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      The Impact and Influence of Tiger Woods: Here. There. Everywhere.

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }Tiger Woods’s Car CrashWill Woods Play Again?Sheriff Expects No ChargesGolf Without TigerA Terrible Turn of FateCareer Highs and LowsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyOn GolfThe Impact and Influence of Tiger Woods: Here. There. Everywhere.From fitness trailers to fist pumps and golf’s global representation, the star, recovering in the hospital after a serious car crash, has a hefty presence at a PGA tournament even when he’s not playing in it.Tiger Woods’s shadow loomed large Thursday at a World Golf Championship event, the first on the PGA tour since the news of his car crash.Credit…Erik S Lesser/EPA, via ShutterstockFeb. 25, 2021Updated 7:59 p.m. ETBRADENTON, Fla. — Tiger Woods was never expected to play in the first round of the PGA Tour event held Thursday in Central Florida. It did not matter. His presence, his influence, the impact of his life and career was evident throughout the grounds.If this is at least the beginning of the end of the Woods era in golf, in the wake of his serious car crash Tuesday, the setting at the Concession Golf Club, where the tournament is being held, revealed much about what he has meant to the sport and the almost incalculable change he has wrought.It was nearly impossible to look in any direction and not see Woods’s imprint.On the serpentine drive into the golf course, multiple, extra-wide trailers labeled “Player Performance Center” lined the road. They are mobile fitness facilities chock-full of treadmills and advanced exercise equipment.It would now be unthinkable to host a PGA Tour event without them, and the trailers log about 25,000 miles annually to keep up with the 100-plus pro golfers whose exacting workouts are now a sacrosanct part of their tournament regimens.Roughly 25 years ago, more PGA Tour players probably smoked than worked out during an event. What changed?Tiger Woods turned pro in 1996, won the Masters a year later and two months after that made the fastest ascent to No. 1 in the world golf rankings. Moreover, he was a workout freak, had started beefing up and his prodigious drives would soon spawn the redesign of top golf courses around the world.Golfers back then were a hodgepodge of shapes, some with bellies that bulged over gaudy white belts. It was an image that perpetuated the notion that golf was not a sport. There is a different look on the tour these days, and a short walk from the fitness trailers to the practice range would prove it.From behind the range, one could assess the form and movements of several dozen top golfers whose ages ranged from about 20 to 40. Nearly all had trim, athletic builds — and flat stomachs. They swung ferociously hard, yet never seemed out of balance, a compliment to their conditioning and developed strength and flexibility. Most had learned and honed that mix of pliancy and power from watching a single uber-dedicated golfer, their idol, Tiger Woods. Even the swing coaches who stood by the golfers had studied and memorized every Woods move before he had turned 30 years old. In other words, by the time he had won his 10th major championship.Just beyond the range was the first tee, and the path leading to it was awash in the emblems of corporate sponsors. Professional golf had always been supported by commercial interests but that relationship blossomed exponentially as Woods came up on the scene with a memorable Nike television advertisement when he stared into the camera and said: “Hello, world.”Thursday, there was a scoreboard near the first tee encircled by not one, but seven logos from tournament sponsors. The prize money for the one-week event is $10.5 million, or around five times what PGA Tour tournaments paid before Woods turned pro.This week’s event is a World Golf Championship event, a collaborative effort to periodically bring together the best players from tours in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. There were no world championships until 1999, by which time Woods, whose multicultural background had helped golf explode internationally, had won two majors and 13 PGA Tour events (and, of course, he won two of the three inaugural World Golf Championships in 1999).As play began in the first round, long putts dropped and players celebrated with uppercut, clenched fist pumps. There was no reason to ask where they learned such a signature move. They wore eye-catching colors made by top designers who earned most of their revenue outside golf and their garb was embossed with the logos of sponsors whose customers might not even be golfers: luxury car manufactures, credit card companies, premium watch makers. Woods pioneered such crossover appeal.It did not matter where one walked. Woods was here. Wednesday, Rory McIlroy, a four-time major winner who grew up idolizing Woods and now considers him a close friend, was asked if the players in this week’s field had considered some kind of tribute to Woods. McIlroy shook his head back and forth.“He’s not gone,” McIlroy said. “I feel like we should pay tribute to him every day for being on the PGA Tour and what he’s done for golf.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Bill Wright, Who Broke a Color Barrier in Golf, Dies at 84

