The story has been building for a week now, since allegations of an affair by golf superstar Tiger Woods with Rachel Uchitel were leaked and then revealed by The National Enquirer.  The first reports of a car accident outside his home in an exclusive neighborhood in Florida didn't fit the carefully crafted public image of Woods;  the father of two at home with wife and kids hitting a fire hydrant and then smashing into a large oak tree at 2:20 AM.  No alcohol was involved.  Who is out at 2:20AM?  And why do they, without being under the influence of alcohol, drive erratically and smash the car?

One thing is certain, Tiger leads a busy life, spending at least half of his time on the road away from his family at golf tournaments and promotional events.  According to Forbes, Tiger was on track to become a billionaire by 2010 -- but that achievement might be sidelined with the current distractions.  Tiger's wife is stunningly beautiful former model Elin Nordegren and he has two children with her.  Most people find it hard to believe anyone could have cheated on such a beautiful wife and that was the tone of most comments online.

Here's what we know about Rachel Uchitel.  She has a Facebook page (with 1300 "friends") and the NY Times has a piece from December 12, 2004 that says her fiancé died in the September 11, 2001 tragedy at the World Trade Center.  Since then, she's been busy -- in October, she claimed to have an affair with Bones star David Boreanaz, which was reported and mostly ignored.  The Enquirer's December 7th issue reported that Wood's alleged mistress has a "reputation for dating married celebrities".  Here are some of the more popular photos making the rounds on the web today.

Rachel Uchitel in a sunny moment.

Rachel Uchitel and friends.

Let's review what happened:

Last week rumors began circulating that Tiger Woods had an affair with 34 year old "New York party girl" Rachel Uchitel.  The source was The National Enquirer.  People can say what they want to about The Enquirer, but they broke the John Edwards scandal, which he admitted was true after months of denial and are meticulous about checking and double checking the reliability of sources.  They have to because they get sued all the time and generally win, because the stories turn out to be true.  In this case, they administered polygraph tests to some of the sources.

This story was about to break this weekend -- and it could not have been a fun time to be at the Woods household.  Elie was most likely furious at these reports, even if she was "the last to know", she had to know because it was all over the internet, though many stories were qualified to give Tiger the benefit of the doubt.

It gets lonely when you travel that much and being the superstar celebrity that he is, he is most certainly surrounded by temptation at every turn.  

The car crash story broke Saturday morning with the news that Tiger had been admitted to the hospital with injuries, which were reported to be lacerations on his face and arms.

According to TMZ.com and other sources, Tiger's wife has changed her story, telling a different version to the Windemere Police Department and the Florida Highway Patrol.  A story on SFGate.com has the following:

The Windemere Police Department where the couple lives in Florida, got the first story where Elin Nordegren claimed to have smashed in a window of his 2009 Cadillac SUV with a golf club then pulled Woods out to safety. But the story she told to the Florida Highway Patrol is reportedly dramatically different and does not involve going back into the house to get a golf club and rescue him from the Cadillac. However what the new story is, is not known as of this writing.

Photos of the scene of the accident from WFTV.com are here.

A photo from the scene of the accident.

Later reports said there was no blood on the steering wheel of the Cadillac SUV and that Elie had smashed the back window out of the SUV, ostensibly to help Tiger get out of the car.

While there are still some missing details, the picture is becoming more complete...

Tiger and his wife Elie have an argument late in the evening, once the children are safely in bed.  She confronts him about the reports in the media about the affair and possibly with some other information she has obtained, like going through his cell phone for the call log or any incriminating saved text messages.  Sneaking around would be difficult while home for a couple of weeks and there is a good chance Elie found something suspicious.  

What would drive Tiger out the door at 2:30AM, plus explain his erratic behavior?

If Elie had a violent reaction to everything she had learned, there's a good chance her temper flared and she started hitting and scratching Tiger.  It's not out of the realm of possibility that she then grabbed one of the golf clubs sitting around the house (there are probably a few of those around the Woods residence) and started swinging at Tiger.  Maybe she hit him in the head and chased him out the door and when he started to drive away, she started hitting the SUV with the club.  The evidence still missing are the injuries suffered by Tiger, which would prove definitively what happened here.  A good look at any damage to the SUV would show golf club marks wherever she hit the car.

There is no reason to smash the back window out of the car to help Tiger escape, as was previously reported, Tiger could have used one of the back doors (assuming the front door was pinned shut).

The irony is that Elie, due to her temper, could be charged with spousal abuse or assault and battery (not that Tiger would ever press charges).  Those are the charges the local police are contemplating at the moment.

Here's the latest from TMZ.com

We're told he said his wife had confronted him about reports that he was seeing another woman. The argument got heated and, according to our source, she scratched his face up. We're told it was then Woods beat a hasty retreat for his SUV -- but according to our source, Woods says his wife followed behind with a golf club. As Tiger drove away, she struck the vehicle several times with the club. 

The story is making more sense all the time.

Once again proving that "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned".