Tiger Woods grievously injured in LA car crash
Tiger Woods crashed his SUV on sweeping, downhill road in the Los Angels suburbs on Tuesday morning, and doctors tried to stabilise “significant” injuries to his right leg with rods and a combination of screws and pins.
Woods was driving to a television shoot when his SUV crashed into a median, rolled over and ended up on its side near a steep road known for wrecks, authorities said. Golf’s biggest star had to be pulled out through the windshield. Woods’ foundation said in a statement he was awake, responsive and recovering in the hospital.
Dr Anish Mahajan, the chief medical officer at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, said Woods shattered the tibia and fibula bones of his lower right leg in multiple locations. Those injuries were stabilized with a rod in the tibia.
“Additional injuries to the bones in the foot and ankle required screws and pins,” Mahajan said in a statement released on Woods’ Twitter account. The single-car crash was another setback for Woods, the pre-eminent golfer of his generation who has spent the last decade in a cycle of injuries, self-inflicted personal problems and an arrest for DUI. Each time, he returned to the course and won. Even at 45, Woods is among the more recognizable sports figures in the world and remains golf’s biggest draw. His 2019 Masters victory was seen as a transcendent comeback and further cemented his reputation for toughness and clutch performances.
No charges were filed, police said as there was no evidence he was impaired and no one else was injured. There was no immediate evidence that Woods was impaired.
However, the bad news is that the career of the world’s greatest golfer — at least on the game’s biggest stages — is probably over. Woods was fragile enough to begin with and there were already questions about whether he could return to play at a high level.