American golfer Jason Gore is afraid that when Tiger Woods comes back to the game it will be with all guns blazing.
Speaking in Queenstown two days before the start of the New Zealand Open, Gore, who has known Woods since he was 12, said he believed the golfer had the mental strength to come back better than before his recent fall from grace.
"I think it is going to make him concentrate even more. He will really have a thing to prove and with all the stuff going on around him it will be hard, but he has a tough New Zealand boy on his bag who is not afraid to throw a camera or two," Gore said.
"He is still a great player, by far the best in the world. He is going to get heckled but I think he will be fine."
Gore said he did not condone Woods' actions, but that the incident was made all the worse because the public had such a perfect picture of him.
"Everyone has screwed up and Tiger has screwed up ... He's not the first but it is the first time we have seen him as a human being," Gore said.
"His golf ball doesn't know what he did, his clubs don't know what he did."
Gore said he believed Woods would come back to the game when her was ready.
"When he does, the number who will be watching will be astronomical. As an American, it will be Super Bowlish," he said.
"Deep down he is a good guy who just made some bad decisions. It doesn't mean now that he is the devil. He made some mistakes but it's not that he hurt anyone but himself. He will be fine."
