Tiger Woods was caught on camera sharing a warm embrace with his ex-wife Elin Nordegren on Sunday, moments after he and son Charlie were runners up at the PNC Championship in Florida.
Woods and Charlie, 15, lost in a playoff to Bernhard Langer and his son Jason, with the golfing great agonizingly missing out on a tournament victory on his return to action after a sixth back surgery earlier this year.
As Langer drained the putt that clinched victory, Nordegren was waiting just outside the ropes to congratulate her teenage son and ex-husband on a weekend that captivated golf fans. And footage soon went viral of Woods, 48, hugging the Swedish model as he came off the course.
Woods and Nordegren divorced in 2010 after six years of marriage, months after bombshell details emerged of the golfer’s scandalous infidelities.
Nordegren first discovered Woods was cheating in November 2009, during Thanksgiving week. Woods crashed into a fire hydrant and a tree outside the Florida mansion he shared with her, two days after a National Enquirer report claimed Woods was having an affair with a woman named Rachel Uchitel.
In the aftermath of the crash – where Woods was found by police asleep in the road without shoes and socks on, as per USA Today, while Nordegren tried to smash her way into the car with a golf club – multiple women came forward to claim they too had been involved with the golfer.
Elin’s her worst fears had been confirmed that night after spotting a text on her husband’s phone while he was unconscious, dosed up on sleeping pills. What followed was one of the most dramatic collapses of a star’s reputation across sport.
Not only did it cost Woods his marriage, but he also lost numerous lucrative sponsorship deals – even though Nike stood by him – and he went to rehab for sex addiction during a break from playing golf.
‘[I was in] absolute shock and disbelief,’ Nordgren told PEOPLE about her divorce from Woods. ‘I felt stupid as more things were revealed — how could I not have known anything? The word betrayal isn’t strong enough.
‘I felt like my whole world had fallen apart. It seemed that my world as I thought it was had never existed. I felt embarrassed for having been so deceived. I felt betrayed by many people around me.’
Now, Woods and Nordegren are said to be friends. Charlie is not the only child they had together – their daughter Sam, 17, was a caddie for her father and brother during the weekend tournament.
Nordegren also has three children with former NFL player Jordan Cameron, who she met after things ended with Woods.
In 2015, Woods went as far to say Nordegren is still one of the people he trusts the most.
‘She’s one of my best friends. We’re able to pick up the phone, and we talk to each other all the time,’ he said.
‘We both know that the most important things in our lives are our kids. I wish I would have known that back then. She talks to me about her life, I talk to her about my life.
‘We try to help each other out on all occasions. And we work through it with the kids, the parenting program. She is one of my best friends now, and it’s all because of my kids.’
Earlier this year, Woods – who turns 49 before the year is over – and the 44-year-old Nordegren cheered Charlie on at a high school golf tournament in Florida.
They also came face-to-face in March, when an awkward picture surfaced of Woods stood to one side while Nordegren and Charlie had a photograph together.
Erin often heads to the PNC Championship to support her son, who this weekend hit his first ever hole-in-one with his father watching on.
‘It was awesome, no one made a mistake today, it was the most fun I’ve ever had,’ Charlie said on television after his round ended.
‘And on top of that, I made an ace. I don’t think I top that, it was awesome.’
Nordegren was believed to be watching in the clubhouse as Charlie made the shot on the fourth hole.
His proud dad added: ‘That was one of the highlights that we’ve ever had. On the hole previous, he made his first eagle and now he just made his first hole-in-one. It is a magical two-hole stretch.’
It marked a wholesome moment for Woods as well, who is battling to keep his own golfing career going for as long as he can.
Woods showed flashes of his brilliance across the two rounds this weekend, despite giving a dire warning of how he was holding up before the event began.
‘That was one of the reasons why I had the surgery done earlier, so that hopefully I could give myself the best chance to be with Charlie and be able to play,’ Woods said on Friday.
‘I’m not competitive right now, but I just want to be able to have the experience again. This has always been one of the bigger highlights of the year for us as a family, and now we get to have that moment together again.
‘I’m not going to feel what I’m used to feeling. The recovery has gotten to be the hardest part. But over the course of rounds, weeks, months, it gets harder.’
The surgery was on his back, but Woods said his right leg, which was mangled in a February 2021 car crash outside Los Angeles, remains the biggest physical obstacle.
Last year Erica Herman, Woods’ ex-girlfriend of five years, dropped legal action against the golfer and said she was not a victim of sexual abuse during her time with him.
The former restaurant manager stated that she ‘was never a victim of sexual harassment or sexual abuse at the hands of Tiger Woods or any of his agents and it is her position that she never asserted a claim for such,’ in court documents filed to Florida’s Fourth District Court of Appeal.
Herman dated Woods from 2017 to 2022 and worked at the golfer’s restaurant, The Woods Jupiter in Florida.
She initially claimed she had been forced into signing an NDA when Woods began to pursue a sexual relationship with her and was seeking to sue to be released from the agreement.
Woods also dated Lindsey Vonn for three years, before they split in 2015.
Two years later, Woods was arrested and charged with DUI when police found him asleep in the driver’s seat of his car in Florida. Woods was described in a police report as being confused and woozy.
The golfer agreed to undergo a 12-month probation diversionary program for first-time offenders and pay a $250 fine.
He also had to complete a DUI school and 50 hours of community service.
