Cheat Tiger Woods 'bought off' journalists

Published on Sunday 6 December 2009 21:53

CLAIMS that Tiger Woods has silenced one of his mistresses with a million-dollar payoff gathered steam yesterday, as it was revealed how he struck a separate deal two years ago to keep another of his affairs from hitting the headlines.

Representatives of the 33-year-old golfer got the National Enquirer to drop a story in 2007 about Woods' secret trysts with Mindy Lawton, an $8-an-hour restaurant worker, in exchange for him posing exclusively for one of the US magazine's sister titles for a cover story about his health and fitness, it was claimed yesterday.

Woods's management, nicknamed "Team Tiger", swung into action after reporters and photographers for the Enquirer got wind of his 14-month affair with Ms Lawton, who worked at a diner close to his family home in Orlando, and spied on the pair's sexual assignations during the summer of 2007.

"What do we have to do not to let this get out?" Woods's people asked the tabloid's chiefs, according to Neal Boulton, who worked as an editor at the company that owned the Enquirer at the time.

The allegations added fuel to claims by RadarOnline, a celebrity news website, that Woods last week paid another mistress, Rachel Uchitel, a New York nightclub hostess, more than $1 million to prevent her from revealing the secrets of their affair.

Ms Uchitel had been set to hold a press conference admitting to their relationship last Thursday, but cancelled with just hours to spare after what were described as "frantic" negotiations between Woods's entourage and her lawyer.

More embarrassment emerged for Woods yesterday as it was alleged that he had also cheated on his wife with Las Vegas party girl Jamie Jungers and a New York nightclubber, Cori Rist, bringing the publicly named tally to six. At least three others, including a British television presenter, were also said have secrets to spill.

Adding to claims that the world's richest golfer may suffer from a sex addiction, Ms Lawton said she was with Woods in his luxury mansion and in a church car park even while his wife, Elin Nordegren, was pregnant with the couple's first child in 2006.

"It must be awful for her to know her husband was going behind her back for sex with so many girls," Ms Lawton said, noting: "I guess she will be pretty devastated but, in the time I knew Tiger, I never got the impression that the marriage was happy."

Meanwhile, a disgruntled businessman alleged that his fiance Jamie Jungers, 26, who is a Las Vegas party promoter, was seduced by Woods at a cocktail party just nine months after he married Ms Nordegren in 2004. They continued an affair for 18 months, meeting for sex in Woods's $5,000-a-night hotel suite and at his California home, it was claimed.

And the New York Daily News brought claims that Woods had also betrayed his wife with a Manhattan club-goer, Cori Rist, 33.

There is concern not only about the effect of the scandal on Woods's future game, but also over the damage it may be wreaking on the once-sedate image of golf and the PGA Tour, which is still struggling to find title sponsors at four tournaments.

"One of our biggest-selling points for the corporate world is that we are relatively controversy-free," said Australian pro Geoff Ogilvy earlier this year.

"We don't generally have too many golfers getting into trouble like some other athletes in other sports do. We're pretty squeaky-clean like that. It's been like that for a long time – it doesn't really seem like it's going to change."