After crashing his SUV on March 27 in Florida, Tiger Woods took out his phone and told a deputy, “I was just talking to the president,” body camera footage released Thursday shows. The call itself was not captured; Woods could be heard saying, “Thank you so much,” as he hung up and the deputy approached. It was not clear whether he meant President Donald Trump. Shortly after the arrest, Trump told reporters he felt badly for Woods and called him “an amazing person.”
The footage shows Woods appearing surprised as he was handcuffed after failing a field sobriety test and deputies removing two pills from his pocket. Separate patrol-car video shows him hiccuping, yawning and repeatedly nodding off during the roughly 15-minute ride.
Woods told authorities he had been looking at his phone and changing the radio 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. “I looked down at my phone, and all of a sudden — boom,” he told an officer while kneeling on a lawn.
Martin County Sheriff’s Deputy Tatiana Levenar conducted a roadside sobriety test and told Woods: “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.” Woods responded, “I’m being arrested?” and Levenar replied, “Yes, sir.” After handcuffing him, deputies found two white pills; Woods identified them as Norco, a painkiller containing acetaminophen and the opioid hydrocodone. Authorities later confirmed he was in possession of hydrocodone.
In the bodycam footage, Woods told deputies he had not consumed alcohol and had taken “a few” medications earlier that day; some of his words are muted in the released video. At the sheriff’s office, in a “DUI room” where drivers are tested, Woods said, “I’m not drunk. I’m on a prescription medication,” according to a supplemental sheriff’s office report.
Woods, 50, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to driving under the influence and posted a statement saying he is stepping away indefinitely “to seek treatment and focus on my health.” Deputies noted he was limping and wearing a compression sock over his right knee; Woods said he had undergone seven back surgeries and more than 20 surgeries on his right leg, and that his ankle sometimes seizes up. During the field tests he repeatedly moved his head, and deputies had to tell him several times to keep it straight.
Based on Levenar’s observations and training, she wrote she believed Woods’s normal faculties were impaired and that he could not safely operate the vehicle. The Martin County Sheriff’s Office later added a careless driving charge, a Florida moving violation; Woods was fined $163.
Footage also shows longtime manager Rob McNamara and a member of Woods’s security team arriving after the crash. When a Jupiter Island officer asked if Woods needed anything from his SUV, he said, “My sticks.” McNamara joked about the value of Woods’s clubs as Woods explained he had used his putter to win 14 majors. Asked if he planned to play in the Masters, Woods said, “I’m hoping to.”
Woods is one of golf’s most influential figures and, in 1997, became the first person of Black heritage to win the Masters. Injuries, including severe damage to his right leg in a 2021 crash that nearly led doctors to consider amputation, have limited his play; he had not played an official event since the 2024 British Open and was recovering from a seventh back surgery in October.
After the March crash, Woods agreed to a Breathalyzer test that showed no signs of alcohol but refused a urine test; he was arrested and released on bail about 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 misdemeanor even for a first offense.
ESPN’s Mark Schlabach and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
