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Marana, Arizona. Tiger Woods will speak publicly on Friday for the first time since his bizarre, middle-of-the-night car accident, beginning what his agent called “the process of making amends” for the sex scandal that sent him into hiding for three months.

“While Tiger feels that what happened is fundamentally a matter between him and his wife, he also recognizes that he has hurt and let down a lot of other people who were close to him,” Mark Steinberg said in an e-mail on Wednesday. “He also let down his fans. He wants to begin the process of making amends.”

However, Steinberg said Woods would not take any questions from a small group of media. “This is not a press conference,” the agent said.

It will be Woods’ first public appearance since Nov. 27, when he crashed his SUV into a tree outside his Florida home. Woods’s only comments since then have been made through his Web site.

Woods is to speak at 11 a.m. local time on Friday from the clubhouse at the TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, home of the PGA Tour.

Strict controls have been put in place for the appearance, typical of Woods’s career.

Steinberg described the gathering as a “small group of friends, colleagues and close associates,” who will listen to Woods apologize as he talks about the past and what he plans to do next. He said three wire services have been invited — The Associated Press, Reuters and Bloomberg — and he asked the Golf Writers Association of America to recommend pool reporters. Only one camera will be in the room.

“The first time out, he’s better controlling it,” fellow player Padraig Harrington said from the Match Play Championship in Arizona. “Over time, there will be questions. At the moment, the best thing is a more controlled environment and gradually ease his way back into it.”

The timing is peculiar. The appearance will take place during the third round of the Arizona tournament, sure to steal attention away from the first big event of the year. The tournament is sponsored by Accenture, the first sponsor to drop Woods when he became embroiled in the sex scandal.

“He’s got to come out at some point,” Irish golfer Rory McIlroy said. “I suppose he might want to get something back against the sponsor that dropped him. No, I don’t know. It just went on for so long. I’m sick of hearing about it. And I’m just looking forward to when he’s getting back on the golf course.”

Steinberg said only that Woods’s appearance during the championship was “a matter of timing.” Asked if it could have waited until Monday, he said, “No.” Not everyone agreed.

“It’s selfish,” Ernie Els told Golfweek magazine. “You can write that. I feel sorry for the sponsor. Mondays are a good day to make statements, not Friday. This takes a lot away from the golf tournament.”

Golf

Associated Press