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyBill Wright, Who Broke a Color Barrier in Golf, Dies at 84In 1959, decades before Tiger Woods, Wright became the first Black golfer to win a United States Golf Association event.Bill Wright in the Amateur Public Links Championship in Denver in 1959. His victory there was a singular moment for Black golfers at a time when the P.G.A. bylaws still had a “Caucasians-only” clause.Credit…Denver Post, via Getty ImagesFeb. 25, 2021, 6:56 p.m. ETBill Wright, the first Black competitor to win a United States Golf Association event in an era when African-Americans were not welcome either in segregated country clubs or in the top amateur and professional ranks, died on Feb. 19 at his home in Los Angeles. He was 84.His wife and only immediate survivor, Ceta (Smith) Wright, confirmed the death. She said he had a stroke in 2017 and had Alzheimer’s disease.Wright was attending the Western Washington College of Education (now Western Washington University) in 1959 when he won the U.S.G.A. Amateur Public Links Championship in Denver.After barely qualifying for match play, he had little trouble in the tournament. His skill on the greens led The Spokesman-Review of Spokane to call him a “slender putting wizard.”Wright’s immediate reaction to being the first Black golfer to win a national championship was to hang up the phone on the reporter who had asked how that felt.“I wasn’t mad,” he said in an interview with the U.S.G.A. in 2009. “I wanted to be Black. I wanted to be the winner. I wanted to be all those things.” But he was struck by how quickly his victory was viewed as one for his race. As he saw it, he said, “I was just playing golf.”Wright’s victory was a singular moment for Black golfers at a time when the P.G.A. of America’s bylaws still had a “Caucasians-only” clause (which would be abolished in 1961).A Black man did not win a PGA Tour event until 1964, when Pete Brown finished first at the Waco Turner Open in Texas. The next two African-American winners of U.S.G.A. tournaments were Alton Duhon (the 1982 U.S. Senior Amateur) and Tiger Woods (the 1991 to 1993 U.S. Junior Amateurs).Victoria Nenno, the senior historian of the USGA Golf Museum and Library, said in an email that Wright’s victory “deserves recognition not just for the challenges he overcame as an African-American golfer, but for the manner in which he won — with skill, precision and, most importantly, sportsmanship.”Winning the public links title earned Wright an exemption to play in the U.S. Amateur Championship later that year at the Broadmoor resort in Colorado Springs. When the white golfers who were to join him for a practice round refused to play with him, Chick Evans, who had won the Open in 1920, invited him to join his group. That group included Jack Nicklaus, then 19 years old, who would win the event.“I have never forgotten it,” Wright once said of Evans’s gesture in an interview for usga.com. “He came over and made it so I could enjoy the most aristocratic hotel. It was just amazing.”William Alfred Wright was born on April 4, 1936, in Kansas City, Mo., and later moved with his family to Portland, Ore., and Seattle. His father, Bob, was a mail carrier and a skilled golfer. His mother, Madeline (Shipman) Wright, was a social worker who also golfed.Wright began playing golf at 14; a year later, he was Seattle’s junior champion. He excelled in basketball and helped his high school team win a state title in 1954. He graduated from Western Washington in 1960 and that year won the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics’ individual golf championship. He also played in his first PGA Tour event in 1960, but learned how difficult it was to play a regular schedule without sponsors.“There was really no visible hope for people of color to play professionally,” Wendell Haskins, a former director of diversity for the P.G.A. of America, said in a phone interview. “He showed all kinds of promise, but the opportunities for him were limited.”Because he could not afford to play golf professionally full time, Wright taught sixth grade in Los Angeles for nine years, then owned a car dealership in Pasadena and was the teaching pro at the Lakes at El Segundo, a nine-hole municipal golf course, from 1995 to 2017.According to the PGA Tour, Wright played in at least 17 tournaments from 1960 to 1974 — his best finish was a tie for 40th place — and in nine PGA Tour Champions events (tournaments for golfers at least 50 years old) from 1988 to 1995. He also competed in the 1966 U.S. Open — he didn’t make the cut — and five U.S. Senior Opens.“He was a barrier breaker,” Ceta Wright said. “The sad part is that he hoped his success would open the doors for other Black golfers. But it really didn’t.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Tiger Woods and Another Terrible Turn of Fate

