The world's No. 1 golfer Tiger Woods and his Swedish wife Elin Nordegren have divorced following the sex scandal that embroiled Woods late last year.

"We are sad that our marriage is over and we wish each other the very best for the future," they said in a statement released by their lawyers.

FOR THE SAKE OF THE CHILDREN

"While we are no longer married, we are the parents of two wonderful children and their happiness has been, and will always be, of paramount importance to both of us," Woods and Nordegren said.

"The weeks and months ahead will not be easy for them as we adjust to a new family situation, which is why our privacy must be a principal concern."

 Woods, 34, and Nordegren, 30, were married for six years. They were wed in October 2004 in Barbados.

The couple have a 3-year-old daughter, Sam, and a 19-month-old son, Charlie.

"Once we came to the decision that our marriage was at an end, the primary focus of our amicable discussions has been to ensure their future well-being," their joint statement said.

Woods and Nordegren attended Monday's execution of the divorce at a court in Panama City, Florida, where they agreed to share the parenting of their children. Both had attended four-hour parenting  classes, the court documents showed.

The documents also reveal that Nordegren moved out of the Orlando-area family home in November already, and had moved into another residence nearby.

In Nordegren's petition for divorce, filed at the beginning of July, she said the marriage was "irretrievably broken".

She has asked  for her maiden name to be restored.

No details have yet emerged of her divorce settlement, valued in media reports at anywhere between 100 million and 500 million dollars.

DOING SOME UGLY THINGS

Tiger Woods's spectacular fall from grace began on November 27 last year when he crashed his car into a tree and a fire hydrant near his Orlando home.

The incident touched off a massive sex scandal, leading to his admission of adultery.

Long seen as an ambassador for a new generation of golfers, Woods's previous clean-cut image had earned him record sponsorship deals and a place in the select pantheon of globally-known sports stars.

According to Forbes business magazine, he was the first athlete to have broken through the billion dollars earnings mark.

That image was decimated in the weeks after the car crash as a string of women, including a porn star, a cocktail waitress and a Las Vegas club manager were romantically linked to the sporting superstar.

Later Woods apologized publicly to Nordegren for igniting the tabloid frenzy in which more than a dozen women claimed affairs, saying he had been "living a lie" and admitting to "doing some ugly  things".

In what was widely seen as a bid to save his marriage, Woods was  treated for sex addiction at a clinic in Mississippi.

He then made an highly anticipated comeback at the US Masters in March. Returning at the Augusta National - a comfortable setting where  he has captured four titles, his first in 1997 being the first major crown won by a black golfer - Woods finished a respectable fourth.

Since then, however, a string of performances ranging from mediocre to poor have seen many question whether the 14-time major winner is capable of recapturing the form that saw him dominate the  game for a decade.

Nine months after the sex scandal first broke, Woods enters this  week's opening event of the US PGA Tour season-ending playoffs without a win this year.

Stripped of his invincible aura, he ranks only 108th in the points race and could at any moment lose his number one ranking. Without a good finish at The Barclays starting on Thursday in New Jersey, it could be his final outing of the season, as only the  top 100 qualify for the next event.