Tiger Woods and his many car accidents explained
Tiger Woods may be one of the world’s best when it comes to golf but he’s had a series of troubles behind the wheel throughout his career — including two crashes that rattled his personal life.
Most infamously, in 2009 he smashed up his Cadillac Escalade when he crashed into a neighbor’s tree outside his Florida home — further exposing the explosive cheating scandal that tarnished his career and cost him his marriage to model Elin Nordegren.
Woods was knocked unconscious in that crash and later rescued by Nordegren, who used a golf club to bust open the car’s windows and drag him out onto the street, where EMS found him snoring without any socks or shoes on.
The intense scrutiny over the cause of the crash, and the mystery behind why he was leaving his home at 2:30 in the morning, eventually led to the revelation of a series of Woods’ infidelities, and he later made a heartfelt statement apologizing for his cheating.
As multiple corporate sponsors dropped him and his career went further down the tubes, he surfaced a little over a month later at the Pine Grove Behavioral Health and Addiction Services clinic in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, a facility that specializes in sex addiction.
Following the incident, Woods worked to reclaim his golf greatness and repair his personal life — but the efforts came crashing down once again in 2017, when he was busted for DUI in Florida after cops found him passed out behind the wheel of his Mercedes-Benz.
A mug shot showed him with bleary eyes and disheveled hair, and tests showed he had Vicodin, Dilaudid, Xanax, Ambien and THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, in his system.
Police at the time said it appeared he’d been in a minor car accident before they found him.
He told officers that he had a reaction to several prescription drugs, including Vicodin and Xanax. Soon after his arrest, he announced he was seeking “professional help to manage my medications” and dealing with back pain and a sleep disorder.
He pleaded guilty to reckless driving in a deal to avoid conviction for DUI, and was sentenced to one year of probation and a $250 fine. Woods later checked into a clinic to get help with prescription medication and a sleep disorder.