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }Tiger Woods’s Car CrashWill He Play Again?Sheriff Expects No ChargesGolf Without WoodsA Terrible Turn of FateCareer Highs and LowsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storySports of the TimesTiger Woods and Another Terrible Turn of FateIt is easy to cling to memories of Tiger Woods at his peaks, but his vulnerability tells as much, if not more, about his powerful hold on sport and culture.Tiger Woods at Augusta National Golf Club in 2019, when he won his fifth Masters title and his 15th major championship.Credit…Doug Mills/The New York TimesFeb. 25, 2021Updated 8:08 a.m. ETThe sight of his demolished S.U.V., sitting forlornly on a grassy Southern California hillside, belied the image of Tiger Woods as an invincible force marching across the golf course to certain, thrilling triumph.That was not always the case, and lately his victories have been far from commanding. But so much is embodied in Tiger. And in this period of pandemic and relentless loss, we struggle to confront visions of a crumpled vehicle, of him lying in a hospital bed, of leg bones shattered and questions about whether he will play again — while still dissecting who he is and what he has wrought.What happened to the sterling athlete who so many expected to reshape the game of golf and even, perhaps, the broader culture?Woods’s greatness, once seemingly preordained, has been dimmed over the past dozen years by stunning falls from grace and by betrayal from his body.But many of us still cling to him, even if it means grasping at shards of memory. We remember the prodigy who burst into view on the nationally televised “Mike Douglas Show,” hitting putts at age 2.We remember his Stanford years and the Masters of 1997, the first of 15 major titles, won in history-making fashion at age 21.When you think of Woods, what comes to mind?After his first Masters victory in 1997, Woods received his green jacket from Nick Faldo, the previous year’s winner.Credit…Amy Sancetta/Associated PressIs he the superstar who lived for toppling records? Who grew up with his eyes fixed on breaking Jack Nicklaus’s record of 18 major championships? Recall that there was a time when this seemed like an audacious, even arrogant, goal. Then he set about the chase, quickly drawing oh-so-near to Nicklaus, major after major. Is he the golfer whose very presence in a largely segregated, upper-crust sport was not only startling, but also a harbinger of the issues that frame our world today?With his shimmering brown skin, his power and confidence, Woods blew down the doors of the all-white country clubs. Remember the snide and easy way in which the golf veteran Fuzzy Zoeller referred to Woods as “that little boy”? Or Zoeller’s publicly urging Woods not to put fried chicken and collard greens on the menu of the Masters’ champions dinner?That was the golf culture Woods strode into, and took over, as the world watched.But how did he see himself? Here things get tricky. Raised in predominantly white suburbs by a mother from Thailand and an African-American father, Woods was one of the first major sports figures to openly embrace the idea that he represented multiplicity. “Growing up,” he told Oprah Winfrey shortly after that first Masters win, “I came up with this name: I’m a Cablinasian.”In a world that struggles to go beyond placing race in tidy boxes, that comment alienated some of his most ardent supporters. But if he was chided for seeming to keep his Blackness at a distance, it didn’t dent his popularity. No matter how Woods defined himself, he was imbued with a certain power. Forever the trailblazer and talisman. He put a torch to the old order. That was enough.Then came 2009, and a troubling descent. It began with tabloid tales of the married Woods engaging in serial infidelity. Eventually his deepest flaws were exposed: his illicit texts, his trysts, his trips to rehab as he battled addiction.Woods frustrated at a tournament in 2018.Credit…Sam Hodgson for The New York TimesWoods was among the first transcendent sports stars to emerge at the dawn of the digital age. His aura, his race, his swagger and shotmaking, the club twirls and fist bumps and miracle shots — all of it was perfectly suited for YouTube and the rise of sports apps that feast on fleeting moments and sensational emotion.The digital age also magnified his troubles. Each imperfection was there to see, personal and professional. For much of a decade, as the advancing years wreaked havoc on his body and the surgeries piled up, Woods was a shadow of his former self. Heading into 2019, he had not won a major tournament in nearly 11 years.Yet Woods somehow remained swaddled in Teflon. The revelation of his human frailties cost him plenty of fans and endorsements. But a significant portion of his admirers forgave and forgot. The continued embrace was a willful act by a public all too eager