Before he became a Stanley Cup-winning head coach, Pat Burns was a police officer and now that he's living in Florida, he's made some friends in the Florida Highway Patrol. So when Tiger Woods crashed his SUV into a tree in late-November, Burns reached out to his local police buddies to get the inside scoop on what really went down that night.

Burns revealed what he found out during an interview with CKAC Sports radio in Montreal this week. According to the former NHL coach, Woods was knocked in the face with a golf club by his wife, Elin Nordegren, and was left with a deep cut on his cheek and down two front teeth after she confronted him after reading text messages from one of the golfer's numerous mistresses.

From the Phoenix New Times:

"He kept saying there was nothing there. He went to watch television ... then suddenly, bang! A nine-iron in the face!" Burns tells the station. "He left the house running without shoes. Elin followed him with the club. He left in his Escalade. She followed him and broke two or three windows. That's why he hit the tree."

Burns went on to say that the current Vanity Fair cover boy flew to Phoenix for emergency dental and plastic surgery, making him unavailable to local police after the news broke.

From the Ottawa Sun:

"They took him to hospital in Orlando. Elin was in the ambulance with him and called his agent. He suggested that they meet at the hospital. Once there, the doctors said he needed plastic surgery to repair the broken teeth, but only one institution could do it, in Phoenix (Arizona). The agent warmed up the jet to he could leave for Phoenix where they could fix his face. This explains (Woods') absence when the police wanted to meet him the following days," Pat Burns told the station.

With that kind of detective work and his police sources, Burns could grab a post-hockey job with the upcoming TMZ Sports or at least with Scooby-Doo and the gang.

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gigalo, gigilo, gigolo, page, tiger, woods

As you all know Tiger's agent is Mark Steinberg. I have a Member who lives 10 houses down from Tiger in Isleworth. My Member plays golf with and is a good friend of an IMG insider who got the following information directly from Steinberg and related it to me. I was told that the following is up to date as of yesterday.

On Thanksgiving Day, after he and Elin and the family had Turkey Dinner, Tiger spent the rest of the afternoon on the couch watching football and texting Rachel. After he received and sent text message back and forth to Rachel, he would clear his message box to destroy the evidence. At some point during the afternoon texting session, one of Tiger's Orlando buds called him to see if he wanted to get together at the Clubhouse to play poker with the guys. Tiger agreed and left the house around 7:30 to go play poker. He left behind his cell phone....and one message he had forgot to delete from Rachel.

When Tiger returned home around 11:30 -12 that night, Elin confronted him about the text message she had found on his phone. A heated discussion ensued. According to what I was told, there was more "incriminating evidence" than just the text message (i.e. photos). Tiger told Elin that she was reading too much in to it, and that she did not know the whole story. Tiger went upstairs to change into his gym shorts and t-shirt, came back downstairs were Elin confronted him, again. Tiger gave her the same story as before and sat down in a chair in the living room.

Elin sat across from him. She urged Tiger to just come clean. Tiger stuck to his story and denied everything. At one point Tiger turned away to look at the TV, and as he turned back, Elin, enraged, hit him on the right side of the face with the head of a 9 - iron. When she struck Tiger, she put a huge gash in the right side of his face next to his nose (causing his nose to bruise some), virtually knocked out two of his upper teeth, and broke the bone on the upper right side.

Tiger, scared as hell, ran down the hallway, out of the house to the garage (explaining why he had on no shoes) followed by Elin swinging the golf club. Tiger hopped into the Escalade and tried to leave. As we know Elin knocked out the windows in the Escalade in the process as well as doing considerable damage in the hallway.

When Tiger crashed, Elin panicked and was not sure what to tell the police (which is why there are two conflicting stories from her). When this happened, Elin immediately called Mark Steinberg to tell him what happened, and Mark told Elin to tell him what hospital they were going to, and he would meet them there.

If you remember FHP kept showing up at Isleworth to talk to Tiger, and was told by another FL attorney, hired by Tiger for PR reasons, that Tiger was not ready to talk. This is why.

