Tiger Woods, a self-acknowledged control freak, insists on loyalty as a fundamental quality in employees, associates and friends. Just how much Woods values allegiance was summed up by his father, Earl, in an interview for his biography shortly before he died. 'Loyalty is No. 1 to Tiger,' Earl Woods said. 'You're loyal or you're history.' In one of his first moves after turning pro in 1996, Woods fired the director of his foundation, John Merchant. Two years later, he fired his first agent, Hughes Nortonof International Management Group, who had assembled Woods' $120 million endorsement portfolio. The next year, he showed the door to his caddie Mike Cowan. Excluding Woods' mother, Kultida, the current hand-picked inner circle is headed by his agent, Mark Steinberg, who like Norton is from IMG. Woods also has friendships with his three other inner-circle employees: his caddie and friend Steve Williams; his childhood friend Bryon Bell, who is president of Woods' golf course design business; and Glenn Greenspan, a friend who was hired by Woods to become his publicist three years ago from Augusta National Golf Club. Steinberg and Greenspan will be with Woods in the media center at Augusta on Monday, as they usually are at major championships and sometimes at regular tour events. During ESPN and Golf Channel interviews last month, Woods asserted that no one in his inner circle knew anything about his numerous self-admitted infidelities. With emphasis, Woods said to Kelly Tilghman of the Golf Channel that 'no one knew what was going on.' The absolution was greeted with incredulity by some, who wondered how the people responsible for Woods' image could have been in the dark about something that many believe resulted in a 2007 deal with American Media, owner of the National Enquirer, to kill an article about one of Woods' affairs if Woods agreed to a photo shoot and interview with Men's Fitness, another American Media magazine. American Media has denied making such a deal. That issue was resurrected Wednesday when excerpts from a Vanity Fair article repeated the claim and further alleged that Steinberg had spoken to the woman with whom Woods supposedly had the affair and assured her that he would 'take care of it.' In a statement from Woods sent to The New York Times, Woods reiterated his insistence that he was the only person with any culpability. 'No one is responsible for my behavior but me,' Woods said in the statement. 'Even though there were times when I deceived various people in my organization, most were simply told little to nothing and kept in the dark.' 