to dole out second and third chances to a winner. Especially a winner like Woods.He continued to be a top draw, a global icon, even as he grimaced through season after season, age and injury taking an ever-steeper toll. At one point, he was ranked 1,119th in the world. But then came April 2019, and the Masters. Summoning every remnant of his former self, he surged to victory, legions celebrating his fifth champion’s green jacket.Nobody who watched that tournament will forget it. Not just the stirring comeback, but the sight of Woods wrapping his son, Charlie, and his daughter, Sam, in his arms as he walked from the final green. It called to mind the embrace given by Woods’s father, Earl, after the Masters win in 1997. It spoke, too, of poignant change in the face of time. Woods was no longer the soaring young champion, but he could still reach the highest peaks, if only in short bursts.Woods after winning the 2019 Masters, his first major victory in over a decade. Credit…Doug Mills/The New York TimesApril 2019 feels so long ago, given all that the world has gone through this past year.And now this. On Tuesday we saw the remains of that S.U.V. and waited for the updates. We shuddered, remembering Kobe Bryant’s helicopter, strewn across another Southern California hillside just over a year ago.We listened as a sheriff and his deputies described the wreckage, explaining that Woods was lucky to be alive and that drugs and alcohol did not appear to be involved. They said he had been pried from his vehicle and carried off on a stretcher.“Unfortunately,” said one of them, “Mr. Woods was not able to stand on his own power.”How could such a circumstance befall Tiger Woods, who strode across majestic golf courses with so much purpose? It was a reminder, once again, that heroes are human, full of weakness, unable to dodge the terrible twists of fate that stalk us all.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Will Tiger Woods Play Golf Again? Doctors Predict a Difficult Recovery

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }Tiger Woods’s Car CrashWill He Play Again?Sheriff Expects No ChargesGolf Without WoodsCareer Highs and LowsEven before Tuesday’s crash, Tiger Woods’s career had been hampered by injuries in his neck, back, knee and lower legs.Credit…Illustration by Tim Oliver/The New York Times; Photograph by Rob Carr/Getty ImagesSkip to contentSkip to site indexWill Tiger Woods Play Golf Again? Doctors Predict a Difficult RecoveryAfter a serious car crash on Tuesday, he risks infections, bones that do not heal, and foot and ankle injuries that impede walking.Even before Tuesday’s crash, Tiger Woods’s career had been hampered by injuries in his neck, back, knee and lower legs.Credit…Illustration by Tim Oliver/The New York Times; Photograph by Rob Carr/Getty ImagesSupported byContinue reading the main storyFeb. 24, 2021Updated 9:33 p.m. ETThe serious lower leg injuries Tiger Woods sustained in a car crash on Tuesday typically lead to a long and perilous recovery, calling into question his ability to play professional golf again, according to medical experts who have treated similar injuries.Athletes with severe leg injuries thought to doom their careers have managed to come back — the quarterback Alex Smith returned to playing football last season after a gruesome leg break, and the golfer Ben Hogan returned decades ago after a car accident.But Woods’s injuries are more extensive, and his path to recovery is strewn with serious obstacles. Infections, inadequate bone healing and, in Woods’s case, previous injuries and chronic back problems may make a monthslong or even yearslong recovery more difficult, and may reduce the chances that he will play again.In the accident near Los Angeles, Woods’s lower right leg was smashed and his right foot severely injured, and his leg muscles swelled so much that surgeons had to cut open the tissue covering them to relieve pressure, Dr. Anish Mahajan, the chief medical officer at Harbor-U.C.L.A. Medical Center, where Woods, 45, was treated, wrote in a Twitter message posted on Woods’s account.Doctors also inserted a rod into Woods’s shin bone, and screws and pins into his foot and ankle. Physicians familiar with these kinds of injuries described the complications they typically bring.The injuries are frequently seen among drivers involved in car accidents, said Dr. R. Malcolm Smith, the chief of orthopedic trauma at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, Mass. Usually they occur when the driver frantically stomps on the brake as a car careens out of control.When the front end of the car is smashed, immense force is transmitted to the driver’s right leg and foot. “This happens every day with car crashes in this country,” Dr. Smith said.Such lower-leg fractures on occasion bring “massive disability” and other grave consequences, said Dr. Smith. “A very rough estimate is that there is a 70 percent chance of it healing completely,” he added.The crash caused a cascade of injuries. It smashed Woods’s shin bones, with primary breaks in the top and bottom parts of the bones and a scattering of bone fragments. When the bones in Woods’s shin shattered, they damaged muscles and tendons; pieces poked from his skin.The trauma caused bleeding and swelling in his leg, threatening his muscles. Surgeons had to quickly cut into the layer of thick tissue covering his leg muscles to relieve the swelling. Had they not, the tissue that covers swelling muscle would have acted like a tourniquet, constricting blood flow. The muscle can die within four to six hours.It is possible that some muscle died anyway, between the accident and the surgery, Dr. Smith said: “Once you lose it, you cannot get it back.” More

