WORLD CHAMPION golfer Tiger Woods has withdrawn from his own golf tournament, citing injuries from a car crash near his Florida home. In a statement last night the golfer said that injuries won’t allow him to play in the Chevron World Challenge, and that he would return to competition next year. The tournament benefits the Tiger Woods Foundation.
Meanwhile, the Florida highway patrol is said to be seeking a search warrant for medical records following Woods’s car crash last Friday, according to celebrity website TMZ.
The records could enable police to determine whether the golfer’s injuries were caused by the crash, or whether he was attacked by his wife in a fit of jealousy.
Woods and his wife, Elin Nordegren, a Swedish-born former model, refused to speak to highway patrol officers on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, after he drove his black Cadillac Escalade into a fire hydrant and a tree and was found on the ground, semi-conscious, in the early hours of Friday morning.
Woods was taken to hospital in an ambulance and released the same day. He subsequently hired one of Orlando’s most prominent criminal defence attorneys, Mark NeJame. The lawyer and police say Woods is not required to speak to authorities, but the highway patrol notes the investigation remains open.
In a statement on his website on Sunday, Woods said he was responsible for the incident and that his wife acted “courageously” in breaking the windows of the vehicle and pulling him out. Woods is 6ft 1in tall and weighs 185 pounds.
Woods, until now, had an untarnished reputation. He and Elin, with their two small children, live in a $2.4 million home in a walled compound on a golf course designed by Arnold Palmer, dotted with small lakes. Woods named his private yacht Privacy. Earlier this year, in a posting on Facebook, he boasted that he and Elin did not appear in gossip magazines “because we’re kind of boring”. That changed when the tabloid National Enquirer claimed Woods had an affair with Rachel Uchitel, who has been described as a New York night club manager or party hostess. Ms Uchitel denied the affair and flew to Los Angeles to hire Gloria Allred, a celebrity lawyer. Woods has won 83 titles around the world, including 14 major championships. Only Jack Nicklaus has won more. Television talk shows are rife with speculation as to whether the incident will diminish his earning power. He won $99.7 million (€66.4 million) in 2009, according to Sports Illustrated. Forbes magazine says that when endorsements and appearances since 1996 are factored in, Woods is the world’s first billion-dollar athlete.
