Tiger Woods expressed astonishment as he was handcuffed after crashing his SUV last week in Florida, according to body camera footage released Thursday that also shows deputies removing two pills from the golfer’s pocket.
“I do believe your normal faculties are impaired, and you’re under an unknown substance, so at this time you’re under arrest for DUI,” Martin County Sheriff’s Deputy Tatiana Levenar told Woods after conducting a sobriety test on him.
Woods said he was looking at his phone and changing the radio station when his speeding Land Rover clipped the back of a truck and rolled onto its side on a residential road on Jupiter Island. No one was injured in the March 27 crash.
“I’m being arrested?” Woods responded as he stood alongside the road.
“Yes sir,” Levenar said.
After handcuffing Woods, authorities searched his pockets and found two white pills.
“That’s a Norco,” Woods said after an officer pulled out the pills, referring to a painkiller that contains acetaminophen and the opioid hydrocodone. Authorities would later confirm Woods was in possession of hydrocodone.
In the bodycam footage, Woods told Levenar he had not drunk any alcohol and that he had taken “a few” medications earlier in the day, though Woods’ words are muted in the released video as he describes some of the drugs.
“I looked down at my phone, and all of a sudden — boom,” Woods told deputies as he knelt on a lawn, prior to his arrest.
Woods, 50, pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to suspicion of driving under the influence. He posted a statement Tuesday night saying that he was stepping away indefinitely “to seek treatment and focus on my health.”
During a field sobriety test, deputies noticed Woods limping and that he had a compression sock over his right knee. Woods explained he had undergone seven back surgeries and over 20 surgeries on his right leg, and that his ankle seizes up while walking.
Woods, who was hiccuping during questioning, continuously moved his head during one of the sobriety tests and deputies had to tell him several times to keep his head straight, an arrest report said.
“Based on my observations of Woods, how he performed the exercises and based on my training, knowledge, and experience, I believed that Woods normal faculties were impaired, and he was unable to safely operate the motor vehicle,” Levenar wrote.
Woods is the most influential figure in golf and has become as recognizable as any athlete in the world. The first person of Black heritage to win the Masters in 1997, he has captivated golf fans with records likely never to be broken.
But his injuries have kept him from accomplishing more, including those suffered in a 2021 Los Angeles car crash that damaged his right leg so badly he said doctors considered amputation. He has not played an official event since the 2024 British Open. He was recovering from a seventh back surgery in October and was trying to return at the Masters, where he is a five-time champion.
Following last week’s crash, Woods agreed to a breathalyzer test that showed no signs of alcohol, but he refused a urine test, authorities said. He was arrested and released on bail eight hours later.
Under a change to Florida law last year, refusing an officer’s request to take a breath, blood or urine test became a misdemeanour, even for a first offence.
