Tiger deserves compassion, but golf’s refusal to hold him accountable diminishes the sport

April 10, 2026 — 7:30pm

You have reached your maximum number of saved items.

Remove items from your saved list to add more.

Save this article for later

Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime.

There’s a picture, taken from the bodycam of a Martin County Sheriff’s deputy, which tells you what you need to know about the devolution of Tiger Woods.

The holder of 15 major championships and a sporting legacy that once seemed indestructible, 50-year-old Woods is sitting on the bumper of a patrol car in the Florida sun, sweating profusely, his pupils dilated, two – allegedly – hydrocodone pills having just been removed from his pants pocket.

Across the state line in Augusta, the azaleas are blooming. From the last week of March, The Masters is still a fortnight away. Woods was supposed to be there. Instead, he was booked temporarily into the Big House, on charges of DUI, property damage, refusal to submit to a lawful urine test and careless driving after his Range Rover clipped a trailer on a two-lane road and rolled.

His breathalyser test reads 0.00; there’s no booze in this story. Only pills. Allegedly.

By late last week, Woods’ private jet had, apparently, landed in Zurich, where Woods is reportedly now a resident of one of Switzerland’s elite treatment facilities.

This was Tiger’s fourth vehicle incident in 17 years, his second DUI arrest in nine, and at least the third occasion on which prescription opioids have been confirmed or credibly suspected as being the cause of or main contributor to Woods’ impairment behind the wheel.

In 2009, Ambien and Vicodin, after the fire hydrant and the tree and the unravelling marriage. In 2017, hydrocodone, hydromorphone, alprazolam, zolpidem and THC were found in his bloodstream when Florida police found him asleep at the wheelwith two flat tyres.

In 2021, driving at almost........

© Brisbane Times