Tiger Woods agrees to reckless-driving plea after Florida rollover crash

Tiger Woods entered a plea agreement Wednesday on a reckless-driving charge arising from a March rollover crash near his Florida home, the Associated Press reported. Woods appeared in Martin County court after previously pleading not guilty to a driving-under-the-influence charge. A judge ordered his driver’s license suspended for five years.

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The case followed a crash on a beachside residential road on Jupiter Island. According to the AP’s account of the police report, Woods’ Land Rover clipped a truck and rolled onto its side. Officials said neither Woods nor the person in the other vehicle was injured, while the report placed the damage to the truck at $5,000.

Woods told a deputy that he had been looking down at his phone and changing the radio station when his vehicle struck the truck, the AP reported. A sheriff’s report said deputies found two pain pills in his pocket and recorded signs of impairment. He completed a breath test that was negative for alcohol but declined to provide a urine sample.

The 50-year-old had initially pleaded not guilty following his arrest. Court documents filed Tuesday had scheduled a change-of-plea hearing for Wednesday without disclosing what the new plea would be. The completed hearing produced an agreement on the reduced reckless-driving charge, resolving the uncertainty surrounding the planned plea change.

Woods has not returned to tournament play since the March incident. The AP reported that he took a leave from the golf tour after the crash, although he remained chairman of the PGA Tour’s Future Competition Committee. His first public appearance after returning from treatment came on June 23, when he introduced the tour’s plans to revise its schedule for 2028 and did not take questions.

The March collision was the latest vehicle crash involving Woods and came during a career already affected by repeated back and knee operations. In 2021, he sustained severe injuries to his right leg in a crash in Los Angeles. Wednesday’s court outcome addressed the charge stemming from this year’s incident, replacing the earlier DUI case with the reckless-driving plea agreement and adding the five-year license suspension.