Woods seen in ‘agitated state’ before crash

Hgolfer was rushing to reach filming of TV show, claims eye-witness as clearer picture of accident starts to emerge

First the shock. Then comes the revelation. Tiger Woods was in an “agitated and impatient state” moments before his high-speed accident in California that left him with significant injuries, according to eyewitness accounts last night

“I almost got in an accident with f------ Tiger Woods, he almost hit me,” said an unnamed American sitcom director.

The account of the apparent prelude to Woods’s horror crash appeared on the celebrity news website TMZ, which claimed the golfing legend was late and rushing to a filming appointment an hour’s drive away when he lost control of his SUV and careered off a steep road near Rolling Hills Estates, about 30 miles south of Los Angeles, early on Tuesday morning.

The report said that Woods was annoyed to find his car blocked in by another vehicle at the resort he was staying at in Rancho Palos Verdes, then “took off fast” from the car park only half an hour before his scheduled appointment.

“He just said he was going fast,” said Oliver Konteh, crew member of the comedy show Grown-ish, whose director narrowly avoided Woods on his way to filming at the Terranea resort. Konteh added that Woods appeared “agitated and impatient”.

Alex Villanueva, the sheriff of Los Angeles County, told reporters at a press conference that Woods was travelling at a “relatively greater speed than normal” at the time of the crash, which took place only a few miles and within about 10 minutes of the reported incident in the resort car park.

It was “nothing short of a miracle” that Woods survived, he said.

More details of the circumstances of the accident emerged yesterday as the 15-time major champion began his recuperation from lengthy emergency surgery during which orthopaedic trauma specialists inserted a rod secured with screws and pins into his right leg.

The 45-year-old golfer was in California for the Genesis Invitational tournament in Pacific Palisades west of Los Angeles, an event he hosted but did not play in after back surgery in December.

Woods stayed at the Terranea resort on Monday night, and the crash happened in the middle of two scheduled days of filming for a programme he was appearing in for Golf Digest and the online Golftv channel, in which he helps celebrities to improve their golfing skills.

On Monday, he worked with actors David Spade and Jada Pinkett Smith, and the basketball player Dwyane Wade, and was in “good spirits” according to a Golf Digest correspondent. On Tuesday, he was on his way to work with the American football players Justin Herbert and Drew Brees, but never made it to the shoot at the Rolling Hills Country Club.

Carlos Gonzalez, a sheriff ’s deputy who was first on the scene of the crash, said he found Woods conscious and coherent, and trying to free himself.

“I asked him what his name was. He told me his name was Tiger, and at that moment, I immediately recognised him. Tiger was able to speak to me lucidly,” the officer said.

An investigation into the cause of the crash would likely take “days to several weeks”, Villanueva said, although he stated there was no evidence Woods was impaired. Additionally, there were no skid marks on the road or signs that Woods braked suddenly before leaving the road, he said.

“The fact that he was wearing a seat belt and that the vehicle safety features worked as designed by the manufacturer likely resulted in either reducing his injury or saving his life,” Gonzalez told CNN.