Tiger Woods told first responders to his March 27 rollover crash that he hoped to play in the Masters, per multiple reports citing body camera footage released by the Martin County, Fla., Sheriff’s Office Thursday.
As responders retrieved his golf clubs from the back of his Land Rover while it was lying on its side after the accident, an investigator asked Woods, “Are you golfing in the Masters this year?”
Woods responded, “Hoping to. It depends on you all.”
His answer drew laughter from multiple people, with one voice heard saying, “It don’t depend on me.”
Just three days before the crash, Woods said he would “keep trying” to get himself ready for the Masters, which starts April 9. Speaking after playing his first TGL match of the season, Woods said of the season’s first major, “I want to play. I love the tournament.”
Woods contends that he was looking at his phone and changing the radio station when his Land Rover clipped the back of a truck and rolled onto its side on Jupiter Island, Fla.
The release of the bodycam footage came one day after Woods was granted a request by a Florida judge to leave the United States to enter a comprehensive inpatient treatment facility as he faces misdemeanor driving under the influence charges.
Martin County Judge Darren Steele granted the motion to travel submitted by Woods’ attorney, Douglas Duncan, who cited the 50-year-old golf superstar’s need for an “intensive, highly individualized and medically integrated program” away from media and public scrutiny.
Woods released a public statement on Tuesday and entered a plea of not guilty in a Florida court to charges of misdemeanor driving under the influence with property damage.
The arrest affidavit stated a breathalyzer test showed no signs of alcohol, but that Woods refused a urinalysis test for other drugs.
The affidavit stated Woods was “sweating profusely,” his movements were “lethargic and slow,” his eyes were “bloodshot and glassy,” his pupils were “extremely dilated” and that during the field sobriety exercises, Woods was “limping and stumbling to the right.”
