Tiger Woods will be off the road for five years.
On Wednesday morning, the 15-time major champion changed his plea in a DUI case stemming from his car accident in March and had his license suspended for five years as part of a deal to avoid jail time.
Woods was arrested in Jupiter, Fla. at the end of March on suspicion of driving under the influence after his car struck the back of a maintenance vehicle and flipped over on a one-lane road. Nobody was injured in the crash, but a short police investigation resulted in Woods failing a field sobriety test. Officers at the scene of the crash arrested Woods and charged him with DUI, and also recovered two pills inside his pocket that Woods identified as hydrocodone, a prescription opioid.
Woods initially pleaded not guilty in the DUI case, but on Wednesday morning, he reversed that plea as part of an agreement with prosecutors. As part of the plea agreement, Woods’ DUI was knocked down to two separate charges — one for reckless driving, the other a citation for careless driving. He also pled guilty to a third charge for refusing to submit to testing, which in the case of this incident was a urine test. Woods was fined for those charges, and the judge administered a five-year suspension on his driver’s license, allowing him to avoid jail time under Florida’s DUI rules.
Shortly after his arrest made the rounds, Woods released a statement announcing that he was traveling to Switzerland to seek treatment. He spent several weeks at a treatment facility there before returning home to Florida.
“I am stepping away for a period of time to seek treatment and focus on my health,” Woods’ statement read. “This is necessary in order for me to prioritize my well-being and work towards lasting recovery.”
In June, he was spotted for the first time since the arrest at the Travelers Championship, where he traveled to show support for sweeping PGA Tour changes.
At 50, Woods’ career as a professional golfer appears to be in its twilight. He has not played in a golf tournament in more than two years, since the 2024 Open Championship, and has suffered a series of injuries in his various efforts to compete professionally. Instead of a regular competitive schedule, he has devoted increasing amounts of time and effort to shaping the future of professional golf, serving on the PGA Tour’s “future competitions committee” and providing a guiding voice on new Tour commissioner Brian Rolapp’s efforts to revamp the Tour.
Outside of golf, Woods’ later career has been dominated by his indiscretions behind the wheel. In 2017, he was arrested on suspicion of DUI in Florida after officers found him asleep at the wheel of his Mercedes. In 2022, Woods was seriously injured in a car accident after he crossed over a median on a road in Los Angeles traveling at nearly two times the speed limit, requiring multiple procedures just to save his leg. And in 2026, he was arrested again on suspicion of DUI after flipping his car on a one-lane road in Florida.
