Tiger Woods is now on the inward nine when it comes to women claiming relationships with the golf superstar in the wake of his apology for ”personal sins” and ”transgressions” that hurt his family.
News reports on Monday pushed to 10 the number of women linking themselves to Woods in the wake of his one-car crash, as reports suggested he had been drinking before that accident and was also taking prescription medications.
The Orlando Sentinel reported that a failed police request for a subpoena to obtain Woods’s hospital blood test results cited a witness who claimed the golfer had been drinking and was taking Ambien, a sedative, and the pain-killer Vicodin.
The document says the witness is the same person who pulled Woods from his vehicle, which earlier statements indicated was his wife Elin.
Woods was taken to hospital on November 27 after crashing into a fire hydrant and a tree, two days after a tabloid reported he was having an affair with New York club hostess Rachel Uchitel.
Police sought access to his medical information to check the possibility he was ”driving under the influence with property damage,” the request said.
”A witness stated that the driver had consumed alcohol earlier in the day and the same witness removed the driver from the vehicle after the collision. Also, the same witness stated that the driver was prescribed medication [Ambien and Vicatin] [sic]. Impairment of the driver is also suspected.”
Neighbours who arrived at the scene moments after the crash told police Woods was snoring.
Police were denied a subpoena for medical records and in the end only cited Woods for reckless driving before closing the case that has touched off a gossip firestorm.
Web site Radaronline.com reported that Elin has moved out of the $2,6-million mansion she shared with the 14-time major golf champion and is living in a nearby house. Woods owns another home near his main residence.
Another police report revealed that two iron clubs were found at the scene of Woods’s crash, along with $235 in the car itself.
Woods’s wife reportedly used a golf club to shatter the car’s rear windows before rescuing her husband, but other reports have suggested she actually used the clubs to hit Woods during a heated argument.
A poll by CNN and USA Today reported that the golfer’s approval ratings have plunged from June figures in the wake of his admission of mistakes, which came after an audiotape purportedly of Woods linked him to an alleged mistress.
Already there was talk of Woods facing the ”Twelve Days of Mistress” during the holiday season.
Jokes about Woods swinging more than his clubs have followed as near-daily claims of intimate relationships with Woods reached 10, including a former porn star, Holly Sampson.
The New York Daily News reported that a new name on the growing list is Cori Rist, a 31-year-old divorced mother who says she met Woods at a New York club.
Woods, who turns 34 on December 30, was first linked to Uchitel, who has denied the affair despite a TMZ.com report that a friend of his flew her to Australia when Woods was there for a tournament.
Cocktail waitress Jamiee Grubbs, 24, played a Woods voicemail to support her claim they had a 31-month relationship.
Also on a list compiled by Fox News were Sampson, 36; Kalika Moquin, 27, a Las Vegas club manager; model Jamie Jungers, 26; Mindy Lawton, a 33-year-old waitress from Orlando; and three unidentified women, two from British reports and another waitress from Orlando.
US talk show host Oprah Winfrey is seeking an interview with Woods but show spokesman Don Halcombe told USA Today she has not personally called him to try and land what would be a dramatic conversation.
Comments by Woods since the crash have come in statements released on his website.
In particular, he has sought to rebuff speculation that his wife attacked him, saying she acted with courage and support after the accident.
While apologising in a statement, Woods did not give details on what wrongdoing he had actually committed, leaving plenty of space for speculation that has fuelled the tawdry reports and claims of affairs that have followed. — AFP
