Tiger Woods' Apology: Fellow Golfer Insists Emotions Were Real

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The dramatic pauses, the tears, the hugs -- the emotions of a typically stoic Tiger Woods at Friday's public apology have been debated, celebrated and mocked, but the pro-golfer's close friend insists it was not a show.

Tiger's friend Notah Begay was in the room as Woods apologized.

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Fellow pro-golfer Notah Begay, who befriended Woods when the two were teenagers, called Woods' carefully planned statement "surreal."

"There was just a level of expectation and anticipation that I've never really felt at any type of gathering," Begay told "Good Morning America" today. "This is kind of the stuff that's reserved more for politicians."

Begay said he knows his friend has lost fans and supporters that he may never get back.

"There'll probably be a few more boos than he's used to hearing, but there's going to be a lot of support as well," he said.

A contrite Woods spoke Friday in his first public appearance since shortly after the Thanksgiving Day weekend car crash that began the unraveling of Woods' shadowy sex life. He apologized to his wife, his young children and his fans and promised he was going to continue with the rehabilitation he started nearly two months ago.

"The issue involved here was my repeated irresponsible behavior," he said. "I was unfaithful. I had affairs. I cheated. What I did is not acceptable, and I am the only person to blame."

Woods reportedly played tennis with wife Elin Nordegren before heading back to sex addiction rehab.

After he was finished speaking, Woods made a point of tearfully hugging a group of people seated in the front row, including his mother and Begay.

"I know that the emotion and the sincerity and the humility that he demonstrated in his statement and throughout the whole thing was coming from the heart," he said. "And that's the very first place you have to start when you are in a rehabilitative process."

Begay said he choked up watching his friend struggle because it was one of the few times he couldn't keep his emotions in check.

"Tiger doesn't get emotional at these types of statements and functions. In the past, even at Earl's funeral," Begay said of Woods' father. "He kept himself together and didn't get as emotional as he did on Friday."

But Woods had barely finished speaking when the critics piped up.

"If your problem is that your behavior has revealed your public persona to be a fake, you shouldn't stage this grotesquely fake press conference," ABC News analyst George Will said on Sunday's "This Week."

Golf fan Alvin Turner was perhaps more blunt.

"I'm sure he's sorry about something, but I'm not sure what it is," he said.

Source: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/tiger-woods-apology-friend-insists-emotion-sincere/story?id=9906626