Tiger and the porn actress: is Oprah the solution now?

Tiger Woods's wife, Elin Nordegren, is reported to have moved out of the family home in Florida as news broke of yet another Tiger 'transgressee' - 34-year-old blonde porn actress Holly Sampson.

As the star of such films as Diary of a Horny Housewife, Emmanuelle In Paradise and OMG, Stop Tickling Me, Sampson - also known as Nicolette Foster, Andrea Michaels and Zoe - is likely to make Woods's so-far supportive corporate sponsors distinctly uncomfortable in their association with the world number one golfer.

There is also increasing speculation that an as yet unnamed British television presenter will be outed as having had an affair with Woods. She would bring to eight (or ten, depending on who's counting) the number of women who have either claimed or been rumoured to have had relationships with Tiger during his five-year marriage to Elin.

With Woods now alone in his Florida bunker according to the gossip site Radar, the damage-limitation brigade is trying to persuade him there is now only one way out of this mess - to confess everything on TV to the great Oprah Winfrey.

"Get on the Oprah sofa, get it all out, and get back to your golf," was the advice of one New York PR expert.

So far, Woods has stuck by the online statement he posted on December 2 when he apologised to his family for his "transgressions". That followed the claim by San Diego cocktail waitress Jaimee Grubbs that she had enjoyed a long affair with the golfer.

Since then, there has been a steady stream of other women confessing to - or in some cases denying - relationships with Tiger.

The thinking among the PR fraternity is that, whatever the state of his marriage, one of these days Tiger has got to get back on the golf course - and it's going to be near-impossible for him to keep his eye on the ball if this saga is not resolved.

But there's a downside to the Oprah solution: Tiger's history on the talk show queen's sofa is controversial.

In 1997, after he announced himself on the world sporting stage as the Great Black Hope by winning the Masters, Tiger went on Oprah and, to the fury of many African-Americans who wanted to celebrate his victory in a white man's game, announced that he wasn't actually black - he was "Cablinasian".

Asked by Winfrey if it bothered him to be called an African-American, he responded: "It does. Growing up, I came up with this name: I'm a 'Cablinasian'."

This, Woods explained, meant Caucasian-black-Indian-Asian, based on the fact that his black father was one-quarter American Indian and that his Thai mother was actually half-Chinese. "I'm just who I am," Woods told Oprah, "whoever you see in front of you."

Reaction from African Americans ranged from anger to raised eyebrows. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell famously responded: "In America, which I love from the depths of my heart and soul, when you look like me, you're black."

OTHER TIGER NEWS

• There has been much hilarity in the magazine world after Golf Digest's January issue went to press before the sex scandal broke featuring a mocked-up picture of Woods acting as caddie to President Obama, to illustrate an article headlined "10 Tips Obama can take from Tiger".

"Woods is a good role model... because he has always been able to pull himself together after setbacks," the article notes, adding: "Woods never does anything that would make himself look ridiculous."

• Woods is due to be best man this weekend at the South Carolina wedding of his schoolfriend Bryon Bell, who heads his golf course design company. Bell was recently alleged by the gossip site TMZ to have personally helped Rachel Uchitel and Tiger Woods meet up in Melbourne by booking her air ticket and hotel room.

Will Tiger will turn up? And if he does, will be tell the traditional mother-in-law jokes? According to some reports his own has recently turned up in Florida from Sweden to comfort her daughter.

• It has emerged that one of the Florida Highway Patrol troopers who dealt with Tiger's car crash on Friday November 27 was told by a witness that Woods had drunk alcohol during the day and had also taken the prescription drugs Ambien and Vicadin.

Trooper Joshua Evans requested a subpoena to allow police to see hospital records but the request was rejected by a state prosecutor. ·