TIGER WOODS' wife is said to be considering putting an end to their marriage after Christmas and returning to
Sweden, despite the player's decision to take a break from golf which could cost him more than 110m.
Elin Nordegren was reported yesterday to have spoken to divorce lawyers but any process would only begin in the New Year, for the sake of their two children.
The couple are expected to spend the festive season together at a 1.5m six-bedroom home Ms Nordegren recently bought on an island off
Stockholm, where Woods will make a last-ditch bid to save the marriage. She is said to have told him to see a therapist.
The saga took another turn as it was reported that officials from the
Florida Department of Children and Families visited his home at the weekend.
Radar Online, the celebrity news website, claimed that the officials were escorted by police and were at the house for about an hour. It said the visit was a routine follow-up to the investigation into Woods' car crash.
The couple's two-year-old daughter and 10-month-old son were at the house when he and his wife are said to have had an argument before the crash.
Woods admitted publicly for the first time at the weekend that he had been unfaithful to his wife and announced that he was taking an "indefinite" break from golf.
Waitress
He has now been linked to more than a dozen women. One of them,
Jamie Jungers (26), a
Las Vegas cocktail waitress, claimed yesterday that she was with Woods at his home in
California in 2006 when he received the news that his father, Earl, had died.
The last time he was seen in an advertisement on
US television was November 29, two days after he crashed his car into a fire hydrant and a tree outside his home in
Orlando, which is believed to have followed a row with his wife over his cheating.
Fellow golfers were left wondering yesterday how long Woods would be out of the sport.
The US
Ryder Cup player,
Brad Faxon, said: "What does indefinite mean? I don't even know if he knows what that means. I just hope they do well. The forgotten thing is Elin and two kids and what they're going through."
Media analysts are already expecting his comeback tournament to be one of the most watched events in all of sporting history.
David Dusek, senior editor for '
Sports Illustrated', said: "It's going to be a circus like golf has never seen. We're talking something along the lines of a Super Bowl. Tiger Woods is a global brand. There's going to be this enormous build-up."
Meanwhile, Woods' caddy
Steve Williams said he had no idea the golfer was cheating on his wife.
Mr Williams, who has carried Woods' bag since 1999, said: "I had no knowledge of what was going on. If I did, I would say I did."
Mr Williams (45), who lives in
New Zealand, said he had spoken to Woods since the scandal broke.
"Obviously, I understand Tiger has got a problem. And we discussed that," he said. "Whilst I am a very good friend of his I don't know what he does off the course.
"Tiger just said he needs a break, and I don't want to put any pressure on the guy."
Some of Woods' contracts with sponsors may contain a so-called "morality clause" that allows them to pull out if he does not maintain high standards in his personal life.
Michael Neuman, the president of sports marketing agency Amplify Sports and Entertainment, said: "From a sponsorship perspective, there is no doubt in my mind at all that there is an existing morals clause that can be triggered right now."
Woods won 16m in tournaments during his last full season in 2007, along with an estimated 12m in appearance fees -- all of which he would lose out on if he takes a year off.
Ticket sales at tournaments he pulls out of are expected to fall by 25pc, meaning an annual loss of 27m to the
PGA Tour.
The loss to the golfing industry as a whole from a year-long absence has been estimated at more than 342m.
- Nick Allen in Los Angeles
Source:irishindependent.ie