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      What We Know About Tiger Woods' Car Accident and Condition

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }Tiger Woods’s Car CrashWhat to KnowOut of Surgery and ‘Recovering’Details of the CrashWoods Recalls First U.S. Open WinAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyWhat to Know About Tiger Woods’s Car Crash and ConditionWoods was said to have been driving at a “greater speed than normal” when his S.U.V. went over a median strip and rolled over several times.Tiger Woods’s S.U.V. being towed after the crash on Tuesday.Credit…Allison Zaucha for The New York TimesKevin Draper and Published More

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      Tiger Woods Injured in Serious Car Accident

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyTiger Woods Injured in Serious Car AccidentThe greatest golfer of his generation sustained leg injuries that, along with a back surgery in January, could raise questions about the future of his career.Tiger Woods in the Masters Tournament in November.Credit…Doug Mills/The New York TimesFeb. 23, 2021Updated 9:33 p.m. ETFor Tiger Woods, it was a resounding comeback. After a back injury that had seemed destined to end his career, he won the Masters Tournament in 2019, a thrilling return to form that captivated the nation.But after a year of fits and starts that yielded no major victories, he announced last month that he had undergone another spinal procedure that would keep him out of competition until later this year.Then came the single-vehicle accident on Tuesday in which his S.U.V. ran off the road and landed on a hillside near Los Angeles, causing leg injuries that required Mr. Woods to undergo hours of surgery.It was another devastating episode for Mr. Woods — who burst onto the national scene as a child and is the greatest golfer of his generation — and raises questions about his ability to make yet another comeback.In recent years, Mr. Woods, who has won 15 major championships, second in the sport’s history to Jack Nicklaus’s 18, has talked extensively about the limitations his previous surgeries and injuries have caused.They have severely reduced the amount of time he can practice and have often disrupted the flow and power of a once revered golf swing. For several of the past few seasons, Mr. Woods could be seen wincing after every few shots, and he frequently struggled to retrieve his golf ball from the cup after completing a hole.His accident incited an outpouring across sports and beyond.On Twitter, Mr. Nicklaus wrote of his and his wife’s anguish. “Barbara and I just heard about Tiger’s accident, and like everyone else, we are deeply concerned,’’ Mr. Nicklaus’s post said. “We want to offer him our heartfelt support and prayers at this difficult time. Please join us in wishing Tiger a successful surgery and all the best for a full recovery.”Justin Thomas, a trusted confidant of Mr. Woods who frequently joins him for pretournament practice rounds, appeared stunned by the news.“I’m sick to my stomach,” Mr. Thomas said as he prepared for the Workday Championship, a PGA Tour event in Central Florida set to begin Thursday. “It hurts to see one of your closest friends get in an accident. I just hope he’s all right. I’m just worried for his kids, I’m sure they’re struggling.”Mr. Woods’s S.U.V. being towed after the crash.Credit…Allison Zaucha for The New York TimesThe incident happened about 7 a.m. Pacific time near the border of Rolling Hills Estates and Rancho Palos Verdes, a coastal Los Angeles suburb, on a twisting and winding stretch where the speed limit is 45 m.p.h. Two days earlier, Mr. Woods had hosted a PGA Tour event at the Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles and stayed to tape a promotional spot for Golf Digest.Mr. Woods was traveling at a “greater speed than normal” but did not seem impaired, Alex Villanueva, the Los Angeles County sheriff, said at a news conference, adding that “there was no effort to draw blood, for example, at the hospital.”Mr. Woods lost control of the vehicle on Hawthorne Boulevard, hitting a curb and a tree before rolling several times, the sheriff said.