{"id":562107,"date":"2026-04-03T11:57:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T11:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/562107\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T11:57:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T11:57:10","slug":"nick-faldo-blasts-weak-pga-and-says-tiger-woods-must-be-held-accountable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/562107\/","title":{"rendered":"Nick Faldo blasts \u2018weak\u2019 PGA and says Tiger Woods must be held accountable"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sir Nick Faldo believes Tiger Woods must be held accountable for his actions as he dubbed the PGA Tour response to the golf icon\u2019s latest problems as \u201cweak\u201d and remarked: \u201cWe\u2019re not meant to be on the street with two pills in our pocket.\u201d<\/p>\n

Woods passed a breathalyser test after rolling his car in Florida on Friday last week and has pleaded not guilty to charges including driving under the influence and refusing to provide a urine sample. He has since announced he is stepping away from golf to receive treatment, presumably for his use of painkillers. A police report said he had two pills of a semi-synthetic opioid at the scene.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Faldo, recuperating from heart surgery, said: \u201cI feel sorry for Tiger because he\u2019s living\u00a0in 24-7 pain. I asked him [about] that years ago, even before the LA accident [in 2021 when he broke his leg in high-speed car crash], but it\u2019s all been self-inflicted.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"SanfordFaldo questioned whether Woods\u2019s status had allowed him to avoid accountability Getty<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s one side that\u2019s like, \u2018let\u2019s care for Tiger\u2019 [but] then there\u2019s got to be a responsibility and accountability side as well. This is a serious thing he\u2019s done, you know. The PGA Tour statement was so predictably weak, how they showed that the Tour will look after him, as they always have done, and then you\u2019ve got Jack [Nicklaus] saying it\u2019s tarnished the entire sport. You\u2019ve got your opposites but there has to be some accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n

Faldo\u2019s words came as footage emerged of the crash<\/a> from the Martin County Sheriff\u2019s Office. In it Woods, 50, is seen kneeling next to the road. He tells an officer: \u201cI looked down at my phone and all of a sudden \u2014 boom.\u201d<\/p>\n

The video, released on CNN affiliate WBPF, also shows an officer saying: \u201cI do believe your normal faculties are impaired, OK? And you\u2019re under an unknown substance, so at this time you are under arrest for DUI.\u201d Woods denies having been under the influence of drugs.<\/p>\n

\"TigerImage of Woods from police body camera video released by the Martin County Sheriff\u2019s Officemartin county sheriff\u2019s offic\/AP<\/p>\n

The PGA Tour on Wednesday pledged its support to Woods in a statement. \u201cTiger Woods is a legend of our sport whose impact extends far beyond his achievements on the course. But above all else, Tiger is a person, and our focus is on his health and well-being. Tiger continues to have our full support as he takes this important step.\u201d<\/p>\n

Faldo, 68, said: \u201cThe bottom line is I really think that something should be done a little bit more serious than waving him off to a tropical island and saying \u2018Welcome back\u2019 in three or four months.\u201d<\/p>\n

As well as the 2021 crash in which he nearly lost a leg, Woods was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence in 2017 when found asleep at the wheel of his stationary Mercedes with the engine running. A toxicology report found opioids in his system but prosecutors dropped the DUI charge in exchange for him pleading guilty to reckless driving. He was fined and told to enter the country\u2019s drug treatment programme.<\/p>\n

Referencing that other charge, Faldo said: \u201cIf you were done for DUI a couple of times in your business, what would happen to you? I got a feeling, as I said, if he disappears and comes back in a couple of months, everything will carry on as normal, and I\u2019m not sure if that\u2019s right, not a good message to the kids of today.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also questioned the role Woods has, both in terms of being the focus of\u00a0attention for his sparse playing appearances and in terms of shaping the future of the sport for the PGA Tour.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s finished nine tournaments in the last five years, and yet they think that he\u2019s the future on the golf course and the future in the decision making,\u201d Faldo said. \u201cI don\u2019t know what I\u2019d ask the official bodies to decide, but you would have thought in a normal walk of life there is some accountability for doing that, isn\u2019t there? I guess he\u2019s always been a special case, because of who he is and what he\u2019s done, so I suppose he\u2019s avoided that accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n

The PGA has been approached for comment.<\/p>\n

Mickelson withdraws from Masters over family health issue<\/p>\n

Phil Mickelson has pulled out of next weekend\u2019s Masters and will take an \u201cextended period\u201d out of the game due to a family health issue. <\/p>\n

The three-times winner at Augusta had been due to tee off at this year\u2019s edition but announced his withdrawal from next weekend\u2019s event on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, I will not play in the Masters Tournament next week and will be out for an extended period of time as my family continues to navigate a personal health matter,\u201d the 55-year-old said. \u201cI have great respect for Augusta National Golf Club and it is definitely the most special week of the year. I wish everyone the best of luck and will be watching.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u25cf Watch\u00a0more Masters live coverage than ever before exclusively on\u00a0Sky\u00a0Sports and Now from Thursday April\u00a09<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sir Nick Faldo believes Tiger Woods must be held accountable for his actions as he dubbed the PGA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":562108,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":["post-562107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=562107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562107\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/562108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=562107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=562107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=562107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}