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WHEN TIGER WOODS decided to post glamour shot photos of him and his new ladyfriend, Lindsey Vonn, it was unexpected.

Woods is normally very private. This very public declaration of his personal life didn’t make sense. And, frankly, the whole thing just seemed weird.

Today, during a press conference at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill, he explained why he did it. Basically, he wanted to take money out of the pocket of paparazzi who were stalking him.

“It’s very simple. We’re very happy where we’re at, but also we wanted to limit the stalkarazzi and all those sleazy websites that are out there following us,” Woods said, according to ESPN.

Last night, Fox Sports’ Robert Lusetich reported Woods has been surreptitiously seeing Vonn since November. During that time, photographers have been trying desperately to get photos of the pair together. Lusetich estimates the first photos of Vonn and Woods could have fetched $500,000 from tabloids.

By preempting the paparazzi from getting the first photos of the couple, Woods and Vonn popped the market. The hope is that they’ll be left alone now.

“I’ve had situations where it’s been very dangerous for my kids and the extent they’ll go to. We basically devalued the first photos,” he said, according to ESPN, “Unfortunately, that’s just the way it is in our society right now, and we felt like it was the best thing to do. I’m very happy about it.”

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