Tiger Woods suffered “multiple leg injuries” in a serious car crash this morning and went into surgery after being pulled from his overturned car and taken to a hospital, his agent and the authorities said.
The crash happened about 7:12 a.m. near the border of Rolling Hills Estates and Rancho Palos Verdes, a coastal city of about 42,000 people in Los Angeles County.
Woods’s vehicle was traveling north on Hawthorne Boulevard at Blackhorse Road when it rolled over and crashed, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said.
Woods suffered “compound fractures.”
Officials said they required the jaws of life to free Woods from the vehicle.
“On February 23, 2021, at approximately 7:12 AM, LASD responded to a single vehicle roll-over traffic collision on the border of Rolling Hills Estates and Rancho Palos Verdes,” officials say.
“The vehicle was traveling northbound on Hawthorne Boulevard, at Blackhorse Road, when it crashed. The vehicle sustained major damage.”
“The driver and sole occupant was identified as PGA golfer, Eldrick ‘Tiger’ Woods,” officials confirmed.
“Mr. Woods was extricated from the wreck with the ‘jaws of life’ by Los Angeles County firefighters and paramedics, then transported to a local hospital by ambulance for his injuries.”
Woods was staying at a hotel where a major network television show was being shot.
Production sources told TMZ, when a director arrived just before 7 AM, Woods was driving his SUV very fast as he was leaving the property and almost hit the director’s car.
The director was shaken enough to tell production staff about it after he parked.
A crew member who saw Tiger as he got in his SUV at the hotel told TMZ once Tiger got in his vehicle, there was a delay in driving off and he appeared “agitated and impatient.”
The crew member says once the delay was over, Tiger “took off fast.”
It’s unclear if speed caused the accident, and police continue their investigation.
Law enforcement sources say Woods was alert enough at the scene of the accident to ask first responders to have his manager pick up his stuff.
Police did not find anything illicit inside the vehicle, according to sources.
The 45-year-old golf legend was in the area for his annual Genesis Invitational golf tournament at the Riviera Country Club in the Pacific Palisades.
Former President Trump, a friend of Woods, issued a statement about the crash saying, “Get well soon, Tiger. You are a true champion!”
It’s not the first time Woods has been in a high-profile car accident — he crashed his SUV in a 2009 incident at his home in Florida.
In 2017, he was arrested after cops found him passed out behind the wheel of his car.
Woods said he had taken prescription medication before the accident and didn’t realize the effect the meds would have on him.