Tiger Woods was rushed to a hospital with serious leg injuries on Tuesday morning in Los Angeles County after being involved in a car accident in a mountainous area known for car accidents.
Here’s what we know so far:
What happened?
At about 7 am Pacific time on Tuesday, police received a call to 911 about an accident on Hawthorne Boulevard, near Rancho Palos Verdes, a coastal city of about 42,000 in Los Angeles County.
Police officers arrived at the scene six minutes later and found Tiger Woods stuck in an overturned SUV, said Alex Villanueva, the Los Angeles County sheriff.
Deputy Carlos Gonzalez, the first police officer on the scene, said he had ordered firefighters to remove Woods from the vehicle and spoke to Woods while they waited.
Emergency workers used an ax and Halligan tool, a type of pry bar, to remove the windshield from the vehicle and free Woods, said Daryl L. Osby, chief of the Los Angeles County Fire Department. Woods was put on a board and taken by ambulance to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, the nearest trauma center, said Representative Gonzalez. Woods underwent emergency surgery, according to his longtime agent, Mark Steinberg.
What was Woods’ condition?
Woods was conscious when the first officer arrived on the scene and answered several questions, such as his name, where he was and the time of day. Representative Gonzalez said Woods looked “lucid and calm”.
Chief Osby said Woods was in stable condition but had “serious injuries” to both legs. The chief did not explain further. He said he was not sure what other injuries Woods might have sustained, but that any additional injuries would not be “fatal”.
According to Sheriff Villanueva, Woods’ manager did not want more information about his condition or any updates on his surgery.
What caused the accident? Woods was speeding?
Traffic investigators will take days or weeks to complete the investigation into the cause of the accident.
Woods was going down a hill on a curved road. The speed limit is 45 miles per hour, but Congressman Gonzalez said he sometimes saw vehicles going at more than 80 miles per hour. Sheriff Villanueva said it looked like Woods was driving at “higher than normal speed”.
The vehicle Woods was driving reached the central lane, Sheriff Villanueva said, passed over and covered hundreds of meters, rolled several times and stopped in the woods on the other side of the road. There were no skid marks, indicating that Woods made no attempt to brake, said the sheriff, and that his first contact was with the center bed before crossing into the opposite traffic lane.
According to Sheriff Villanueva, there was no evidence of deficiency, such as alcohol or pill bottles, alcohol odor or Woods’ unusual behavior. As Woods did not appear to be harmed, the sheriff said, “there was no effort to draw blood, for example, at the hospital.”
There was no evidence that Woods was being followed by other vehicles, and it was not known whether he could be looking at the phone or distracted at the time of the accident, the sheriff said.
Weather, like a wet road or fog, was not a factor in the accident, according to the sheriff. Woods was wearing seat belts and airbags in the car, said Deputy Gonzalez. The bumper and front of the car were “destroyed”, but the vehicle’s interior cabin was “more or less intact,” said Sheriff Villanueva.
Investigators are likely to be able to get some information about what Woods was doing through the vehicle’s event data recorder, or “black box”. In addition, Deputy Gonzalez was using a body camera when he arrived at the scene. It is not clear whether there were any witnesses to the accident; the first person who called 911 lives near where the vehicle stopped and heard the accident, said Representative Gonzalez.
Why was Woods in the Los Angeles area?
Woods, who lives in Florida, was in Southern California to host, but not to compete, the Genesis Invitational at the Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades last week. Genesis Motor is a luxury vehicle division of Hyundai. Woods was in a 2021 Genesis GV80 SUV, which was supplied to him during the tournament; he is known for always driving a courtesy car in tournaments.
Woods stayed after the weekend to do a promotional photo shoot for Golf Digest, and when the accident happened, according to ESPN, he was on his way to a photo shoot with NFL quarterbacks Drew Brees and Justin Herbert .
Where was Woods’ career before the accident?
Even before Tuesday’s sinking, it was unclear when Woods, 45, could play again or whether he would be able to chase a sixth Masters win with a record draw this spring.
Woods was trying to recover from his fifth back operation, a microdiscectomy he underwent last month.
When he appeared on CBS on Sunday during the final round of the Genesis tournament, Woods was asked if he would compete in the Masters at the 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 expected to lose at least two tournaments, he did not publicly rule out playing at the Masters, which he won last time in 2019. On Sunday, he said he was “feeling good, a little tense” and was waiting another MRI to assess your progress.
In the meantime, he said, he “was still doing the mundane things that you have to do for rehab, the little things before you start to gravitate towards something a little more”.
Woods tied for 38th place in the 2020 Masters, played in November because of the coronavirus pandemic. Although he hit a 10 on the 12th hole during the final round, he hit five of the final six holes.