Here's what happened in Isleworth early last Friday morning.

 

Tiger's mistress, a Manhattan nightclub hostess named Rachel Uchitel who he met nine weeks prior while competing at Liberty National in Australia, sent a text to Tiger that she was heading to LA and that he should come out a few days early for his golf tournament nearby in Thousand Oaks.

 

After seeing him, and coming up from Down Under, she was ready for more.

 

Tiger, down for the count due to a heavy Thanksgiving feast of turkey and tryptophan, was not awake to receive the midnight booty-text request.

 

Elin Nordegrin, his wife, was awake, as all mothers are, attending to her children, and intercepted the text message by chance.

 

Knowing it was a difficult Tiger lie, she gave Stevie Williams a call and he recommended a 5-iron.

 

Pulling the club in a rage, she let loose and began beating Tiger on the head and in the face.

 

Bloodied, and with teeth displaced, Tiger fled for his life and the door with Elin in hot pursuit.

 

As he drove away, she whacked out the back window of the SUV causing Tiger to become distracted. He ran over a fire hydrant and then hit a tree in the neighbor's yard.

 

The water spray from the hydrant brought Elin back from her killing frenzy and back into her normal role as the loving, supportive wife of the world's No. 1 golfer.

 

Tiger, after undergoing emergency reconstructive dental surgery, won't be seen in public anytime soon. When he does come out of hiding there will be the before and after pictures, a la Michael Jackson, to let us all decide what cosmetic surgery was performed.

 

The nightmare is just beginning.

 

Tiger goes down and takes the game of golf with him.

 

There you have it—maybe not the real story, but certainly one of the rumored versions circulating around in the absence of any detailed and truthful statements by Elin and/or Tiger.

 

Beware of any orchestrated lawyer gibberish. Unless it is under oath, in a court of law, it simply might not be absolutely true. Then again, that depends on what your definition of "it" is as one U.S. president testified.

 

What is the real story here?

 

We are being distracted from the real story at a very special time of year.

 

This week's Q-School ends an inspirational year on the PGA TOUR in which we saw Tiger come back and win six times in addition to being part of the victorious United States President's Cup team.

 

Have we forgotten Kenny Perry's near Master's victory, David Duval's near-comeback at the U.S. Open, or 59-year old Tom Watson's near-historic Open Championship at Turnberry?

 

Have we forgotten that we are so full of ourselves that we think we have a right to know what is going on in someone's marriage, and where a husband was going at 2:25 a.m.?

 

Maybe we should all look to the basics of the game of golf?

 

Basics which require tremendous talent, hard work and diligence to play the game at a proficient level.

 

Golf is difficult. Marriage is more difficult.

 

Maybe we should think about the rules of golf, and the honor in the game, to call ourselves on any misbehavior, or rule infraction.

 

In short, we should seek to be inspired, and not be inspired to seek useless information that has no bearing on our lives.

 

Maybe we should get back to the basics of life—to live freely and allow others to do the same.

 

I hope the game of golf is not damaged in any manner through this unfortunate incident.

 

Whether a Muslim on the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, a Jew getting ready for Hanukkah, a Christian preparing for Christmas, a believer of some other faith, or an atheist, this is a special time of year.

 

A time to look within our own hearts and minds as a new decade approaches.

 

Please tell me this is all a bad nightmare.

 

Please, Clarence, help me wake up. Tell me George Bailey did not run into that tree in Pottersville.

 

Indeed it is a wonderful life!

 

Can't we all forget about that Tiger Woods uni-accident and remember all about the game of golf.

 

Don't be distracted or you might really miss the meaning of the season…

 

 

Andy Reistetter is a freelance golf writer. He follows the PGA TOUR volunteering and working part time for NBC Sports, CBS Sports, and The Golf Channel.

 

He resides near the PGA TOUR headquarters and home of The PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach. He enjoys pursuing his passion for the game of golf and everything associated with it. He can be reached through his website www.MrHickoryGolf.net or by e-mailing him to Andy@MrHickoryGolf.net