Tiger Woods was injured early Friday when he lost control of his SUV outside his Florida mansion, and a local police chief said Woods’ wife used a golf club to smash out the back window to help get him out.
The world’s No. 1 golfer was treated and released from a hospital in good condition, his spokesman said. The Florida Highway Patrol said Woods’ vehicle hit a fire hydrant and a tree in his neighbor’s yard after he pulled out of his driveway at 2:25 a.m.
Windermere police chief Daniel Saylor said officers found the 33-year-old PGA Tour star lying in the street with his wife, Elin, hovering over him.
“She was frantic, upset,” Saylor said Friday night. “It was her husband laying on the ground.”
She told officers she was in the house when she heard the accident and “came out and broke the back window with a golf club,” he said, adding that the front-door windows were not broken and that “the door was probably locked.”
“She supposedly got him out and laid him on the ground,” he said. “He was in and out of consciousness when my guys got there.”
Saylor said Woods had lacerations to his upper and lower lips, and blood in his mouth. Officers treated Woods for about 10 minutes until an ambulance arrived. Woods was conscious enough to speak, he said.
“He was mumbling, but didn’t say anything coherent,” Saylor said.
The Florida Highway Patrol said alcohol was not involved, although the accident remains under investigation and charges could be filed.
Woods was alone in his 2009 Cadillac when he pulled out of his driveway from his mansion at Isleworth. Woods’ injuries were described as serious in the patrol’s report, though his spokesman, Glenn Greenspan, issued a statement that Woods was treated and released.
Saylor said his responding officers did not hear anything about an alleged argument between Woods and his wife.
“Right now we believe this is a traffic crash. We don’t believe it is domestic issue,” patrol spokesman Sgt. Kim Montes said.
