Delivering an extended apology for his extramarital affairs in a televised press conference in Florida this afternoon, Woods acknowledged "For all that I have done I am so sorry ... I was unfaithful. I had affairs. I cheated. What I did is not acceptable and I am the only person to blame. I stopped living by the core values I was taught to believe in."
He added: "Parents used to point to me as a role model for their kids. I owe all those families an apology."
Woods announced he would be leaving tomorrow for "more treatment and more therapy", having spent 45 days since late December in in-patient therapy receiving guidance "for the issues I am facing".
"I need to regain my balance and be centred so I can save the things that are most important to me - my marriage and my children.
"I do plan to return to golf one day, I just don't know when that day will be," he said. "I don't rule out that it will be this year."
He thanked former sponsor Accenture and players in the field at this week's Accenture Match Play tournament "for understanding why I need to make these remarks today".
But he directed criticism at the media for intruding on his wife and her mother, pleading "Please leave my wife and kids alone", as well as denying that his wife had ever hit him and that he had used "performance-enhancing drugs".
Signing off, Woods said: "I ask you to find room in your heart to one day believe in me again" before walking to the front row of the audience and hugging his mother and friends.
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