Woods pleads guilty to reckless driving, avoids jail sentence
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — Tiger Woods pleaded guilty Friday to reckless driving in a deal that will keep him out of jail as long as he stays out of trouble, resolving charges from an arrest last spring in which he was found passed out in his Mercedes-Benz with prescription drugs and marijuana in his system.
Woods, 41, spoke only briefly during a hearing at a Palm Beach County courthouse, answering questions from a judge about his plea agreement. Prosecutors dropped a driving-under-the-influence charge for the superstar golfer.
Woods will enter a diversion program and spend a year on probation and pay a $250 fine and court costs. In other golf news:
• Dustin Johnson got a new putter 15 minutes before he teed off and then made just about every-thing in the HSBC Champions, closing with four consecutive birdies for a 9-under-par 63 and a one-shot lead over Brooks Koepka. Two of Johnson’s closing birdie putts were in the 15-foot range, and he finished with a 5-foot slider on the 18th to reach 13-under 131.
• Ryan Armour shot a 4-under 68 to take a oneshot lead at the Sanderson Farms Championship. Armour, 41, never has won on the PGA Tour and has only four top 10s in 104 career events. There were 30 players still on the course when play ended early because of thunderstorms. Armour is at 10-under 134.
• David Toms had a hole-in-one in his round of 6-under 66 at the PowerShares QQQ Championship at Thousand Oaks, Calif., to share the first-round lead with Jeff Maggert.