Mark Schlabach
Mar 27, 2026, 05:14 PM ET
Fifteen-time major champion Tiger Woods was arrested on suspicion of DUI Friday after a car crash near his Jupiter Island, Florida, home, Martin County Sheriff John Budensiek said.
Budensiek said Woods was driving a Land Rover northbound on South Beach Road at high speed when he attempted to pass a truck hauling a pressure cleaner that had slowed to turn into a driveway. Woods’ SUV clipped the back of the trailer, flipped onto its side and slid down the road. Woods climbed out through the passenger window, the sheriff said. The other driver and Woods were not injured. The crash occurred around 2 p.m. ET.
Woods, 50, was arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor DUI with property damage and refusal to submit to a lawful test. He arrived at the jail about 3 p.m. and was released on bail later Friday, Christine Weiss, a spokesperson for the Martin County Sheriff’s Office, said. Florida law required he spend at least eight hours in jail before posting bail.
DUI investigators at the scene determined Woods showed signs of impairment. “They did several tests on him,” Budensiek said, noting investigators took into account Woods’ previous injuries and surgeries. Investigators arrested Woods and transported him to the Martin County Jail. A breathalyzer did not indicate alcohol, and Woods refused a urinalysis test for other drugs, Budensiek said.
“They believe it was some type of medication or drug,” Budensiek added, saying no medications or drugs were found inside Woods’ SUV. “He is cooperative, but he was not trying to incriminate himself,” the sheriff said.
Budensiek did not specify how fast Woods was driving but noted the posted limit is 30 mph. He described the crash photos as telling: they show where the Land Rover clipped the trailer, rolled and slid on the driver’s door for a considerable distance before stopping. He said the outcome could have been far worse if another vehicle had been traveling southbound at the time.
President Donald Trump, whom he described as a “close friend,” told reporters in Miami he felt badly about the news. “He’s got some difficulty. There was an accident, and that’s all I know. Very close friend of mine,” Trump said, calling Woods “an amazing person, amazing man.”
This is not Woods’ first DUI-related incident. In May 2017, he was arrested in Jupiter after officers found him asleep at the wheel of a running car with two flat tires and front and rear bumper damage. Woods said he had taken a bad mix of prescription painkillers and later pleaded guilty to reckless driving.
Woods also suffered major leg injuries in a single-vehicle crash outside Los Angeles in February 2021, when his SUV rolled multiple times and left him trapped. He sustained open fractures to his lower right leg, had a rod placed in his tibia and screws and pins inserted in his foot and ankle during emergency surgery, and was hospitalized for three weeks. Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said then the vehicle had been traveling between 84 and 87 mph in a 45 mph zone. Woods later said he was “lucky to be alive and also have a limb” and that amputation of part of his right leg had been a 50-50 possibility. He had at least one more surgery related to that crash in April 2023.
Woods had spent recent months recovering from a ruptured Achilles tendon and another back surgery in October. He returned to competition this week for the first time in more than a year at the TGL finals, where his Jupiter Links GC team lost to the Los Angeles Golf Club. He had been weighing a return to the PGA Tour for the Masters at Augusta National, which begins April 9.
Woods last competed on the PGA Tour in July 2024, missing the cut at the Open Championship at Royal Troon. His most recent four-round PGA Tour event was the 2024 Masters. Although sidelined from regular competition much of the past six years, Woods has been active in tour governance as chairman of the future competition committee and as a player director on the PGA Tour policy board and PGA Tour Enterprises.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
