Don’t worry, Tiger. It will be over soon. (The takeaway message from an interview with National Enquirer editor Barry Levine)

Tiger Woods is trying to go into privacy lockdown. Woods announced on his website today that he won’t be able to play in the Chevron World Challenge next week “due to injuries sustained in a one-car accident last week,” saying he won’t return to the green until 2010.

Woods hopes that the media will go away, and stop hounding him for more information about his accident, his alleged affair, and his alleged fight with his wife. According to Barry Levine, the executive editor of National Enquirer — which broke the story of Woods’ alleged affair with Rachel Uchitel — that might just be the best thing for him to do.

“Scandals hit with rapid force, like a hurricane,” said Levine in response to a question about the way celebrity gossip has changed in the digital age. “And the next day, they disappear.”

Levine has been at the helm of the Enquirer for 10 years, and has overseen coverage of countless scandals, including another one that caught the attention of the mainstream media recently: the John Edwards love child — “For a while now, National Enquirer has been a paper grandmothers read. We became hip again after Edwards.”

Woods is unlucky in that news of scandal goes viral so quickly these days and that he had the misfortune of running into a fire hydrant, causing the mainstream media to pick up on the Enquirer story: “Had the accident not happened, you and I would not be talking right now.” But Levine says Woods’ torture will not last long.

“People get bored with stories very quickly now. They’re instantly inundated with so much news,” said Levine in a telephone interview. “The JonBenet Ramsey and O.J. Simpson stories [in the pre-digital age] played out week to week with public interest lasting for months.”

If Woods avoids fueling the scandal with comments — like Sunday’s cryptic website message — the story will soon be old news. “His comments fueled the rumor mill,” said Levine. “The more celebrities put out there, the more people want to know.” Woods’ greatest mistake though was getting into that car accident on Thursday night.

“Frankly, when the [affair with Rachel Uchitel] story first hit [published in the Enquirer a few days before Thanksgiving], it got a little pick-up on the Web, but only on B-list celeb gossip sites,” said Levine. “The major players were not interested in the story until the accident. Especially given its mysterious circumstances… It turned our story on its ear. By 6 p.m. Friday, we started getting calls from media from across the world.”

As regular readers here know, I’ve been writing at length about Woods not being entitled to privacy for his personal life. It will likely surprise few that Levine agrees with me: “He’s a sports star. He’s a major American celebrity. He’s a pop culture star… He’s not a private person. He’s in everyone’s household through endorsements and everything else.”

Levine says the Enquirer has regular sources — “celebrity watchers in Hollywood and New York” — but that the Tiger Woods tip, like the John Edwards tip, came from an individual the magazine had not associated with before. Knowing that Woods has a history of litigiousness, the story was heavily vetted by the magazine’s lawyers. They had multiple sources, one on the record; used lie detector tests; did surveillance in the field, tracking Uchitel to Woods’ hotel in Australia; and took photos.

The Enquirer reached out to Woods for his side of the story before publishing their article last week. His attorneys confirmed that he had met Uchitel in a Manhattan nightclub, but denied the affair. Levine called Rachel Uchitel himself for comment. “Because it was a story of such high legal caliber, I wanted to talk to her directly,” said Levine.

Levine says he worries about litigation with every story he publishes. He’s always in “the hot seat,” since he’s in the business of reporting scandals and revealing secrets that celebrities would prefer not to have exposed.

“But I’ll say this, I have not once in my ten years [at the National Enquirer] been in a deposition or had to testify in court,” said Levine.

I’m not surprised. Court cases just make these things last longer.