Tiger Woods to Answer Questions on Eve of Masters

April 5, 2010— -- Just days before his return to golf, Tiger Woods will confront a roomful of reporters today and likely parry some of the most direct questions about his career-derailing sex scandal ever put to him.

Woods returns to Augusta National on Thursday to play his first professional round of golf since he took a leave from the game following a series of allegations about marital infidelity that began surfacing last November.

Despite opening himself up to questions, Woods will be given some protection by the club's staid rules of decorum and a culture that insulates pro golfers from the media and fans.

The brief press conference scheduled to start at 2 p.m. will be held in the club's interview room, a small space that limits the number of reporters able to ask questions.

Only a handful of the dozens of journalists covering the Masters, expected to be the most-watched professional golf event ever, will be allowed in the room.

"Masters officials expect those desiring access to exceed capacity in the interview room," the club said in a statement.

Today's event is the most recent in a string of public appearances in which Woods has become increasingly forthcoming and willing to take questions about reports that he carried on extramarital affairs with more than a dozen women and subsequently sought addiction therapy.

In the immediate aftermath of a Nov. 25 car crash that led to the string of allegations, Woods released only terse, vaguely worded statements through his Web site.

On Feb. 19, a contrite Woods made his first public comments, apologizing to his wife and family and admitting to undergoing therapy, presumably for sex addiction. He did not, however, take questions.

"I want to say to each of you simply and directly [that] I am deeply sorry for my irresponsible and selfish behavior I engaged in," Woods said at the time. "The issue involved here was my repeated irresponsible behavior. I was unfaithful. I had affairs. I cheated. What I did is not acceptable, and I am the only person to blame."