'I was living a lie'

Woods has admitted to multiple extra-marital affairs and said his life became a lie. -- PHOTO: AP

LOS ANGELES - IN HIs first interview since a sex scandal shattered his image, golfer Tiger Woods says he 'was living a lie' and 'hurt a lot people' including his wife and family, ESPN reported on Sunday.

'I was living a lie, I really was,' said Woods, speaking in his first interview since a November car crash outside his Florida home. 'And I was doing a lot of things, that hurt a lot of people. 'And stripping away denial, and rationalisation, you start coming to the truth of who you really are, and that can be very ugly.'

Woods announced his return at the Masters in April after four months of self-imposed exile. Shielded by the most secure environment in golf, it is still expected to be a circus-like atmosphere and unlike anything he has ever faced before.

He told ESPN.com he is starting to get his life back in order. 'When you face it and you start conquering it and you start living up to it, the strength that I feel now. I have never felt that type of strength,' he said.

Woods has not played since winning the Australian Masters in mid-November after a sex scandal in which he admitted cheating on wife Elin, and apologised for igniting a tabloid frenzy where more than a dozen women have claimed affairs.

Woods conducted two separate brief-minute interviews with ESPN and The Golf Channel. Wearing a green sweater, and while baseball cap, Woods chose his words carefully as he interviewed near his home in Windermere, Florida. -- AFP