TAKE IT EASY, TIGER
GOLF LEGEND ‘LUCKY TO BE ALIVE’ SAY POLICE AS HE RECOVERS FROM SURGERY AFTER HORROR CRASH
TIGER WOODS was yesterday ‘awake and responsive’ following surgery from a car crash that crushed a leg.
The golf champion, 45, was ‘lucky to be alive’, said police who are investigating how his SUV collided with a tree and rolled off a road in southern California.
Woods was cut out of the wreckage with multiple leg injuries on Tuesday. He needed a ‘long surgical procedure’ to his right leg and ankle at HarborUCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles.
Chief medical officer Dr Anish Mahajan tweeted that compound fractures of his tibia and fibula – the two bones of his leg below the knee – were stabilised with a rod.
Screws and pins were also used on additional injuries to his foot and ankle.
LA County Sheriff’s deputies found no immediate indication
Woods was under the influence of alcohol or drugs before losing control of his vehicle.
Sheriff Alex Villanueva, however, said the golf star, who was ‘lucid’ following the accident, appeared to have been going faster than normal for a downhill, curving stretch of road, known by locals to be hazardous. Deputy Carlos Gonzalez, the first on the scene, said: ‘It’s very fortunate that Mr Woods was able to come out of this alive.’
It emerged yesterday the golf star may have been running late for a meeting after his car was blocked in by another vehicle at his hotel.
Oliver Konteh, who is part of a TV crew filming at the five-star Terranea Resort in Palos Verdes where Woods was staying, said he saw the golfer get into his vehicle shortly before 7am as he headed to the Rolling Hill Country Club – where he was due to tee off at 7. 0am.
Mr Konteh told the TMZ website that Woods was blocked for a short time by another vehicle unloading luggage and, by the time he left, he looked ‘agitated and impatient’.
Woods, who was said to be filming with actress Jada Pinkett Smith, exbasketball star Dwyane Wade and comedian David Spade, ‘took off fast’.
Sports commentators were speculating the crash could end the career of the greatest golfer of his generation. The former world No.1’s 15 major titles stand second only to the record 18 won by Jack Nicklaus.