Tiger who?
Elin Nordegren on Saturday graduated atop her class after a nine-year college career — and then educated her audience with some rare, albeit veiled, comments about her ex, the world’s greatest golfer.
It was a rare display of public candor from the former Swedish model, who graduated with a 3.96 GPA from Rollins College’s Hamilton Holt School in Winter Park, Fla.
In her commencement address, she told her 300 classmates that night school offered her a “place of peace in the wild storm of my personal life.”
Her divorce from Tiger Woods, ironically, “was right after I had taken communication and the media,” said Nordegren, 34, who earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology.
“I probably should have taken more notes in that class,” she added, to laughs.
Through his many infidelities, Nordegren had remained on the fence about divorcing Woods — until she famously chased him out of the house with a golf club in 2010 after learning of his 15th mistress.
She said the internationally publicized ordeal was “some of the most challenging times” in her life — but didn’t bother to mention Woods by name.
“I have also realized that education has been the only consistent part of my life for the last nine years,” Nordegren said. “And it has offered me comfort — because education is the one thing that no one can take away from you.”
Nordegren started at the Hamilton Holt School shortly after moving from Sweden to the US to work as a nanny.
After marrying Woods in 2004, she at times took one class per semester and took three major breaks — two for the births of her children, one for divorce.
On Saturday she was honored as the Outstanding Graduating Senior.
University officials lauded her for her determination as a single mother rearing Woods’ two children, Sam and Charlie — and for raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for charities benefitting less privileged children.
“I’ve been called a woman with no words in the media and criticized for not talking very much,” she said from the podium. “Words can be powerful. But what matters is the action behind the words.”
On the eve of Mother’s Day, Nordegren took a moment to recognize classmates who, like herself, struggle to be parents and students simultaneously.
“My hope is that today I’m showing my children, Sam and Charlie — who’s sleeping in his chair — that it’s never too late to follow your dream.”
