Tiger Woods will face the first test of his newly acquired notoriety this week at the Chevron World Challenge in California, where he is usually the star of the show.
This end-of-season tournament, attended by many of the world's leading players in Thousand Oaks, is where the American superstar normally acts as host, raises fortunes for the Tiger Woods Foundation and frequently walks way with the first prize.
But this time the question on most people's lips is: Will Tiger even turn up? And if he does, what will he look like and how will he react to an embarrassing situation he has never faced before?
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It is no exaggeration to suggest that the sporting world was changed significantly since the bizarre traffic accident in which he was involved the early hours of a Florida morning.
When Woods reversed his Cadillac Escalade SUV into a fire hydrant and a tree in a neighbour's garden at 2.25am after apparently having a row with his wife, Elin, a carefully nurtured image suffered even more damage than the crumpled vehicle.
There was massive relief that the 33-year-old was not as seriously injured as was first reported, even though he was unconscious for six minutes, suffered cuts and bruises and was detained in hospital for 12 hours as a result of the accident.
All indications suggest that the No 1 golfer in the world will make a complete physical recovery and be able to continue a career which has already earned him $1billion.
But what effect will the fall-out have on his marriage, his future earning potential and even his ability to dominate his sport?
In the eyes of the public, Woods is not the same man he was a week ago and may never be again.
No longer is he simply a wonderful player, who has broken down class and colour barriers in a remarkable life while retaining a squeaky clean image - barring the occasional expletive - that made him perfect corporate sponsorship material.
What made Friday morning's incident so shocking - and from which police charges could yet be made - was that it was like something out of the life story of hell-raiser John Daly. While his PR organisation will do all they can to minimise the damage, they have to face up to the cold reality that Woods now has a whiff of scandal attached to his name.
From now on the phrase 'driving into the trees' will have a completely different connotation. Only the day before his wife took a golf club to smash a car window to help him escape from the crash near their home in Isleworth, Florida, Woods had been the subject of lurid allegations in a US tabloid about an affair with Rachel Uchitel, described as a 34-year-old party hostess.
The sequence of events which followed led to Woods ending up in hospital, leaving the blanks in the story to be filled in as time progresses.
But having already been the subject of the intense scrutiny which goes with the territory of being a worldwide star, the instantly recognisable celebrity will face an even tougher challenge to keep his private life as secret as he has so successfully done in the past.
It is hard to imagine that his many lucrative off-course deals will be severely affected, and how badly does he need the money anyway
But what of his game and his place in golf history? While he was accumulating record after record, analysts were always looking for a weakness.
Would it be injury, fame, pressure or his life off the course? Marriage and the arrival of his two children were held up as examples of opponents to his domination. He once said: 'Why do people think that because I'm married it will make me a worse player? If anything the security I feel inside will only help.'
His mental fortitude has always been regarded as his greatest strength, a quality he has revealed on numerous occasions, such as when he overcame the loss of his father and mentor, Earl, to win The Open at Royal Liverpool in 2006 and when he claimed the US Open with an injured left knee, in probably his greatest victory, at Torrey Pines in 2008.
Yet Woods is facing an important period in his career as he attempts to overhaul Jack Nicklaus's all-time record of 18 major titles.
After reaching 14 in his first 11 years as a professional his progress stalled in 2009, when he failed to win any of the four Grand Slam events.
Six wins in America for the world No 1 plus the Australia Masters this month would have been a hugely successful season for the majority of players.
But his failure to win the US PGA, where he was overhauled by the 110th ranked player in the world Y.E. Yang of South Korea to surrender a final-round lead in a major for the first time, made observers wonder whether he was losing his touch.
TMZ has learned a woman has come forward to Us Weekly, claiming she had a 31-month affair with Tiger Woods and has a voicemail recording and texts to prove it.
The woman, Jaimee Grubbs, claims she met Tiger in Las Vegas in April, 2007. The woman -- a cocktail waitress who was 21 at the time -- began what she says was a long-running affair with Tiger.
Tiger Woods well documented troubles with his driving ended in a visit to a Florida hospital in the early hours of Friday morning. He managed to duck hook a 300 yard drive from his garage, ricocheting off a fire hydrant and ending up 50 yards out of bounds.
Ex-coach Butch Hardman said this morning that he had predicted such a thing might be on the cards if he didn't change his technique. He told Golf World magazine: "I said to him 3 years ago that unless he could sychronise his hips and shoulders in the downswing, he could be looking at serious problems in the future. He also had a tendency to fiddle with his CD player on long drives, which I told him could also be bad news."
Meanwhile his current driving instructor, Joe Biffam from Florida Driving School, expressed suprise at the accident. "His short game has always been natural and sound, and indeed by all accounts he had no problem with the initial manouvre out of the garage. For longer distances, we have been working on a more consistent move from 3rd to 4th gear on his stick shift, and last week I thought he had it nailed. I guess the old problems with the reverse pivot must have just reappeared."
This morning, Woods was said to be in a good condition although he wouldn't be able to make his usual Saturday morning fourball.
"- Jag är verkligen ledsen för Elin, det var ju jag och min fru som förde dem samman, och jag ber henne om ursäkt.
Enligt ett flertal medier handlar felstegen om att Woods varit otrogen mot sin fru, svenskan Elin (född Nordegren), och det spekuleras i att frun jagade honom med en golfklubba när han satte sig i bilen och kraschade utanför hemmet i Florida.
- Jag hoppas att Elin använder en driver nästa gång i stället för en järntrea, säger Jesper Parnevik till Golf Channel.
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