As amazing as it may seem, Tiger was in Phoenix . Tiger was originally transported to the hospital in Orlando with Elin in the ambulance where they were met by Mr. Steinberg. Tiger was taken in for X-Rays, etc. to assess the damage. The doctors told Steinberg there was not much they coukd do to repair the teeth and the gash, but did know a cosmetic dentist and plastic surgeon in Phoenix who could make Tiger look as if nothing happened. Tiger told Steinberg to get the jet ready and he and Steinberg flew to Phoenix to see the surgeon. The resulting procedures were more intense than what everyone had expected which meant Tiger was in PHX longer than expected. Tiger and Steinberg did not arrive back in Orlando until either late last Wednesday night or early Thursday morning.

Since arriving back in Orlando , Tiger and Elin have been in intense marriage conseling sessions (up to 6 to 7 hours a day) every day! Both Tiger and Elin have told the counselors they love each other, and want to make the marriage work.. The reports you are reading on TMZ and RadarOnline are about 30% accurate at best according to Mark.

Tiger has not returned to his house at Isleworth since the day of the accident except for the therapy sessions. IMG has enlisted the assistance of one of its most recognized sports figures, and Tiger has taken up residence in his neighborhood - Bay Hill. Because of the high regard in which Tiger holds him and based on his public persona when he was at the height of his game, the person IMG contacted was Arnold Palmer. He has agreed to intervene with Tiger. IMG is convinced that if anyone can get through to Tiger, Mr. Palmer may be the only person who can.

As to other rumors, my source claims that the moving trucks being shown on TMZ and RadarOnline are moving out pictures and furniture which was damaged during their Thanksgiving Day argument - not because of Elin moving out. Yes, Elin has retained a divorce attorney, but has not filed any papers. As of yesterday, she had no intention on doing so.

Tiger has not made any public appearances or statements due to the surgery and plastic surgery he had in PHX. It will be about another month if not more before he gets in front of a camera. Yes, Tiger is hitting golf balls late at night at Bay Hill out of their teaching center (which is equipped with lights). In regards to Tiger's boat being in Palm Beach this week, along with Rachel; that part is true. However, Tiger is not on the boat, is not in Palm Beach , and Rachel is not on the boat. Her parents live 6 blocks from where the boat is, but that is it.

That is as up to date as I have........

Burns responding by referring to Melrose as "Billy Ray Cyrus".

The author of a story that claims to reveal the details leading up to Tiger Woods' SUV crash on Thanksgiving weekend says Woods put his mistress on the phone with wife Elin Nordegren a few days before the incident in an effort to convince her that he wasn't cheating.

Speaking to Greg Jarrett of WGN-AM 720 on Tuesday, author Gerald Posner of the Web site The Daily Beast -- citing discussions he has had with Nordegren's friends -- said Woods arranged the conversation between his wife and Rachel Uchitel in an effort to defuse an upcoming National Enquirer story that was going to claim Woods was having an affair.

Photo: New details are being reported about the incident involving Tiger Woods and wife Elin Nordegren. (AP)

"(Rachel) called Tiger's wife, had a half-hour conversation with her, and at the end of that call -- according to Elin's friends -- she was convinced they were just friends," Posner said. "On Thanksgiving, more information came out about the purported affair. Elin got aggravated, they had a fight, and Tiger threw the towel in, said, 'I'm going to sleep,' took an Ambien, a sleeping pill, and went to bed."

This is when Nordegren looked at Woods' cellphone, which he had left out, Posner said.



"On that cellphone he had text messages (from Uchitel). ... His wife went through it," Posner said. "She found one message that said to Rachel, 'You're the only one I've loved.' That was absolutely a killer, of course. And then she decided to text the mistress, pretending she was Tiger, saying, 'When am I going to see you? I miss you.' And Rachel Uchitel wrote back saying, 'I'm surprised you're awake.' And that indicated to the wife that obviously they had talked that night.

"His wife actually had the courage to call the girlfriend and said, 'I know it was you!' The girlfriend said an expletive and hung up the phone. At that point, Elin ... explodes, wakes up Tiger -- who's in a stupor because of his Ambien -- and he compounds the situation. He locks himself in the bathroom for a few minutes. When he comes out, Elin grabs his phone, which he'd taken in with him, and he has sent yet another text message to Rachel Uchitel saying something to the effect of, 'She knows, I'm packing, possible divorce.' "

At that point, Nordegren "loses it," Posner said.

"She starts -- according to her friends -- to hit him with her fists on his chest and on his arms, and then she grabs a golf club." Posner said. "He hightails it out of there, gets into the Escalade barefoot, and the next thing you know is the accident, he hits the hydrant and slams into a tree, she's chasing him with the golf club, and that's the accident that starts to unravel everything for him."

