{"id":372131,"date":"2026-03-29T23:56:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T23:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/372131\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T23:56:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T23:56:14","slug":"tiger-woodss-latest-brush-with-law-leaves-questions-as-to-why-golf-is-so-beholden-to-him-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/372131\/","title":{"rendered":"Tiger Woods\u2019s latest brush with law leaves questions as to why golf is so beholden to him \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is a scene that has become more extraordinary with the passing of time. Plenty of sportspeople have been guilty of or admitted to extramarital capers. Only Tiger Woods<\/a> appeared live on television, in front of a handpicked audience, to deliver a 14-minute mea culpa on his transgressions.<\/p>\n

American golf executives in their perfectly-ironed slacks stood in sombre mood as Woods laid bare his \u201cpersonal sins\u201d. The venue, hilariously, was the home of the PGA Tour<\/a>. Woods had no need to go into tawdry detail about his antics; the tabloid media had done that for him. \u201cI convinced myself that normal rules didn\u2019t apply,\u201d said Woods. Sixteen years on from that speech, it is worth pondering whether much has changed.<\/p>\n

Two episodes over the past week have exposed the new, grim normal for Woods. TGL has been a welcome and fun addition to Woods\u2019s sport as an indoor simulator experience that the world\u2019s leading players seem to enjoy. As Woods appeared \u2013 sweating, face bloated \u2013 on Tuesday night\u2019s staging of the golf league, it was astonishingly billed as a Masters<\/a> test run. One of the greatest golfers of all time, who would have disregarded indoor golf as a pointless gimmick when in his pomp, was supposedly preparing for the rigours of Augusta National by whacking balls into a giant screen. The coverage was absurd.<\/p>\n

Woods was typically vague when asked whether teeing up at the Masters on Thursday week was a viable option. The 50-year-old has always had a weird fascination with keeping everyone guessing even when, at this point, it appears little more than a game to keep sponsors of a mind to write cheques. Woods will never formally retire; rather he will fade towards competitive irrelevance. July 2024 marks the last time he teed up in serious competition. You cannot drop in and out of elite golf.<\/p>\n

By Friday evening, matters had turned more serious for Woods. He spent eight hours in jail after his arrest on suspicion of driving under the influence<\/a>. Woods refused to give a urine sample to police officers who believed he was impaired when rolling his Land Rover on to its side. The poor driver of a pressure cleaner truck, merely trying to go about his daily business on sleepy Jupiter Island, was clipped by Woods as he tried to overtake. The local sheriff said Woods was travelling at \u201chigh speed\u201d before the crash. Woods is yet to comment on the situation.<\/p>\n

\"FansFans wearing shirts in support of Tiger Woods during the third round of the the 2026 Houston Open on Saturday. Photograph: Mike Mulholland\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

The 15-times major winner\u2019s latest brush with the law should leave us questioning why golf remains so beholden to him. The PGA of America, for a second time, is desperate for Woods to captain the US Ryder Cup<\/a> team. The PGA Tour has placed Woods front and centre not only of its board but as the chairman of a committee given the specific remit of reshaping its schedule. Woods\u2019s desire to remain relevant in his sport is understandable \u2013 bluntly, he has little else to do \u2013 but a glance at his behavioural pattern raises questions about the validity of that.<\/p>\n

In November 2009, as his personal life capitulated around him, Woods careered into a fire hydrant outside his home in Florida. Eight years later police found Woods slumped over the steering wheel of his car, again in Florida. A toxicology report revealed he had five different medications in his system. He completed a clinic course to handle his use of tablets and a sleep disorder. In February 2021, Woods cheated death after a serious crash in Los Angeles. \u201cThat\u2019s all been answered, it\u2019s in the police report,\u201d said Woods when pressed on what precisely happened. Gone was the expansive, remorseful Woods of 2010. He was never charged but nor was there any adequate explanation. Woods risked not only his own health but that of others.<\/p>\n

Woods drew eyeballs to and interest in golf, which fuelled a boom, including in prize funds. The post-Tiger world scares the sport\u2019s office bearers. Connecting the Woods bailed by the Martin county sheriff\u2019s office with one supposedly knee deep in the minutiae of the PGA Tour is impossible. Woods has no credentials whatsoever to captain the US in the Ryder Cup \u2013 a ferociously individual sportsman, he toiled in the event when a player \u2013 and his dithering over the role is embarrassing. Simply because he is Tiger Woods, once unmatchable with club in hand, he is given licence to call the shots. Normal rules once again do not apply.<\/p>\n

Sportspeople who adopt this approach will always find themselves on shaky ground. Woods believed he was invisible and infallible when meeting waitresses for a touch of extracurricular. He presumably did again when flying along Beach Road on Friday afternoon. It has taken the long arm of the law to expose Woods\u2019s flaws.<\/p>\n

It should be possible to feel sympathy for Woods\u2019s plight while pointing out there is no need for an athlete of this standing to find himself in such a pickle. It says little for those around him \u2013 yes, men and umbrella holders \u2013 that Woods\u2019s status is fading in such a depressing manner. They are not the only ones who should be reassessing their relationship with a troubled idol. \u2013 Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is a scene that has become more extraordinary with the passing of time. Plenty of sportspeople have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":372132,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,99440,112,28962],"class_list":{"0":"post-372131","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-masters","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-tiger-woods"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}