His interview over, Padraig Harrington was leaving the media center at the Chevron World Challenge when he passed Lee Westwood and offered some help.

"Would you like to know what questions are being asked?" Harrington said.

Westwood smiled and said, "I imagine there's only one."

Tiger Woods' presence is larger than ever, even if he isn't coming to his own tournament. As most players were getting ready to practice Tuesday, TV sets were tuned to a press conference in Florida, where state troopers declared the investigation into his Nov. 27 early-morning crash was over and that Woods would be cited for careless driving and fined $164.

Then came an Us Weekly story with a woman claiming to have text messages and voice mails from an affair with Woods that began more than two years ago. That magazine cover story comes less than a week after the National Enquirer published a story alleging that Woods had been seeing New York nightclub hostess Rachel Uchitel, who has denied it.

"There's lot of questions that we're never going to get the answers to, and the fact that he is the No. 1 sports star in the world means that there is going to be a higher profile to those things," Harrington said. "It is what it is because of how good he is, and he'll have to deal with it. I don't know exactly what the truth of it all is, and the thing is, I don't think anybody is ever going to know exactly what's gone on. And that's probably a good thing.

"But it won't stop people from guessing and questioning things like that," he said. "That's human nature. We're intrigued by other people's lives."

Most players, even those who are close to Woods, have not heard from him and don't know what to think, much less say.

"I haven't talked to him," said Mark O'Meara, who took him under his wing when Woods turned pro at age 20 in 1996.

Steve Stricker went undefeated with Woods as his partner at the Presidents Cup, and their wives walked together in some of those matches. He usually gets a quick answer when he sends a text message from Woods. This time, not a peep.

"Since I haven't heard back, I imagine he's in _ I don't know the right word _ a lot of pain," Stricker said. "And I don't even know what that means. I don't know what it's all about. I just feel bad for the guy. He's getting hammered in the media."

The tournament has taken a supporting role to the drama being played out inside the gates of Isleworth, where Woods crashed his SUV into a fire hydrant and tree, and in celebrity magazines.

NBC Sports will be televising the tournament this week, and executive producer Tommy Roy said he could not say how the network will cover Woods' absence.