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Gary Player has pleaded with Tiger Woods to stop driving a car in an emotional message of support sent to the embattled golf great from Augusta.
Woods was arrested at the end of March near his Jupiter Island home for DUI after rolling his car. He has been charged with misdemeanor DUI and refusing to take a urine test.
When Woods was talking to police after the incident, he admitted taking ‘a few pills’ and was found with two white tablets, which were later identified as the opioid hydrocodone.
Player, 90, said he sympathizes greatly with the pain Woods has to manage on a daily basis after seven back surgeries and many more on his right leg after a 2021 car crash.
‘Do I blame him for taking medicine? Hell, no,’ Player said. ‘He has sleep deprivation. Do I blame him for taking something to help him sleep? No.
‘But I don’t think he should drive a car. When you’re taking that medicine, it’s dangerous when you’re driving a car, same as it’s dangerous when you look at your cellphone in the car.’
Tiger Woods is absent from the Masters after being arrested in late March for DUI
Gary Player has told Woods that after this latest incident, he has to stop driving
He continued: ‘My heart goes out for him. There’s nothing worse than living in pain every day of your life.
‘You can’t think of anything worse. I just hope he can get it all sorted out because he’s such an asset to golf and has done so much for the game.
‘I think all he’s got to do is just not drive a car and get a chauffeur. My reflexes, I think, are as good as when I was 20. But I don’t drive anymore. I get a chauffeur.’
Woods has since traveled to Switzerland for rehab but his absence on Masters week hasn’t stopped him being the talk of Augusta – a place where he has emerged victorious on five occasions.
His former caddie during his all-conquering years, Joe LaCava, is on the bag for Patrick Cantlay at Augusta this week and also spoke out about his former employer’s struggles.
‘He’s got to help himself, which is what I’m hoping he’ll do,’ LaCava said. ‘But I have not made any contact with him. I’m leaving him alone and letting him figure it out for himself.
‘He’s got enough people probably texting him and hounding him, right? I don’t need to bother him. I care greatly about him. I’m not p***ed at him.
‘He knows that. He knows that I care deeply about him. He’s got enough stuff going on, so I’m sure we’ll communicate once he’s back home. I’m assuming he doesn’t have access to his phone anyway.’
Woods rolled his car near his Jupiter Island home in March, his fourth incident involving a car
Florida police later shared bodycam footage from the arrest of the golfing great
It also emerged on Thursday that prosecutors in Florida want to obtain Woods’s medical records to find out if Woods had any warnings not to drive when he was taking the medication.
Player, meanwhile, was the center of controversy himself at Augusta earlier this week.
He was being interviewed by Sky Sports’ Anna Jackson during the Par 3 contest on Wednesday but before she had a chance to ask her first question, Player appeared to ask her colleagues behind the camera: ‘Why have you started working with this good looking chick, huh?’
Clearly flustered by the awkward interaction, Jackson quickly responded: ‘What an introduction that is.’
The moment quickly went viral and many golf fans took to social media to hit out at Player’s ‘inappropriate’ behaviour – but others leapt to his defence.
