Tiger Woods’ affair with Rachel Uchitel wasn’t just a fling, according to explosive new e-mails obtained by In Touch Weekly.

The married golfer lamented that he wished he’d met Uchitel before he wed former Swedish model Elin Nordegren in 2004. Uchitel, a VIP club hostess at posh Manhattan hotspot Griffin, was the first woman exposed as a secret lover of the golfing champ in a tabloid report from The National Enquirer late last month. The pair reportedly embarked on a sizzling series of sexcapades after meeting in the Big Apple in May.

“I know it’s brutal on you that you can’t be with me all the time. I get it. It f***ing kills me, too. I finally found someone I connect with, someone I have never found like this. Not even at home…..” Tiger writes in one e-mail.

In another message to the buxom brunette, Tiger questions if Uchitel — who has been accused of romancing celebrities David Boreanaz, Derek Jeter, and Ryan Seacrest — was only sleeping with him because he’s famous.

“I don’t know if this is going to work,” Woods wrote in a lengthy e-mail. “I thought I was getting to know you, but it feels like I’m just another person who happens to be famous. Every time I think about it, I get a lump in my throat. Some of the other parts of your past really get to me. I don’t know what person I was falling for so hard. The one I got to know on the phone, e-mail, text and in person. Or the one who likes famous people. I am so confused, because what my brain is saying and what my heart is saying are two different things. Is it the Rachel I know or the character? That’s what’s hard. It guts me to think I’ve fallen for the wrong one.”