BY MATT RUSSO AND TUGEND STEIN

Ever since a driving incident in his home state of Florida, Tiger Woods has been in the news very often lately. This episode happened on Dec. 1 when, at 2:25 a.m., Woods backed out of his driveway and struck a fire hydrant and a neighbor’s tree. He was seriously injured, with blood in his mouth, cuts on his lips and seemed to be drifting in and out of consciousness, according to Florida state police.

Woods had been stuck in his car and was not able to exit the car until his wife, Elin Nordegren, unleashed a golf club on the back window and pulled Woods out of the Cadillac Escalade he had been driving.

This dramatic scene drew much suspicion from the media about why he was driving at that early morning time, whether domestic violence was involved and whether Woods was driving under the influence.

Woods and his wife delayed their conference with the police for many days. Eventually, Tiger ended up with a $164 fine and four points on his driver’s license, not enough to  suspend his license. Woods received the fine because of charges of reckless driving and breaking the Florida driving infraction of driving without shoes or other footwear. Police also believe that Woods might not have been wearing a seatbelt.

However, since $164 is spare change for the most famous golfer and richest athlete in the world, the real blow was to his reputation, as he publicly stated the day after the accident that he had had a two-and-a half year affair with a cocktail waitress from Los Angeles named Jaimee Grubbs. The media discovered more than 300 text messages between Grubbs and Woods. Reporters said that the two had seen each other on numerous occasions, including in 2007 just weeks before Woods’ wife had the couple’s first baby.

Woods has decided to take an “indefinite break” from golf to straighten out his personal life.

Tiger’s reputation has been badly hurt, but it helps that he has made numerous public apologies and has been a model citizen for most of his professional life.

However, sponsors are evaluating whether they should continue to associate their public images with Tiger. Accenture dropped Tiger; Gillette, AT&T and Tag Heuer are all considering similar options.