Tiger Woods Affairs: Jaimee Grubbs, the Voicemail, and the Truth

Jaimee Grubbs, the recipient of a frantic voicemail purported to be from Tiger Woods, was just the girlfriend of a contestant on VH1's "Tool Academy" a couple days ago, and her connection to Woods would have seemed minimal at best. On Tuesday, Grubbs was the second woman alleged to be having an affair with the golf legend and their alleged connection became front page and headline news. TMZ ran with the story Tuesday that Grubbs would reveal her alleged affair with Woods in Wednesday's edition of Us Weekly. In the interview, Grubbs told Us Weekly that she had had 20 sexual encounters with Tiger Woods, had over 300 text and sext messages from him, had photos, and even had an incriminating voicemail.

Jaimee Grubbs' story of her alleged 31-month affair hit the ground in a blinding-fast sprint Wednesday, dominating the internet, radio talk shows, the sports networks, the news, and the celebrity gossip outlets. The sext messages were bad enough but the audiotape of the voicemail, where the caller identifies themselves as "Tiger" may be the most damaging. Whether it is Tiger Woods or not, it certainly sounds like him.

The caller on the voicemail pleads with the receiver (understood to be Jaimee Grubbs) to take their name off the voicemail, stating that his wife went through his phone and might call the receiver.

Although it is possible that there is another "Tiger" calling Jaimee Grubbs and/or that the voicemail may have been faked for the sake of Grubbs' story, the voicemail is damaging. Lending it credibility is Tiger Woods apology on his personal website Wednesday for "transgressions" that let his family down.

The Jaimee Grubbs voicemail/sext message/affair revelations are just the latest in a bad run of events for the four-time Masters winner. After the National Enquirer ran a story of the pro golfer having an affair with New York club promoter, Rachel Uchitel (which in and of itself means nothing), Woods made headlines Friday when he crashed his Cadillac SUV into a hydrant and tree in his gated community in Windermere, Florida. The accident and the strange circumstances surrounding it led to speculation about arguments over affairs precipitating the crash. Although Rachel Uchitel denied the rumors, they persisted alongside Florida authorities attempting to investigate the car accident.

And just when authorities announced their investigation was complete and that Tiger Woods would be issed a citation for "careless driving" and a $164 fine, a little known reality show extra named Jaimee Grubbs came forward and admitted to an affair with Woods.

And there are rumors that she could be just one of many...

But is the voicemail incriminating? Perhaps, but, again, it might not be Tiger Woods on the recording. It appears to be and it certainly looks suspicious. But people have done far more scandalous and ulterior things to see their name in print and gain a little notoriety.

As to the 300 text messages, there has yet to be confirmation that the text messages are authentic.

TMZ reported Wednesday, though, that Jaimee Grubbs said she received an angry phone call from Elin Nordegren, Tiger Woods wife. But later Wednesday, UsMagazine.com revealed that Jaimee Grubbs claims she never told TMZ anything of the kind. She said that she told TMZ that she received a call from the same number as Tiger Woods but she never picked up, so she does not know who called.

The alleged Tiger Woods voicemail leads to an all-important question: As the stories of rumors and lies and cheating make the tabloid rounds, how much of what the tabloids say can be believed? How reliable are the sources? And when both the sources and the medium through which they communicate are less than reliable, does this not undermine the credibility further?

Even with an ever accumulating pile of circumstantial evidence against him, not to mention an ambiguous apology that seems to foreshadow something darker coming his way, Tiger Woods as yet has admitted to nothing specific. And nothing presented thus far seems concrete enough to hold up under rigorous scrutiny.

Regardless, it certainly isn't looking good for Tiger Woods...

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Sources:

Us Weekly
TMZ.com
UsMagazine.com
TigerWoods.com