Tiger Woods’ driving is once again generating more headlines than his driver in the wake of yet another car crash.
The latest incident took place Friday afternoon near his home on Jupiter Island, Florida. According to the Martin County Sheriff’s Office, Woods was arrested and charged with driving under the influence following a two-vehicle crash. The golfer was apparently trying to pass a flatbed truck at a high rate of speed but clipped it instead, causing his luxury SUV to roll over. He was forced to crawl out a window to exit the vehicle.
Woods, who was not injured in the accident, is also facing charges for property damage and refusal to submit to a lawful test. While police said the golfer registered a 0.00 on his breathalyzer test, he refused to submit to a urine test. Martin County Sheriff John Budensiek told reporters Woods was impaired, but no drugs or medication were found at the scene.
The 15-time Major winner looked glassy-eyed in his mugshot and was detained for approximately eight hours before posting bail.
A Troubling Trend
This was not Woods’ first highly publicized car crash, nor was it the first time drugs were believed to play a role. The first sign of Woods’ troubles came in November 2009 when he crashed his Cadillac Escalade into a fire hydrant and tree outside his Windermere, Florida, home around 2:30am two days after a tabloid first published reports of his infidelity during his marriage to his now ex-wife Elin Nordegren – the scandal that would forever change his public image.
A neighbor reported seeing Woods unconscious and snoring outside the home, according to a police report. But USA Today reported the Florida Highway Patrol determined there “was insufficient evidence available to issue a subpoena for additional medical information that may exist in this case.”
In May 2017, Woods was charged with DUI in Jupiter after law enforcement found him asleep while stopped in the right lane of a four-lane road with his blinker on at 3am. According to the police report, the golfer “had extremely slow and slurred speech.” A toxicology report later revealed he had five drugs in his system, including Vicodin, Dilaudid, Xanax, Ambien, and THC, and Woods completed a DUI diversion program.
Woods has said he is “lucky to be alive and also have a limb” after his life-threatening February 2021 crash in Los Angeles County. He was speeding on a winding road when he crossed over a median, struck a tree, and went airborne before landing in a nearby ravine. He suffered multiple broken bones in his right ankle and leg.
Authorities did not administer a drug test following the accident, but USA Today reported that experts have suggested the black-box evidence from the car supports the theory that Woods was not conscious when he drove off the road.
A Cautionary Tale
On Monday’s edition of The Megyn Kelly Show, Megyn lamented that Woods is but the latest example of a celebrity who “needs help” amid a life that has been singularly devoted to achieving a certain level of greatness at the expense of everything else.
“We just covered Britney Spears’ DUI… We just saw the video of [Justin Timberlake] completely fall down drunk doing his sobriety test from the Hamptons two summers ago,” she noted. “These people have it all. What they didn’t have was a stable childhood where they were allowed to be kids and not focus on their singing, their dancing, or their swinging of the golf club.”
She believes the lack of a ‘normal’ childhood – which is well-documented in Woods’ case – is a “piece of the story that is too rarely examined” for its links to troublesome behavior down the road, but it is now “coming back to haunt them all.”
“I think childhood was not an option for Tiger Woods,” Megyn posited. “He spent every waking minute on the golf course being pushed by his dad, then he made it huge at a young age… and then had physical ailments, which will come if you are that big an athlete… and now not only is he endangering himself… but it is endangering others repeatedly… And doesn’t seem to get it no matter how many stints in rehab, brushes with death, possible ends to his career come flashing before his very eyes.”
Her guest, Stu Burguiere, agreed. “This is how you build the best driver and the worst driver, simultaneously, in America,” he said. “There are a lot of great things that come out of sports. I’m not going to deny that. I love sports. But wow, you could go the wrong direction, and you hate to see it with Tiger Woods… [because] he is really beloved. We really want the best, I think, for Tiger Woods.”
In Megyn’s view, this should serve as a cautionary tale for parents. “It is not to say, never put your kids in sports. Never drive them to be great athletes,” she said. “But I just think any parent who is really hoping for their kid to make it big as a star at a young age is asking for this… a total car crash – actually and metaphorically – in the not too distant future, as soon as they come of age, basically, and, in his case, ever since.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Burguiere by tuning in to episode 1,284 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s The Megyn Kelly Channel (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.