Woods attends Golf Writers dinner

MARTINEZ, Ga. - Tiger Woods' attempts at a charm offensive continued into Wednesday night, when the world No. 1 made an apperance at the annual Golf Writers Association of America awards dinner.

Officially there to collect his award as the Golf Writers PGA Tour player of the year --hard as it is to remember, Woods won seven times worldwide in 2009 -- he was also looking to further distance himself from easily the most damaging stretch of his career.

While Woods has traditionally made a brief apperance at the dinner to collect his award, this was his first opportunity to appear at such an occasion following his precipitious fall from grace, something he made only cursory reference to in his remarks.

"I'll stick to golf....its pretty cool to be back here playing at the Masters," he said. "I missed this...this year I'm moving forward at the Masters."

While Woods' remarks were brief, more noteworthy was what came after: as opposed to years past when he has left as soon as his portion of the program was over, he sat down at a table, even rising to give a standing ovation to Padraig Harrington, who received the ASAP/Jim Murray Award for cooperation with the media.

He eventually left at 8 p.m. (EDT).

-- Sam Weinman