Tiger Woods got out of jail and into the passenger seat of a dark SUV, his face as vacant as his mug shot as he was driven away to a future again filled with so much uncertainty.
The next step legally is facing charges of driving while intoxicated, damage to property and refusal to submit to a urine test, which led to him spending eight hours Friday in the Martin County jail some 15 miles from his home on Jupiter Island, Florida.
His manager at Excel Sports, Mark Steinberg, did not respond to a request for comment Saturday on Woods’ arrest.
As for golf, this comes at a bad time for the sport’s most influential player.
Woods had said earlier in the week he was trying to get in shape for the Masters on April 9-12, though that was looking unlikely. He turned 50 at the end of last year. “This body, it doesn’t recover like it did when it was 24, 25,” Woods said earlier this week.
He also was days away from a decision on whether to be the next U.S. Ryder Cup captain for the 2027 matches in Ireland. Two officials from the PGA of America did not immediately return phone calls from The Associated Press seeking comment.
And on April 5, he is scheduled to be in Augusta, Georgia, with Masters chairman Fred Ridley to celebrate a project at “The Patch,” the nickname of a municipal golf course where Woods’ design team created a short course to go along with a major upgrade to the public course.
Woods also is the central figure as chairman of the Future Competition Committee that is reshaping the PGA Tour model of tournaments. Tour CEO Brian Rolapp predicted meaningful progress this summer.
The PGA Tour declined to comment on Woods’ arrest.
Now everything is on hold while Woods sorts through his second arrest in the last nine years, and his fourth car crash dating to 2009.
Woods waited until the summer of 2024 before deciding against being Ryder Cup captain for the 2025 matches in New York. The Associated Press reported in February the PGA of America had a soft deadline of the end of March for him to decide this time.
The PGA of America already is under scrutiny because of the unruly fan behavior at Bethpage Park last September, and this is not a time for another misstep. One person with knowledge of the process said the PGA of America has a backup plan of four potential candidates for the Ryder Cup committee to review if Woods declines — or if the PGA of America moves on.
Martin County Sheriff John Budensiek said Woods’ Land Rover was going at a “high speed” when it clipped the trailer of a pressure cleaning truck and flipped on its side. Woods was not hurt and climbed out through the passenger window. The driver of the truck was not injured, either.
“Had there been somebody moving in the opposite direction, we would not be having a conversation saying there were no injuries,” Budensiek said. “This could’ve been a lot worse.”
Budensiek said investigators on the scene believe Woods had taken some kind of medication or drug. He described Woods as lethargic and said the golfer agreed to a breath test that showed “triple zeroes” — no sign of alcohol. By declining the urine test, the sheriff said, officials will never get “definitive results” about what caused the impairment.
That was consistent with his 2017 arrest on a DUI charge in Florida, when Woods was found asleep behind the wheel of a car with the engine running, the right blinker on, two flat tires and light damage to the driver’s side.
Woods said it was a bad mix of medication. Toxicology reports later revealed the active ingredient for marijuana, two painkillers, a sleep drug and an anti-anxiety drug. There was no alcohol.
The pain medication has been standard fare for golf’s most celebrated — and wounded — player.
After four knee surgeries — the last one a week after he won the U.S. Open with shredded knee ligaments and two stress fractures — Woods had four back surgeries in four years (2014 through 2017) only to return to win the Masters in 2019 in one of golf’s most astonishing comebacks.
And then came the most serious crash of all, in February 2021. His SUV was going 84 to 87 mph (135 to 140 kph) in an area with a speed limit of 45 mph (72 kph) when it veered off a coastal road in the Los Angeles suburbs, rolled down a hill and smacked into a tree.
He was not cited and Los Angeles authorities did not seek a warrant for blood samples. The injuries to his right leg and ankle were extensive — Woods later said amputation was considered — and it was remarkable he even returned to playing.
Woods has never been the same as a golfer since that accident. He has played 11 tournaments in the five years since that crash. Of the four times he finished 72 holes, he hasn’t been closer than 16 shots of the winner. He shares the PGA Tour’s all-time record with 82 wins.
But he remains a huge draw. Woods decided to compete Tuesday night in the finals of his indoor TGL league, and viewership spiked to nearly 1 million, the second-highest rating behind Woods making his TGL debut.
He made his public debut at age 2 on “The Mike Douglas Show” and has been in the spotlight ever since, setting records that are likely never to be broken. He remains a central figure in golf to this day, and the scrutiny is as great as ever with so much on his plate.
___
AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
