from www.nydailynews.com – Tiger Woods tucked his tail between his legs Friday and finally apologized in person for cheating on his wife with a bevy of babes.

“I was unfaithful, I had affairs, I cheated,” Woods said. “What I did was unacceptable. I have only myself to blame.”

Looking straight into the cameras, Woods said:

“I am deeply sorry for irresponsible and selfish behavior I engaged in,” he said. “I know people want to find out how I could be so selfish and so foolish… how I could have done these things to my wife Elin and my children.”

With his mother in the room – but not his wife, Elin – Woods said he “brought this shame on myself” in a carefully scripted 15 minute address that was by turns robotic and wrenching.

“I am so sorry,” he said in one his few flashes of emotion. “I have a lot to atone for.”

Woods, 34, said he acted out of misguided sense of entitlement and vowed to start “living a life of integrity.”

“I thought that I had worked hard my entire life and deserve to enjoy all the temptations around me,” he said. “I was wrong. I was foolish.”

Dressed in a blue blazer and shirt with no tie, Woods confirmed reports that he underwent therapy to exorcise the sexual demons that drove him to cheat with a parade of porn stars, party girls and waitresses.

But he refused to go into details about his womanizing.

“That is a matter between husband and wife,” he said.

Woods also delivered a stirring defense of Elin against reports that she attacked him with a golf club when she learned of his affairs on Nov. 27.

“Elin never hit me that night or any other night,” he said. “Elin has shown enormous grace and poise throughout this ordeal. Elin deserves praise, not blame.”

But Woods also suggested that he was still in the dog house with the missus.

“Elin and I have started the process of discussing the damage for my behavior,” he said.

Woods said he would return to pro golf one day, but did not say when. He acknowledged the enormous damage he did to his multi-million dollar sports brand saying, “my behavior has caused considerable worry to my business partners.”

After taking some heated pot shots at the paparazzi, Woods returned to his controlled self and said he will rely on his Buddhist faith to help him get through the ordeal.

“Starting tomorrow I will leave for more treatment and more therapy,” he said.

In closing, Woods choked up a bit as he asked his friends and fans to “find room in your heart to one day believe in me again.”

When he finished his nearly 15-minute speech, Woods gave his mother Kultida a long hug and then – with a faint smile on his face – shook hands
with his friends.

Then he walked off stage the same way he came in – with his head down.

Porn star Veronica Siwik-Daniels was the first of Tiger’s girls to weigh in – and she turned thumb’s down.

“I thought it was fake,” said Siwik-Daniels, who performs under the name Joslyn James. “He needs therapy. I’m just not sure what kind of therapy that is.”

It was the first time Woods faced the public since his lurid – and disastrous – sex scandal broke on Thanksgiving.

While the networks and cable stations interrupted regular programming to cover Woods, only reporters from the three wire services were allowed inside the PGA’s headquarters in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.

The Golf Writers Association of America boycotted the event because Woods said up front that he would not be taking questions.

Millions of Americans stopped what they were doing and watched the world’s greatest golfer try to rescue what remains of his tattered reputation.

The ESPN Zone in Times Square was jammed with fans watching Woods. And the duffers at Chelsea Piers parked their drivers to watch the speech.