Tiger Woods was seen hitting balls at Liberty National Golf Club in New Jersey on Tuesday morning, the first time the golf star has been spotted swinging a club since his arrest on a driving under the influence charge in Florida in late March.
Woods was pictured working on the range during day two of the Nexus Cup, an exclusive amateur golf event held at the course. The 15-time major champion said he could 'hit pretty much anything' in his bag, despite the months-long layoff.
Earlier this month, Woods pleaded no contest to charges stemming from the March DUI arrest, striking a deal with prosecutors that will see him banned from driving for five years. After his arrest, he received permission from the court to fly to Switzerland, where he spent months at a rehabilitation facility. In April, the Daily Mail reported that Woods would be leaving the country imminently.
Woods has not played in a professional tournament since the 2024 Open Championship at Royal Troon, where he missed the cut. The Open is golf's oldest major championship, and Woods has won it three times during a career that includes 15 major titles.
The March crash
According to police, Woods was driving at high speed along a beachside road in Jupiter, Florida, when his Land Rover clipped a tractor-trailer truck and rolled onto its side, causing about $5,000 worth of damage to the other vehicle.
He crawled out of the car without injury and later told officers he had been looking at his phone and changing the radio at the time of the collision, police said.
A Breathalyzer test found no alcohol in his system, but Woods refused a urine test, according to police. A sheriff's report obtained by the Daily Mail said deputies found opioids in his pocket and that he showed signs of impairment.
Plea deal and court hearings
Woods changed his plea to no contest during a hearing on September 2, allowing him to avoid the case going to trial.
A previous hearing was held on August 4, following a July ruling that let prosecutors obtain Woods's hospital records connected to the crash. Martin County circuit court judge Darren Steele approved an agreement between the State Attorney's Office and Woods's legal team granting access to those records.
In May, Steele had approved a similar agreement giving prosecutors access to Woods's prescription medication records from his Palm Beach pharmacy, covering the period between January 1 and the March crash. Prosecutors and Woods's attorney later agreed to a protective order limiting release of any hospital or prescription records to the State Attorney's Office, law enforcement, state experts and the defense.
Vanessa Trump and a Masters that never happened
Woods appeared puffy-eyed as he left court alongside his girlfriend, Vanessa Trump, who led him back to a car after he entered his plea and had his license suspended.
Vanessa was pictured with Woods and her 19-year-old daughter, Kai, back in March. She revealed in May that she had been diagnosed with an unspecified form of breast cancer.
Woods had been closing in on a return to golf and was widely expected to compete at the Masters in the days before the crash.
A history of driving incidents
The March crash marked the fourth major driving-related incident of Woods's adult life.
Five years earlier, Woods rolled another SUV down a steep embankment in California. He faced no accusations of driving under the influence on that occasion, though the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said he had been driving at around 80mph, nearly twice the legal limit. Witnesses told TMZ that Woods had appeared agitated and impatient while leaving a golf tournament parking lot shortly before the crash.
In 2017, Jupiter police found Woods unconscious in his Mercedes-Benz, parked awkwardly on a roadside about 15 miles from his home at around 3am on May 29. Officers noticed damage to the vehicle. Woods had no alcohol in his system, but tests found the active ingredient in marijuana, the painkillers Vicodin and Dilaudid, the sleep drug Ambien and the anti-anxiety drug Xanax.
He later said he had been self-medicating for pain from his fourth back surgery and for insomnia, without directly addressing the marijuana found in his system. He was not found in possession of the drug.
Woods pleaded guilty to reckless driving and received a year of probation, a $250 fine and 50 hours of community service, and was banned from drinking alcohol during his probation. He completed a private program to address his dependency on painkillers in July 2017.
I will continue to tackle this going forward with my doctors, family and friends. I am so very thankful for all of the support I've received.
Woods's most notorious crash came in 2009, when he drove his Cadillac Escalade into a fire hydrant, a tree and several hedges near his home. He was treated for minor injuries and ticketed for careless driving. He thanked his then wife, Elin Nordegren, for helping him out of the car, though the account was clouded by doubts after the National Enquirer reported days earlier that he had an affair with Rachel Uchitel, a 9/11 widow and New York nightclub manager. Details of the crash later featured in the best-selling biography 'Tiger Woods' by Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyian.
