Tiger Woods was arrested Friday after crashing his Land Rover on Jupiter Island, Florida, spending eight hours in the Martin County jail some 15 miles from his home. The 15-time major champion faces charges of driving while intoxicated, damage to property and refusal to submit to a urine test. Woods crawled out through the passenger window of his overturned vehicle and was driven away from jail in a dark SUV shortly before midnight.
Martin County Sheriff John Budensiek said Woods’ Land Rover was traveling at “high speed” when it clipped the trailer of a pressure cleaning truck and flipped on its side. “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.” Neither Woods nor the truck driver was injured in the crash.
Investigators on the scene believed Woods had taken some kind of medication or drug, according to Budensiek, who described the golfer as lethargic. Woods agreed to a breath test that showed “triple zeroes” with no sign of alcohol, but by declining the urine test, officials will never get “definitive results” about what caused the impairment. The sheriff said Woods was driving erratically in the moments before the crash.
The arrest mirrors Woods’ 2017 DUI charge in Florida, when he was found asleep behind the wheel with the engine running, the right blinker on, two flat tires and light damage to the driver’s side. Toxicology reports from that incident revealed the active ingredient for marijuana, two painkillers, a sleep drug and an anti-anxiety drug, but no alcohol. Woods said it was a bad mix of medication at the time.
The timing complicates several key decisions for Woods, who 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 had been trying to get in shape for the Masters tournament scheduled for April 9-12, though that was looking unlikely even before the arrest. Woods also faces a looming decision about serving as U.S. Ryder Cup captain for the 2027 matches in Ireland.
The PGA of America had a soft deadline of the end of March for Woods to decide on the Ryder Cup captaincy, according to reports. Woods waited until summer 2024 before declining to captain the 2025 matches in New York. 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 organization moves on.
Woods was scheduled to appear April 5 in Augusta, Georgia, with Masters chairman Fred Ridley to celebrate a project at “The Patch,” a municipal golf course where Woods’ design team created a short course alongside a major upgrade to the public course. He also serves as chairman of the Future Competition Committee that is reshaping the PGA Tour model of tournaments, with Tour CEO Brian Rolapp predicting meaningful progress this summer.
This marks Woods’ fourth car crash dating to 2009 and his second arrest in nine years. The most serious crash occurred in February 2021 when his SUV was traveling 84 to 87 mph in a 45 mph zone before veering off a coastal road in Los Angeles suburbs, rolling down a hill and hitting a tree. The injuries to his right leg and ankle were so extensive that Woods later said amputation was considered.
Woods has played only 11 tournaments in the five years since the 2021 crash, never finishing closer than 16 shots of the winner in the four times he completed 72 holes. Despite his struggles, he remains a major draw, with viewership spiking to nearly 1 million when he competed in his indoor TGL league finals, the second-highest rating behind his TGL debut. Woods shares the PGA Tour’s all-time record with 82 wins.
The PGA Tour declined to comment on Woods’ arrest, while his manager at Excel Sports, Mark Steinberg, did not respond to requests for comment. Everything remains on hold while Woods sorts through the legal proceedings and determines his future in professional golf.