple extra-marital affairs, at least one of which is alleged to have been facilitated by Mr Bell.
The 33-year-old former telephone engineer, who once caddied for Mr Woods and now works as president of Tiger Woods Design in Orlando, Florida, allegedly helped the golf champion to set up trysts with Rachel Uchitel, a New York nightclub hostess, including flying her to Melbourne for a secret rendezvous with Woods during the Australian Masters last month.
Holly Sampson, a porn star, today became the seventh woman named as having had an affair with Woods, who has been married to Elin Nordegren, a Swedish model, since 2004.
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Neighbours of the couple reported today that Mr Woods, his wife and a “suited man” were seen arriving in separate cars at one of Woods’s two homes on Orlando’s private Windermere estate on Sunday afternoon. Their guest left after two and a half hours, though Woods’s vehicle and his wife’s red Buick remained parked outside today.
The couple are believed to be talking with lawyers over the future of their marriage, after Ms Nordegren discovered that he had been cheating on her and allegedly chased him from the house brandishing a golf club - a confrontation that ended with Woods crashing his Cadillac Escalade into a tree at 2.25am on November 27.
The episode has left Woods’s image as a clean-living sports icon in tatters - lending irony to the front cover of Golf Digest magazine’s January issue, which went to press before the sex scandal broke.
The magazine features a mocked-up picture of Woods acting as caddie to President Obama, to illustrate an article headlined “10 Tips Obama can take from Tiger.” The feature, now causing some embarrassment at Golf Digest, suggests that the President, struggling to turn around a recession, could learn the art of “the quick recovery” from the famously adept golfer.
“Woods is a good role model...because he has always been able to pull himself together after setbacks,” it notes, also observing: “Woods never does anything that would make himself look ridiculous.”