Tiger Woods PUBLIC STATEMENT: Golfer To Speak On Friday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tiger Woods will appear in public on Friday to issue a statement. There will be no question and answer session, according to Darren Rovell of CNBC.

An alert at PGATour.com indicates that the news conference will be held at the headquarters of the PGA Tour.

Woods' agent, Mark Steinberg, issued the following statement:

Tiger Woods will be speaking to a small group of friends, colleagues and close associates at 11 a.m. ET Friday at the TPC Sawgrass Clubhouse in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. Tiger plans to discuss his past and his future and he plans to apologize for his behavior.

Steinberg told Rovell that "Tiger will make a public statement to begin to make amends."

The AP has more:

"This is all about the next step," Mark Steinberg, his agent, told The Associated Press. "He's looking forward to it."

Steinberg said he would speak to a "small group of friends, colleagues and close associates" about his past and what he plans next, along with apologizing for his behavior.

He said three wire services would be invited, and he was asking the Golf Writers Association of America to pick a small group of reporters to serve as a pool. Steinberg said there would be one pool camera, but it would be available live via satellite.

The news conference will be held during the Accenture Match Play Championship in Arizona, and is sure to steal attention away from the first big event of the year. Accenture was the first sponsor to drop Woods when he became embroiled in a sex scandal.

"It was a matter of timing," Steinberg said.

When asked if the news conference could have waited until after Accenture's tournament, he replied, "No."

A statement on Tiger Woods' web site reads:

Tiger Woods will be speaking to a small group of friends, colleagues and close associates at 11:00 a.m. EST on Friday at the TPC Sawgrass Clubhouse in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. Tiger plans to discuss his past and his future, and he plans to apologize for his behavior.

While Tiger feels that what happened is fundamentally a matter between him and his wife, he also recognizes that he has hurt and let down a lot of other people who were close to him. He also let down his fans. He wants to begin the process of making amends, and that's what he's going to discuss.

His remarks will be open to a press pool for live coverage. It is NOT a news conference.

Earlier, Charlie Gasparino of Fox Business Network weighed in:

"I have been speaking with sponsors who say they have been alerted by his reps that a public apology from Tiger Woods is imminent. It could occur as early as tomorrow sometime around 11am, and there's going to be an announcement of the public apology that will be done at a press conference some time tonight. Like I said, we don't have this yet from Tiger's representatives. I logged in lots of calls over the last two hours, but I'm getting this from reliable sources among his--the sort of sponsors of his charities of some of the companies he represents who are saying they're being alerted that something is coming down the pike, and it's coming down the pike really soon."