Tiger Woods Accident, Alleged Affair: Tiger Woods and Elin Nordegren Avoid Florida Police

Tiger Woods and his wife, Elin Nordegren, aren't talking -- to anyone. TMZ and other media outlets reported Saturday that both Elin Nordegren and Tiger Woods turned authorities away when they arrived at the Woods' Windermere home. Why would Mr. and Mrs. Tiger Woods want to avoid the police? Public embarrassment aside, one or both of the Woods' could be facing charges due to the very public car accident Tiger Woods was involved in just outside his home early Friday morning.

When the accident occurred, roughly around 2:20 a.m. Friday, it was quickly learned and reported that Tiger Woods had ran over a fire hydrant and into a tree, been taken to the hospital because his injuries seemed serious, then treated and released. The police report revealed that alcohol was not involved but Tiger Woods had been shaken up and had been in and out of consciousness. His wife had been on the scene and Woods had lacerations to his face and mouth. However, the airbags in his SUV had not deployed, so police believe he was traveling at a fairly low speed when he hit the tree. The police report stated that charges might be pending.

What was discovered later not only has all the tabloids, bloggers, and Twitter talking but may prove problematic for Elin Nordegren and Tiger Woods. There seems to have been no evidence of blood on the steering wheel or in the SUV, so Tiger Woods facial lacerations must have been created prior to his car accident. Various sources reported Elin Nordegren standing over the horizontal Tiger Woods when police arrived on the scene. In some reports, she was still holding a golf club.

TMZ reported that Elin Nordegren told Windermere Police that she had returned to the house when Tiger Woods crashed, grabbed the golf club, came back and knocked out the window of his SUV and pulled him out of the vehicle. TMZ also reported that Elin Nordegren told the Florida Highway Patrol a completely different story, although the celebrity gossip website did not elaborate on the details of how they knew or what that story might have been.

There is also the issue that Tiger Woods may have been on some type of prescription medication, which would make the world's most famous golfer liable for charges of operating a vehicle under the influence or otherwise impaired.

TMZ and other media outlets are speculating that the Woods' are avoiding the police for as long as possible due to Tiger Woods' facial lacerations, waiting for them to heal. Besides law enforcement telling TMZ that there was a "domestic issue" involved, a source told TMZ that Woods confided to him that he and his wife had been in a heated argument, that she had confronted him over stories of an affair. Woods told his friend that his wife attacked him, scratching his face. He had attempted to leave and his wife had come after him with a golf club, knocking out the window of the SUV. He had become "distracted" and hit the hydrant and the tree.

If all the various stories are true, the Woods' avoidance may have everything to do with keeping Elin Nordegren from facing domestic abuse charges, which means that Tiger Woods may not be seen in public until his scratches are healed. No scratches; no evidence of domestic abuse. But the conflicting stories about the golf club may have to be reconciled in order that Nordegren doesn't face some type of penalty for making statements that could be considered untrue or misleading. As for Tiger Woods use of medication, unless he admitted to authorities that he was taking the medication prior to and/or during the operation of his SUV, he should have little problem avoiding fines and/or charges.

Still... What started all this Jerry Springer-esque activity in the swanky Windermere neighborhood?

If the various sources are found to be reliable, the entire alleged altercation incident may have resulted from a story in the National Enquirerabout an alleged affair between Tiger Woods and a New York party planner/socialite named Rachel Uchitel. The National Enquirer, citing a friend of Rachel Uchitel's as a source, alleges that Tiger Woods and Uchitel have been secretly seeing each other and that they are into copious sexting. The National Enquirer also maintains that Rachel Uchitel and Tiger Woods were both in Australia recently and Uchitel lied to them about why she was there (first it was with a boyfriend, then it was a business trip) and that she was never at Tiger Woods' hotel (which the National Enquirer maintains is untrue and their photographers saw her there).

But Rachel Uchitel has denied having an affair with Tiger Woods. She maintains that she knows Woods, has seen him at functions a couple times, but a romantic relationship does not exist. TMZ reported Saturday that Rachel Uchitel plans to retain Gloria Allred, the famed celebrity lawyer, as her personal attorney to possibly sue the National Enquirer for defamation.

Who is telling the truth in all of this? Who is lying? Or, for that matter, is anyone lying? Could everyone be telling their own version of the truth, the discrepancies and seeming falsehoods or conflicts in the stories easily explained away? Is the Tiger Woods affair, accident, and avoidance stories just much ado about nothing, sensationalized due to who he is?

When one is the world's most famous sports figure, it does not pay to have your wife seen standing over your horizontal form with a golf club, your SUV window knocked out, mysterious lacerations on your face, and no blood evidence in the vehicle -- at 2:20 in the morning. Especially after the National Enquirer has printed a story of an affair. People will talk...

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Sources:

NationalEnquirer.com
TMZ.com