In his first one-on-one interview since his sex scandal broke last November, Tiger Woods said he has had a lot of "low points" over the past few months as numerous women claimed to have had affairs with him.
"Just when I didn't think it could get lower, it got lower," Woods, 34, said in the five-minute interview on ESPN's Sports Center Sunday.
He said his wife Elin, 30, and mother were "brutal" on him as more women came forward with sordid claims.
"They've both been very tough. Because I hurt them the most," he said. "Those are the two people in my life who I'm closest to and to say the things that I've done, truthfully to them, is … honestly … very painful."
He said his wife was "hurt, shocked, angry, and she had every right to be" when he told her about his infidelity. "I can't believe I actually did that to the people I loved," he said.
He said that he loves Elin with "everything" he has and that is what makes the whole situation "even worse."
Asked how he is reconciling what he's done, he said: "We work at it."
Woods said he "had gotten away from my core values … I'd gotten away from my Buddhism. And I quit meditatitng, I quit doing all the things that my Mom and Dad had taught me. And as I said earlier in my statement, I felt entitled, and that is not how I was raised," he said.
He declined to say why he went in treatment for 45 days, explaining that it was "a private matter."
But he said the treatment helped him gain clarity on his life.
"I was living a life of a lie, I really was," he said. "And I was doing a lot of things, like I said, that hurt a lot of people. And stripping away denial and rationalization, you start coming to the truth of who you really are and that can be very ugly. But then again, when you face it and you start conquering it, and you start living up to it, the strength that I feel now. … I've never felt that type of strength."
He said he's made "mistakes and as I've said, I've hurt so many people and so many people. I have to make amends to. And that's living a life of amends."
He said he is "nervous" about the reception he'll receive when he returns to professional golf at the U.S. Masters on Apr. 8, his first appearance since November.
"It would be nice to hear a couple claps here and there," he said. "But I also hope they clap for birdies too."
