Tiger Woods Charged with DUI After Florida Rollover Crash

Jupiter, FL – Tiger Woods, the 15-time major champion, was arrested Friday afternoon and charged with driving under the influence, property damage, and refusal to submit to a lawful test after a single-vehicle rollover crash in the same Martin County town where he resides.

According to the Martin County Sheriff’s Office, Woods’ Land Rover was traveling at a high rate of speed shortly after 2 p.m. when he attempted to overtake a truck towing a pressure-cleaner trailer. The truck driver told investigators he tried to edge onto the shoulder to avoid the golfer’s oncoming SUV, but there was insufficient room. Woods’ vehicle clipped the trailer, rolled onto its driver’s side, and slid “a pretty decent space” before coming to rest. The speed limit on the road is 30 mph.

Woods, 50, crawled out of the passenger-side door before deputies arrived and appeared “lethargic,” Sheriff John Budensiek said. A roadside breathalyser registered 0.00% alcohol, yet Woods declined to provide a urine sample. “The DUI investigators came to the scene and Mr Woods did exemplify signs of impairment,” Budensiek told reporters. “We were really not suspicious of alcohol being involved in this case and that proved to be true.”

No one, including the truck driver, was injured. It remains unclear whether Woods was wearing a seat belt.

He was transported to the Martin County jail, held for eight hours, and released on bond in the early hours of Saturday morning. The charges are misdemeanours.

The incident marks Woods’ third documented vehicular crash. In 2017 he was arrested on suspicion of DUI in nearby Jupiter after officers found him asleep at the wheel; he later pleaded guilty to reckless driving. In February 2021 he suffered open fractures to his right leg in a high-speed rollover outside Los Angeles that required multiple surgeries and a three-month period of bed rest at home.

Woods has recently been rehabilitating from an Achilles-tendon rupture suffered in March 2025 and back surgery last October. He competed Tuesday in the TGL finals, his first competitive appearance in more than a year, and had not yet committed to next week’s Masters, a tournament he has won five times.

Speaking to Sky Sports News, golf correspondent Jamie Weir said the arrest delivers “huge reputational damage” to the sport’s biggest draw: “Questions arise as to what was in his system having refused to take that urine test. This is another damaging day for Woods reputationally.”

U.S. President Donald Trump, who called Woods “a very close friend,” told reporters Saturday, “I feel so badly. He’s got some difficulty… I don’t want to talk about it.” Trump predicted Woods will attend the Masters but not play.

Woods’ management team has not yet issued a statement regarding the Florida crash or the impending court proceedings.