Posner said his sources didn't know the details of how the rear windows in the Escalade were knocked out, with one saying Woods tried to protect his wife by telling police that she shattered the windows trying to free him.

According to Posner, representatives for Woods -- who reportedly is at a sex-addiction rehab clinic in Mississippi -- did not reply to multiple requests for comment.

Tiger Woods will end nearly three months of silence Friday when he speaks publicly for the first time since his middle-of-the-night car accident that sparked stunning revelations of infidelity.

However, his agent said Woods will not take any questions from a small group of media.

"This is not a press conference," Mark Steinberg said Wednesday.

It will be Woods' first public appearance since Nov. 27, when he crashed his SUV into a tree outside his Florida home. Woods' only comments since then have been made through his website.

"It will be good to see Tiger's face again, and see that he's actually out there somewhere," Stewart Cink said. "I think this is the beginning of the comeback process for him."

Woods is to speak at 11 a.m. Friday from the clubhouse at the TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., home of the PGA Tour.

"This is all about the next step," Steinberg said. "He's looking forward to it."

Still, there was strict control over the appearance, typical of Woods' career.

Steinberg described the gathering as a "small group of friends, colleagues and close associates," who will listen to Woods apologize as he talks about the past and what he plans to do next. He said three wire services have been invited -- The Associated Press, Reuters and Bloomberg -- and he asked the Golf Writers Association of America to recommend pool reporters.

Only one camera will be in the room to provide live coverage via satellite. Steinberg said other writers with proper credentials could watch from a hotel ballroom more than a mile away.

"The first time out, he's better controlling it," Padraig Harrington said. "Over time, there will be questions. At the moment, the best thing is a more controlled environment and gradually ease his way back into it."

Steinberg said in an email announcing the public appearance, "While Tiger feels that what happened is fundamentally a matter between he and his wife, he also recognizes that he has hurt and let down a lot of other people who were close to him. He also let down his fans. He wants to begin the process of making amends and that's what he's going to discuss."

The timing is peculiar. It will be held during the third round of the Accenture Match Play Championship in Arizona, sure to steal attention away from the first big event of the year. Accenture was the first sponsor to drop Woods when he became embroiled in the sex scandal.

"He's got to come out at some point," Rory McIlroy said. "I suppose he might want to get something back against the sponsor that dropped him. No, I don't know. It just went on for so long. I'm sick of hearing about it. And I'm just looking forward to when he's getting back on the golf course."

PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said he did not think Woods' appearance was going to undermine a World Golf Championship event.

"We have tournaments every week," Finchem said. "I think it's going to be a story in and of itself. A lot of people are going to be watching golf this week to see what the world of golf says about it, my guess is. So that will be a good thing."

As far as the PGA Tour's part in the Woods event, Finchem said: "We were asked to make the facility available and to help with the logistics. That's what we're doing."

Steinberg said only that Woods' appearance during the championship was "a matter of timing." Asked if it could have waited until Monday, he said, "No."

No other news conference this week drew a larger crowd of reporters than the 20 who surrounded Finchem, a testament to how Woods has dominated the conservation at the Match Play.

"We're all better off when he's playing," Adam Scott said. "I'm curious as to when he'll return to golf."

As for the timing?

"It's his choice," Scott said. "I guess the tour is hosting it there."

Woods made a spectacular fall from his perch atop golf. He was believed to have been the first athlete to gross US$1 billion in earnings and endorsements and, at 14 majors, was closing in on golf's record of 18 majors held by Jack Nicklaus.

It all collapsed in the early morning hours the day after Thanksgiving.

Over the last few months, Woods has been on the cover of gossip magazines and the butt of jokes on national talk shows.

In the days before Woods' accident, a National Enquirer story alleged the world's No. 1 golfer had been seeing a New York nightclub hostess. Following the crash, a stream of women came forward to claim they had romantic relationships with Woods. One woman provided Us Weekly magazine with a voicemail she said Woods left her three days before the crash, asking her to take his number off her phone.

Woods admitted to "infidelity" in a statement on his website in mid-December and has been on an indefinite break from golf ever since.

Ian Poulter, who went extra holes to win his opening match, was among those curious to hear what Woods had to say. His only hope was to hear about it later.

"Hopefully, I'll be on the golf course and not listening to it," he said.