Bodycam footage shows golfer nodding off in patrol car
RJ Rico
Updated ,first published
Miami: Tiger Woods pulled out his phone after crashing his SUV in Florida and told his assistant, “I was just talking to the president,” according to body camera footage showing the golfer being arrested on DUI charges.
The phone call was not recorded on video, and it was unclear whether Woods was referring to President Donald Trump, whose former daughter-in-law, Vanessa Trump, was with Woods.
Trump was asked about Woods shortly after the golfer’s arrest on March 27, and told reporters: “I feel terrible. He’s got some challenges. He’s a very close friend of mine. He’s a great person. A great guy. But he’s a bit of a challenge.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether Trump spoke to Woods after the crash.
Footage released on Thursday (Florida time) also shows Woods looking stunned when he was handcuffed for failing a sobriety test, and a video shot from the back of the patrol car shows the handcuffed golfer sobbing, yawning and shaking his head repeatedly throughout the 15-minute ride.
Woods told authorities that he was looking at his phone and changing the radio station when his speeding Land Rover crashed into the back of a truck and ended up on its side on a residential road on Jupiter Island. No one was injured.
“I looked at my phone and all of a sudden there was an explosion,” Woods told the officer who was kneeling on the grass before he was arrested.
Body camera footage shows Martin County Sheriff’s Deputy Tatiana Levenar later performing a roadside sobriety test and telling Woods: “I believe your normal faculties are impaired and you are under the influence of an unknown substance, so you are currently under arrest for drunken driving.”
“Am I being arrested?” Woods responded.
“Yes, sir,” said Levenar.
After handcuffing Woods, authorities searched his pockets and found two white pills.
After a police officer removed the pills, Woods said, “It’s a Norco,” referring to a painkiller containing acetaminophen and the opioid hydrocodone. Authorities would later confirm that Woods was in possession of hydrocodone.
In the body camera footage, Woods told Levenar that he had not consumed any alcohol and had taken “a few” drugs earlier in the day, but Woods’ words were muted as he described some drugs in the released video.
At the sheriff’s office complex, after Woods was escorted to the “DUI room” where drivers are tested to see if they were under the influence, Woods said, “I’m not drunk. I’m on prescription medication,” according to an additional sheriff’s office report released Thursday.
Woods, 50, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to suspicion of driving under the influence. On Tuesday night, he released a statement saying he was leaving indefinitely “to seek treatment and focus on my health.”
During a field sobriety test, deputies noticed Woods was limping and had a compression stocking on his right knee. Woods revealed that he has had seven back surgeries and more than 20 surgeries on his right leg, causing his ankle to stiffen when he walks.
According to the arrest report, Woods sobbed during questioning and kept moving his head during one sobriety test, and officers had to tell him several times to keep his head up.
“Based on my observations of Woods, how he performed the exercises, and my training, knowledge, and experience, I believed that Woods’ normal abilities were impaired and he was unable to operate a motor vehicle safely,” Levenar wrote.
Woods is golf’s most influential figure and has become as recognizable as any athlete in the world. As the first person of Black descent to win the Masters in 1997, he wowed golf fans with records that will likely never be broken.
His injuries prevented him from achieving more; Including a 2021 car crash in Los Angeles that damaged his right leg so much that doctors considered amputation, he said.
He has not played in an official event since the 2024 British Open. He was recovering from his seventh back surgery in October and was trying to get back to the Masters, where he was a five-time champion.
After last week’s crash, Woods accepted a Breathalyzer test, which showed no signs of alcohol, but refused a urine test, authorities said. He was arrested and released on bail eight hours later.
Under a change in Florida law last year, refusing an officer’s request to take a breath, blood or urine test became a misdemeanor, even on a first offense.
