Tiger Woods was rushed to a hospital in Los Angeles County on Tuesday morning with serious leg injuries after being involved in a single accident in a hilly area known for car accidents.
This is what we know so far:
What happened?
At around 7 a.m. Tuesday time in Pacific time, police received a 911 call about an accident on Hawthorne Boulevard near Rancho Palos Verdes, a coastal city of about 42,000 people in Los Angeles County.
Officers arrived on the scene six minutes later and found Tiger Woods trapped in a rolling SUV, Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said.
Deputy Carlos Gonzalez, the first officer at the scene, said he decided firefighters should get Woods out of the vehicle and that he spoke to Woods while they waited.
Emergency workers used an ax and a Halligan tool, a type of grab bar, to remove the windshield of the vehicle and rescue Woods, said Daryl L. Osby, head of the Los Angeles County Fire Department. Woods was put on a backseat and taken by ambulance to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, the nearest trauma center, Deputy Gonzalez said. Woods underwent emergency surgery, according to his longtime agent, Mark Steinberg.
What was Woods’ condition?
Woods was aware when the first officer arrived on the scene and answered several questions, such as his name, where he was and the time of day. Deputy Gonzalez said Woods looked ‘bright and calm’.
Chief Osby said Woods was in a stable condition but that he had “serious injuries” to both his legs. The principal did not explain further. He said he was not sure what other injuries Woods sustained, but that any additional injuries would not be ‘life-threatening’.
According to Sheriff Villanueva, Woods’ manager did not want to disclose more information about his condition or any update on his operation.
What caused the accident? Was Woods fast?
It will take traffic investigators days or weeks to complete their investigation into the cause of the accident.
Woods drove down a curved road. The speed limit is 45 miles per hour, but Deputy Gonzalez said he sometimes saw vehicles driving more than 80 miles per hour. Sheriff Villanueva said it appeared Woods was driving at a “greater speed than normal.”
The sheriff who drove Woods hit the median strip, Sheriff Villanueva said. He drove over it and then traveled a few hundred feet, rolled a few times and came to a halt in the brush across the road. There were no slip marks, indicating that Woods made no attempt to brake, the sheriff said, and that his first contact with the middle was median before crossing into the opposite lane.
According to Sheriff Villanueva, there was no evidence of attenuation, such as alcohol or pill bottles, a smell of alcohol or unusual behavior of Woods. Because Woods did not appear to be affected, the sheriff said: “there was no attempt to draw blood in the hospital, for example.”
There was no evidence that Woods was being followed by other vehicles, and it was unknown if he was possibly looking at his phone or otherwise distracted during the crash, the sheriff said.
Again, like a wet road or fog, was not a factor in the accident, according to the sheriff. Woods was wearing his seat belt and airbags in the car, Deputy Gonzalez said. The bumper and front of the car were ‘destroyed’, but the interior of the vehicle was ‘more or less intact’, Sheriff Villanueva said.
Investigators are likely to be able to get information about what Woods did through the vehicle’s recording data recorder, or ‘black box’. Deputy Gonzalez was also wearing a body camera when he arrived on the scene. It is unclear if there were any witnesses to the crash; the first person to call 911 lived near the spot where the vehicle sat and heard the crash, Deputy Gonzalez said.
Why was Woods in the Los Angeles area?
Woods, who lives in Florida, was in Southern California this past weekend to host the Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, but not to compete. Genesis Motor is a luxury vehicle division of Hyundai. Woods was in a 2021 Genesis GV80 SUV provided to him during the tournament; he is known for always driving himself in a courtesy car at tournaments.
Woods stayed after the weekend to do a promotional recording for Golf Digest, and when the accident happened, according to ESPN, he was on his way to a photo shoot with NFL fullback Drew Brees and Justin Herbert.
Where did Woods’ career stand before the accident?
Even before Tuesday’s wreck, it was not clear when Woods, 45, would play again if he could secure a sixth Masters victory this spring.
Woods tried to recover from his fifth back operation, a microdiscectomy he underwent last month.
When he appeared on CBS during the final round of the Genesis tournament on Sunday, Woods was asked if he would compete in the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club in April. “God, I hope so,” he said. “I have to get there first.”
Although Woods said last month that he would miss at least two tournaments, he has not publicly ruled out playing in the Masters, which he last won in 2019. On Sunday, he said he was “feeling good, a little stiff” and was waiting for another scan with magnetic resonance to evaluate his progress.
Meanwhile, he said: “he still does the everyday things you have to do for rehabilitation, the little things before you can start pulling a little more towards something”.
Woods finished 38th in the 2020 Masters, played in November due to the coronavirus pandemic. Although he shot a 10 on the 12th hole during the final round, he made five of the last six holes.