Tiger Woods with his daughter, Sam, and wife, Elin, watch an NCAA college football game in this file photo taken last month in California. (AP)

NEW YORK (AFP) — Tiger Woods apologized Wednesday for “transgressions” in his family life as a magazine posted what it said was evidence of an extramarital affair between the golf superstar and a cocktail waitress.

“I have let my family down and I regret those transgressions with all of my heart,” Woods said, appealing for privacy after celebrity gossip magazines and tabloids reported on three women claimed to have been his mistresses.

Woods did not directly respond to those reports, but his mea culpa sought to draw a line under a publicity disaster that has damaged the golfing great’s squeaky clean and highly lucrative image.

It came hours after the celebrity magazine Us Weekly posted an online recording of what it said was Woods begging Los Angeles waitress Jaimee Grubbs to change her voicemail to hide their affair from his wife Erin.

In his statement on his website, Woods admitted he was “far short of perfect” and said “I have not been true to my values and the behavior my family deserves.”

The star promised “to be a better person and the husband and father my family deserves,” but he also asked the media to leave him in peace.

“Personal sins should not require press releases and problems within a family shouldn’t have to mean public confessions.”

The statement came five days after Woods crashed his car in strange circumstances on Friday at 2:25 am outside his Florida home, where he lives with Elin, a 29-year-old former Swedish model, and their two children.

There were no immediate signs of sponsors getting cold feet about the 14-time major winner who earlier this year became the first sports star to break through the billion-dollar earnings mark, according to Forbes magazine.