Tiger Woods Is At Bay Hill Gunning For A Win and Brushing Off Haters

Earlier this week, Tiger Woods proved that he was just like us by announcing on Facebook what most of us already knew. He's dating Lindsey Vonn.

In 2010, Vonn was cracking corny jokes about her future boyfriend's sex addiction in a recorded interview with Time Magazine's Sean Gregory.

Feb. 19, 2010: Time Magazine: When asked how she will deal with sports celebrity in the post-Woods world, in which the tabloids, websites and televisions cameras can threaten even a pristine reputation, Vonn seems nonplussed. "Well, I'm married" — to her ski coach, Thomas Vonn, since 2007 — "so I don't have that problem," she says. "But, um, I guess [Woods] is married too." Then she turns serious. "I mean, I guess if you have secrets, you have an issue. I've kind of been open about everything." On the day that the most famous male athlete in the U.S. has broken his silence, America's most famous female athlete comes across as ingratiatingly anti-Woods.

Welp, they couldn't have been more wrong there. The New York Post may believe it's part of a carefully crafted P.R. campaign, but it doesn't matter. Tiger has his mojo back, and it's working for him. Besides, Vonn may be his new girl, but golf is the love of Tiger Woods' life. However, before he can resume his quest for Jack Nicklaus' majors record, he has an opportunity to reclaim his No. 1 ranking with a win at the Arnold Palmer Invitational this weekend. On Thursday, Woods' 3-under 69 left him four shots back from clubhouse leader Justin Rose.

Even without Steve Stricker, Woods putted well in his first tournament since winning at Doral.

"I putted well today," Woods said at a presser, who only needed 28 putts. "I made a few putts. I didn't really have it early. The pace, I was surprised how slow the greens were with the rains that we had (Wednesday). They started drying out and started picking up pace. The downwind, down-grain putts started to get some pretty good speed. Like the putt we had at 8, that putt had some jets to it, so I think that's what we're going to have on the weekend."

In the midst of a lackluster 2013 season, the world's current No. 1 Rory McIlroy continued to disappoint by skipping the Palmer Invitational for the second year in a row.

Back to top