Woods’ life in recent years has been like a roller coaster: a high-profile divorce, spinal surgery, depression and winning the majors. And now, a scary car accident.

The first billionaire athlete was involved in a serious car accident in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. Rescuers had to pull Tiger out with hydraulic shears. He was alone in the vehicle.

Woods was hospitalized after the accident. According to the athlete’s agent, Mark Steinberg, he was diagnosed with serious leg injuries. Woods, 45, will undergo emergency surgery.

Pill mix.

This isn’t the first traffic accident involving a great golfer. In 2017, the star’s scratched-up car was pulled over by police officers. When Woods was asked to step out of the car, he was found to be in an unstable state. Tests revealed a mix of pills in the player’s system, most of which were antidepressants. Immediately after the public accusations and bail, Tiger went to rehab.

It’s worth noting that during those years (2014-2017), Woods experienced serious health problems. He underwent four major spinal surgeries. To survive the pain, he constantly took strong painkillers and antidepressants. In the end this resulted in severe depression, which ended in a traffic accident near Miami.

Cheating and a $100 million divorce

By then, Woods had fallen out of the world’s top 1,000. At the same time, his lawyers were dealing with his divorce proceedings with Hélène Nordegren, with whom Woods had two children. The ex-wife revealed that the golfer regularly cheated on her with mistresses around the world. Woods admitted the allegations, paid Hélène $100 million, and lost custody of the children.

Against this backdrop, it seemed that the king of golf, whose name was known around the world, would never return to the big game. But Tiger did the nearly impossible. After a year of forced rehab, he managed to restart his career. In August, he was second at the Majors, and in September 2018, he won a major on the PGA Tour in Atlanta.

It was the American’s first success in more than five years. Gradually, Tiger reclaimed his position in the rankings and won one of the four majors of the season in Augusta in April 2019. Before that, he won the most prestigious tournaments in his sport back in 2005 (he has a total of 15 slams, more than only Jack Nicklaus – 18). Tiger was back in the top 15, and sponsors wanted to work with Woods again. Life seemed to be getting better.

HBO will explain why Woods needed 121 mistresses

This year, HBO launched a two-part documentary about Woods, which many sports fans enjoyed even more than “The Last Dance” (the Michael Jordan mini-series). The picture is aimed at a wide audience, tells about the difficult path of a golfer to the top, his difficult relationship with his father, sex addiction, the test of big money, numerous groupies.

In all, the creators took 250 exclusive interviews, but Woods himself and his ex-wife Helen refused to participate in the project. The film criticized and agent player Mark Steinberg, calling the HBO movie an attempt to desecrate the name of one of the greatest athletes in the world. Woods himself refrained from commenting.

On Tuesday, Tiger was involved in a serious car accident. We want to believe that the legend will get out of this story and still please his fans with a bright game.

It is worth noting that besides Woods, only three athletes have made $1 billion during their careers. According to Forbes, they are Michael Jordan, Floyd Mayweather and Cristiano Ronaldo. Roger Federer is very close to that figure.

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In the ‘noughties, every housewife knew Woods’ name. His successes were known not only to those who can’t tell a birdie from a par and a bunker from a green, but even to those who have little idea what golf clubs look like, how many there are, and how they differ.

These are all details for professionals, or at least amateurs of the sport’s most aristocratic (according to adherents). But Woods was so much in everyday life that it was hard not to notice him. He looked at us from the covers of magazines, glossy and not so glossy, smiled from the TV screen during commercials, his victories were covered in sports news where golf was not too welcome, he produced his own clothes and a named video game. And he also regularly topped the list of richest athletes – his earnings passed a billion dollars. Ten years later, Woods has been forgotten for a while.

SLEEPING BEAUTY.

Eldrick Tont Wood, the athlete’s full name, came to everyone’s attention in late May. Then the press reported that the 14-time major winner was arrested for drunken driving and spent the night in the police station. The hot facts were immediately scattered over the pages of newspapers and websites, where they were savored by fans of sensationalism.

Like the old anecdote about Rabinovich winning a million dollars at the lottery, not all of the information turned out to be true. Details emerged a little later, and were not as scandalous. As it turned out, about three o’clock in the morning, highway patrol in Palm Beach, Florida, noticed a Mercedes standing with its engine running right on the road. Inside, officers found Woods asleep, whose behavior seemed strange – he was lethargic and unable to speak clearly. Naturally, with such symptoms the athlete was immediately taken to the proper place.

Woods himself denied that he was drunk, and for good reason – there was no alcohol in his blood. But the 41-year-old golfer had to confess to other sins. As it turned out, he took medications, prescribed by a doctor, including painkillers and sleeping pills. And he overdid it and fell asleep at the wheel. After that, he had to start a rehabilitation program. Among other things, the charge of driving under the influence of medication was reduced to just dangerous driving, which implies much less severe sanctions. This story is not over yet.