“That area has a high frequency of accidents,” Mr. Villanueva said. “It’s not uncommon.”With 82 PGA Tour victories, Mr. Woods is tied for the most ever with Sam Snead.But Mr. Woods has been hobbled by injuries in recent years. He has had five major back operations and three knee operations, which have derailed his ability to compete for years at a time. His injuries in the car accident would seem to create a substantial obstacle to returning to full form, a prospect already in question ahead of the Masters in April.In 2009, at the height of a career in which Mr. Woods was expected to demolish every record in his sport, news reports about serial marital infidelity cost him his marriage, and he was shunned by many in the golf community. In swift succession, his myriad corporate sponsors dropped him. The scandal caused him to take a lengthy hiatus from golf. When he returned to competition, he struggled to find his old form, a complication that coincided with the onset of his physical ailments.On the same golf courses where he had long been greeted by wild cheering, his presence was instead met with an eerie quiet. As time passed, being snubbed was far from Mr. Woods’s only problem at tournaments. He was often viewed as a limping afterthought. A young breed of golfers now controlled the top of the leaderboard.His downfall eventually had a defining act, a middle-of-the-night arrest in May 2017 that revealed an opioid addiction. Mr. Woods was taken into custody by the police after he was found alone and asleep in his car on the side of a road with the engine running.Typical of his career arc, Mr. Woods’s resurrection ended up being as dramatic and attention grabbing.At the 2019 Masters, golf’s most watched event, Mr. Woods was not one of the pretournament favorites to win, but he became a final-round contender. In the crucible of the event’s final holes, as his rivals withered under the pressure, Mr. Woods found the inner resolve that had been his trademark. He birdied four of the final five holes to claim his fifth Masters title. When his final putt dropped, he celebrated with a primal scream that seemed to be matched by the thousands of fans encircling the 18th green.Mr. Woods after his win at the 2019 Masters.Credit…Doug Mills/The New York TimesJust two years earlier, Mr. Woods had ranked as low as 1,119th in the world. His comeback, especially considering his travails off the course, may have been the greatest in sports history.Leaving the green, Mr. Woods lifted his son, Charlie, and his daughter, Sam, into his arms — a gesture that was a near repeat of the embrace Mr. Woods’s father, Earl, had given his son after the 1997 Masters, Mr. Woods’s first major victory.He continued to be competitive with his peers in 2019, winning one more event, but the pandemic-shortened 2020 golf season took place with Mr. Woods often absent. Other than a tie for ninth in mid-January, he did not finish higher than a tie for 37th and appeared in just 10 events.Mr. Woods has not played competitively since December. In January, he underwent a procedure on his back called a microdiscectomy, which was performed to remove a pressurized disc fragment that was pinching a nerve. On Sunday, while acting as the host of the Genesis Invitational PGA Tour event in Southern California, Mr. Woods was interviewed during the broadcast of the tournament. He said he had begun practicing and appeared at ease, smiling and joking with CBS announcers about his progress from the recent operation. But he offered no timetable for his return to competitive golf.The Masters, though, remained central on Mr. Woods’s calendar. Asked whether he would compete in the event in April, Mr. Woods replied: “God, I hope so. I’ve got to get there first.” He added that he was “feeling fine, a little bit stiff” and was awaiting another M.R.I. scan to evaluate his progress. In the meantime, he said, he had been “still doing the mundane stuff that you have to do for rehab, the little things before you can start gravitating toward something a little more.”Mr. Woods conceded that surgeons may have only so many more ways to help him. “This is the only back I’ve got,” he said. “I don’t have much more wiggle room there.”Mr. Woods slipped his cap down as he finished the 10th hole as the sun set during Round 2 at the 2020 Masters.Credit…Doug Mills/The New York TimesAt the pandemic-delayed Masters in November, Mr. Woods tied for 38th place. In the wake of the final round of the event, he said of his physical infirmities: “No matter how hard I try, things just don’t work the way they used to. And no matter how much I push and ask of this body, it just doesn’t work at times.”At the Rolling Hills Country Club near Los Angeles on Monday, pictures on social media showed Mr. Woods interacting with various celebrities, including the former N.B.A. player Dwyane Wade. During the function, Mr. Woods gave players golf tips and some instruction but was not swinging a golf club.Douglas Morino, Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, Alan Blinder, Kevin Draper and Gillian R. Brassil contributed reporting.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Tiger Woods was conscious and talking after the crash, the authorities said.

