*Tiger travails

You're hearing more allegations about more babes, but here's an intriguing slant being reported by the NY Post's Keith Kelly:

The National Enquirer caught Tiger Woods in a steamy extramarital affair two years ago, but killed the story in exchange for the golfer doing a rare cover-shoot for its sister mag -- despite Tiger's exclusive deal with a rival publication, a former editor told The Post. Woods' camp, fearful of a potential public-relations nightmare in spring 2007, allegedly agreed to do a cover for Men's Fitness -- a magazine owned by the Enquirer's parent company, American Media, former Men's Fitness editor-in-chief Neal Boulton said yesterday.

Meanwhile, not many folks with tickets to this week's Tiger tourney in Thousand Oaks are asking for a refund, according to the LAT (story was prepared before this morning's bombshells).

It's not like our switchboard was inundated," said Greg McLaughlin, president and chief executive of the Tiger Woods Foundation, the charity that benefits from the four-day tournament that starts Thursday. "It hasn't been an overwhelming number" of refund requests, he said. "Traditionally what will happen in these situations is it's less than 2% or 3%, not big numbers."

It's a good bet that the people in and around the PGA tour haven't the first clue on how to deal with this mess. Blogger Stephanie Wei sums it up:

He's a fine-tuned media machine, giving concise, bland responses that offer no room for misinterpretation. He doesn't try to charm the public; simply because we love him regardless -- what he does on the golf course makes up for his lack of warmth. Before this past weekend, his only public shortcomings were cursing and throwing clubs on the golf course. Other than that, we know very little about Tiger's personality. We know even less about his supermodel Swedish wife, for that matter. I don't think I've ever heard her utter a word, and that's probably not by chance.

*Guess all the hijinks reached a critical mass this morning. Woods offered a "profound apology" to his family and his fans and admitted he had "not been true to my values."
Ah yes, let the healing begin... (NY Daily News)