Woods takes step to normalcy on a day that is far from it

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- Tiger Woods spoke 1,513 words in a little more than 13 minutes Friday before hugging his mother and a few friends, then walking out through a blue curtain.

When will see him again? Where will it be? And will he appear from behind that blue curtain or on a practice range at a PGA TOUR event? Good questions all.

Woods knows that the words he spoke and all those he will speak in the weeks, months and years to come will mean far less than how he acts and what he does. That's the real apology, he said, and that's where the genuine transformation must come.

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VIDEO: Watch Tiger Woods' full 13-1/2-minute statement in its entirety. Click here • Shorter video clip TIGER TRANSCRIPT: Read the complete transcript from Woods' statement Friday. Click here COMMISSIONER: Read Tim Finchem's reaction Friday. Click here PLAYER REACTION: Some players didn't want to discuss Tiger's statement, but those who did at the Accenture Match Play Championship on Friday generally were supportive. Click here PHOTOS: Check out fresh photos of Tiger practicing Thursday. Click here WRITERS BOYCOTT: Golf writers vote not to participate in statement. Click here

Woods took another step toward normalcy -- whatever that is exactly in an entitled life -- Friday at the clubhouse of TPC Sawgrass when he delivered those words to a selected audience of about 40 people and a world watching on television.

On Thursday night, a few hours before Woods re-appeared, more than a dozen mobile satellite units were lined in the parking lot of the Marriott Sawgrass Resort & Spa. They illimunated the clear sky like shooting stars. Or was it falling stars? And which today is the metaphor for Woods?

Passersby wore jackets to combat the chilly evening temperatures, a couple even wore beanies, and thoughts flashed: Is this Vancouver? And shouldn't all these shiny, expensive mobile units be in western Canada covering the gold medal winners in the Winter Olympics?

Deep into the night and next morning, security was on high alert.

In the early morning hours Friday, again guarding against the chill, the crowds quadrupled. Some of the people were working, putting up the props in the interview areas, rehearsing scripts or running errands. Onlookers were surveying, looking for TV celebrities they recognize and wondering if they might even catch a glimpse of Woods himself.

A mile away at TPC Sawgrass clubhouse, Woods was preparing and reviewing his own script, and the words he would deliver when he stepped out from behind that blue curtain.

When the moment arrived and the room fell silent, Tiger Woods, dressed in a light blue shirt, grey slacks and dark blazer, stepped to the podium.

Seated in front of him were his closest friends, advisors and his mother, Kultida, a group of about 40 people in three rows arranged in an arc.

Woods said all the things he was expected to say. Some with emotion, at times intense emotion. His voice cracked on a couple of occasions but didn't break. There were no tears. Frequently, he looked down at the statement on the podium in front of him.

Kultida Woods, at the beginning, listened with her eyes closed and head down. Later, when her son spoke of his family -- wife Elin and two children -- Kultida looked straight at her own son.

Only when Woods spoke of Elin and the kids did he became defiant. His body stiffened, his jaw clenched, his voice took on a harsher tone. My family, he said, is off limits to criticism and off limits to paparazzi. It's me you want. Not them.

You've got good reason to be critical of me. That statement came with emotion and a pause. So, too, when he used the words "irresponsible" and "selfish" to describe his actions.

There was more emotion when he repeated, "I am so sorry." He was looking into the camera when he said it.

Woods said he will return to his roots as a Buddhist to help him through. It is the religion he grew up with through his mother, Kultida.

"Buddhism teaches you to go deep inside your soul and look through from himself, and correct the bad thing to be a good thing," Kultida said afterwards. "When he realized, he said OK, and went back to practice Buddhism and that will make him a much better person."

That's what each and every one of those 1,513 words were about: Tiger Woods' latest and most difficult challenge. Becoming a much better person.