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storyTiger Woods Live Updates and Video: Golfer Hospitalized After Car CrashTiger Woods was conscious and talking after the crash, the authorities said.Feb. 23, 2021, 3:10 p.m. ETFeb. 23, 2021, 3:10 p.m. ETNicholas Bogel-Burroughs, Bill Pennington and Tiger Woods was taken to a hospital on Tuesday after being injured in a car crash in Los Angeles County.CreditCredit…Allison Zaucha for The New York TimesTiger Woods sustained serious leg injuries on Tuesday after the luxury S.U.V. he was driving struck the median of a road in Los Angeles County, crossed over into the opposite lane of traffic and rolled over several times before coming to a stop in a grassy area several hundred feet from where he had been driving, the authorities said.Emergency workers rushed to the scene just after 7 a.m. Pacific time and took Woods, 45, to the closest trauma center, where the golfer’s manager said he had gone into surgery. The authorities said that Woods was in serious but stable condition at Harbor-U.C.L.A. Medical Center, and that his injuries did not appear to be life-threatening. Daryl L. Osby, the chief of the Los Angeles County Fire Department, said on CNN that Woods had “broken bones in both his legs.”Woods was conscious and able to speak to deputies when they arrived, giving them his name and appearing “lucid and calm,” said Deputy Carlos Gonzalez, who was the first officer on the scene. Woods was not able to stand on his own because of his injuries, Deputy Gonzalez said.Woods was driving near the border of Rolling Hills Estates and Rancho Palos Verdes and was heading downhill along a road where people often drive over the 45 m.p.h. speed limit, Sheriff Alex Villanueva of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said at a news conference.Sheriff Villanueva said only that Woods appeared to be driving at a “greater speed than normal” and that he did not seem to be impaired by drugs or alcohol. He added that because Woods did not seem impaired, “there was no effort to draw blood, for example, at the hospital.”The sheriff said it was not yet clear what had caused the crash. No other vehicles were struck, and there were no skid marks at the scene, he said.Mark Steinberg, Woods’s longtime agent, said in a statement around noon that the golfer was “currently in surgery,” adding: “We thank you for your privacy and support.”Tiger Woods teeing off at last year’s Masters Tournament, in November.Credit…Doug Mills/The New York TimesDeputy Gonzalez said that when he arrived on the scene, Woods did not initially appear to be too worried about his injuries, which the officer said was common with crashes when people are in shock. He said that Woods was wearing his seatbelt and that the airbags on his S.U.V. deployed.“He told me his name was Tiger, and at that moment, I immediately recognized him,” Deputy Gonzalez said at the news conference.Woods was driving a Genesis S.U.V., which is made by Hyundai’s luxury division. Last weekend, he hosted a PGA Tour event at Riviera Country Club in Southern California, the Genesis Invitational, which is sponsored by the car division. Riviera is where he made his PGA Tour debut in 1992.Woods’s vehicle was traveling north on Hawthorne Boulevard at the intersection of Blackhorse Road when it crashed, striking a “Welcome to Rolling Hills Estates” sign and hitting a tree as it rolled over, Villanueva said.Video from local television stations showed Woods’s vehicle on its side in an open, grassy area, with its hood crumpled and its windshield broken.The Sheriff’s Department initially said Woods had been removed from the vehicle with hydraulic tools collectively known as “Jaws of Life,” but fire officials later said that the tools were not used. Osby, the fire chief, said rescuers had used an ax, among other tools, to get Woods out of the S.U.V.Tiger Woods, who sustained serious leg injuries after crashing his S.U.V. on Tuesday in Los Angeles County, was conscious when emergency workers arrived, the authorities said.CreditCredit…Allison Zaucha for The New York TimesChief Osby said that Woods had been placed on a seat with a backboard as a standard precaution after serious crashes, in case of possible spinal injuries.Woods has not played competitively since December, and he had his fifth back operation in January, a procedure called a microdiscectomy, to remove a pressurized disc fragment that was pinching a nerve. Interviewed on the broadcast of the Genesis Invitational, Woods said he had begun practicing again, and he appeared at ease, smiling and joking with CBS announcers about his progress from the surgery. But he offered no timetable for his return to competitive golf.He said only that he had hoped to resume playing by the Masters Tournament, which is held in the first full week of April.On Monday, at an event at the Rolling Hills Country Club near Los Angeles, pictures on social media showed Woods happily interacting with various celebrities, including the N.B.A. player Dwyane Wade. During the function, Woods gave golf tips and limited instruction but was not swinging a golf club.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More