Tiger Woods was injured in a single-car accident on Tuesday morning and extracted from the wreckage with a pry bar and ax. The golfer’s SUV rolled over multiple times after running off the road in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. In a news conference later in the day, Alex Villanueva, the sheriff of Los Angeles County, said that when officials arrived at the crash scene, Woods was conscious and able to communicate with them. The county fire chief Daryl Osby said Woods was stable when he got to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.
Woods’s agent Mark Steinberg told TMZ on Tuesday afternoon that Woods sustained “multiple leg injuries, and is currently in surgery.” Photos of the wreck published by TMZ showed the badly damaged Genesis SUV rolled over on its side. Woods was in the area for his annual Genesis Invitational golf tournament at the Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles.
On Tuesday night, ESPN reported that Woods has crush injuries of both lower legs, including a compound fracture and a shattered ankle.
As updates on Woods’s condition circulated, prominent figures in golf—including Phil Mickelson and Jack Nicklaus—and across other sports showed support for the all-time great on social media. Stephen Curry, Lindsay Vonn, and Alex Rodriguez were joined by Barack Obama:
On Monday, Woods golfed with David Spade and Dwyane Wade, and filmed material for a shoot with Golf Digest and Golf TV.
Woods won the Masters Tournament in 2019, more than 20 years after his victory there made him an international sensation at 21. He has won 15 major championships, second only to Nicklaus’s 18. The 2019 Masters win capped a remarkable comeback after Woods recovered from a back injury that had once seemed career-threatening. But Woods had his fifth back surgery in December, which he said in a recent interview might have kept him from playing in this year’s Masters.
This is a developing story.
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