Tiger and Tigress spend honeymoon on Privacy
Tiger Woods – now only the world’s third-best golfer – and Swedish bride Elin Nordegren came ashore on a skiff today from a yacht where they spent their wedding night after a sunset ceremony at a luxury Barbados’ resort.
The lavish celebration reportedly cost more than £1m (€1.4m).
Oprah Winfrey and former basketball stars Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley were among more than 120 guests at the ceremony on a hill overlooking the club house of the Sandy Lane resort and golf course.
The wedding, held in a white-netted pagoda decorated with red roses, took place at dusk last night as the sun painted a spectacular array of colours across the sky, witnesses said.
As the sun rose today, a rainbow arched over the yacht, Privacy, before the couple came ashore on a skiff, Woods in swimming shorts. They were accompanied by the bride’s identical twin, Josefin.
Woods reportedly imported 500 red roses for the ceremony.
Nordegren, 24, met Woods three years ago while she was the nanny to the children of Swedish golfer Jesper Parnevik.
At the ceremony, Nordegren wore an off-white sleeveless gown, while Woods, 28, wore a beige suit.
Woods’ father, Earl, arrived at the resort about three hours before the wedding in a silver Rolls-Royce. At the reception in the golf clubhouse overlooking the Caribbean Sea, he cried after giving a speech, witnesses said.
Nordegren’s mother, Swedish immigration minister Barbro Holmberg, was also at the ceremony.
The rock group Hootie and the Blowfish performed under a tent at the 19th hole of the Green Monkey Golf Course, witnesses said.
Then fireworks lit up the night skyline along Barbados’ west coast, visible miles way.
Resort staff had erected sheets of plywood and a crane hoisted large plants to try to block views of the ceremony.
Two photographers approaching the reception area were escorted away by Barbadian police, who helped provide security, along with private guards and a Barbados Coast Guard cutter offshore.
Other photographers crouched in a nearby bushy area several hours before the wedding to take pictures of guests entering the country club. Others were on the roof of a nearby house.
Security guards from Sandy Lane tried in vain to persuade a nearby resident to throw the press off her son’s property. The woman explained she was the landlord and that she had granted permission.
Woods’ precautions appeared to encompass hiring the only helicopter charter company on the island, which said it was booked solid on Tuesday – a move that prevented journalists and photographers from flying over the event.
He also rented out the entire hotel, which has about 200 rooms, according to a hotel source.
Woods asked Nordegren to marry him in November 2003 during a sunset walk at a game reserve in South Africa, after he competed in the Presidents Cup.
On Sunday, Woods played in the American Express Championship at the Mount Juliet Golf Course in Thomastown, Co Kilkenny. He finished ninth, and slipped to number three in the world for the first time since May 1999.
The Sandy Lane is owned by Irishmen JP McManus and Dermot Desmond, who are friends of Woods.
