Sir Nick Faldo has called for Tiger Woods to finally be held accountable and punished for his off-course transgressions.
In a withering assessment of the 15-time major champion and the golfing authorities who have enabled him over the years, Faldo said he believes Woods must not be let off lightly after his DUI charge following last week’s car crash.
Faldo said: ‘I feel sorry for Tiger that he is living 24/7 in pain. But it has all been self-inflicted.
‘There are two sides to this right now. There’s one side that’s, like, “Let’s care for Tiger”. And then there is, “There has got to be a responsibility and an accountability side as well”. This is a serious thing that he has done.
‘The bottom line is that I really think that this is a serious issue and something should be done that is a little bit more than waving him off to a tropical island and saying “welcome back” in three or four months or whatever it might be.’
Speaking on the same day that troubling footage emerged from the aftermath of Woods’s crash, which appeared to show the 50-year-old falling asleep in the back of a police car, Faldo criticised the soft response from his sport.
Gold legend Sir Nick Faldo has called for Tiger Woods (pictured) to be held accountable after his latest arrest
Faldo (left, pictured with Woods in 2006), said that
The latter touched on a fawning PGA Tour statement on Tuesday, which offered Woods their full support and no condemnation, despite his refusal to take a urine test at the crash site.
Two powerful hydrocodone pills were discovered in his pocket and police reported signs of impairment, evoking memories of a 2017 incident that saw Woods arrested after being found slumped over the wheel of his car. A toxicology report from that 2017 episode detected a cocktail of painkilling substances in his sample. Woods has requested a jury trial to challenge the current DUI charge.
Faldo, a six-time major winner, said: ‘I look at the PGA Tour statement, it was so predictably weak. The Tour will look after him, as they always have done.
‘There has to be some accountability. Forget about golf. We are not meant to be on the streets with two pills in our pocket.’
The 68-year-old, who will commentating on the Masters for Sky Sports next week, continued: ‘You compare it to other sports or business. If you were done for DUI a coupe of times in your business, what happens?
‘I’ve got a feeling that this will all… if he disappears and comes back in a couple of months, everything will carry on as normal. I’m not sure if that is right.
‘It’s not a good message to the kids of today.’
Watch more live Masters coverage than ever before, exclusively on Sky Sports and NOW from Thursday 9 April.