BEST OF THE BEST

Those who think Woods is solely a media character are wrong. Nor are those who are convinced that Tiger only became popular because of political correctness, a nice story about breaking stereotypes — in short, “because he’s black.” The son of a Vietnam War veteran and a girl from Southeast Asia is indeed a very talented golfer, maybe even a genius. You can’t win 14 majors and a handful of other titles on media appeal alone, Anna Kournikova can attest. Woods, who has been holding the stick since he was two years old, has had an incredible career, starting as a kid, continuing through college and amateur levels.

After turning pro at 18, he was ranked number one in the world in less than a year and set a record for being number one on the planet from August 1999 to September 2004 and from June 2005 to October 2010. Picked Pro Player of the Year 11 times. Became the youngest ever grand slam golfer, second only to Jack Nicklaus in the number of majors won. Even now, with his major successes far behind him, he is among the world’s highest-paid athletes – Woods earned $37 million in 2016.

So why then has the legendary player become a household name in recent years? John McEnroe, known for his sharp tongue, commenting on Novak Djokovic’s recent career slumps, quipped: “The first thing that comes to mind is Tiger Woods.” How so?

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Alvaro Quiroz hit a home run in the fourth round to win the tournament in Dubai which attracted all the world’s top golfers. The Spaniard was one stroke ahead of Denmark’s Anders Hansen and South Africa’s James Kingston in the final scorecard.

Before the final day of competition, Quiroz shared a provisional fourth place with six other golfers, including Tiger Woods, with a -7. Quiros began his final round with a tee shot on the second hole and two birdies on the third and fifth, but grabbed a triple bogey on the seventh as his ball got stuck in a tree. Could victory be forgotten? No, it wasn’t! The decisive moment for the Spaniard came on the 161-yard 11th hole, which is where he registered the ice – he overcame the par-3 hole with a single stroke. “It was a perfect shot,” the golfer said at the end of the event. – It happens once a year.”

But even after his hole-in-one, Quiros was still losing to Hansen, who entered the final round as one of the leaders. The Spaniard birdied the 16th hole and par-bogeyed the rest two holes to pull ahead of the Norwegian who was struggling to recover from an upset bogey on the 15th hole. To add, both Kingston and Hansen had a chance to advance to the playoffs, but the former missed from 30 feet and the latter erred from 40.

Quiros, 28, won his fifth European Tour title and first of the 2011 season. What’s more, with this victory, the 28-year-old Spaniard topped the Race to Dubai, the official European Tour standings. He moved up in the world rankings from 37th to 21st, the highest ranking of his career.

“I’m very proud of myself,” the 28-year-old golfer said. – I think I was able to handle difficult situations well. I have to admit that the ice on the 11th hole was probably the most exciting moment of my career. It’s like the last piece of birthday cake. It gave me a chance to win the tournament.”

Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy, who had led for the first three days of the tournament, made five bogeys on Sunday with three birdies, posted a +2 and ended up just tenth.

Tiger Woods was just two strokes behind the leader with seven holes to go, but he sent his ball into the lake on the 18th, got a double bogey and ended up being one of those to share 20th place. The great American hasn’t known a tournament win in 15 months.

World ranking leader Lee Westwood could also have hoped for a high score, but after conceding a pair of three strokes on the last two holes (his ball got stuck in a tree on the 17th just like Quiros and went into the lake on the 18th just like Woods), the Englishman slipped to 15th place.

Martin Kaymer performed even worse. The 26-year-old German, who had a chance to top the world rankings if he had placed first or second in Dubai, ended up finishing only 31st.

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The Dubai Desert Classic, which begins in Dubai on Thursday, brings together golfers ranked first through third in the world standings. Organizers made a gift to all golf fans and matched Lee Westwood, Martin Kaymer and Tiger Woods against each other in rounds one and two.

All three have had success on the Emirates Golf Club course before – Woods won the tournament twice (in the 2006 and 2008 seasons), Westwood was second last year, and Kaymer was second in 2008, one stroke behind Woods, and fourth 12 months ago.

All three were happy with the current draw.

Martin Kaymer, for example, has never played the course with Woods, the man who once inspired him to take up golf.

“I’ve wanted to play alongside Tiger ever since I saw him win the U.S. Masters on TV in ’97,” the German admitted. – It was one of the first tournaments I watched. I’ve been golfing since I was 15, and to see the best golfer in the world win a tournament like that was the best source of inspiration and motivation.

“Sure, I’ve met Woods before, but what it’s like to play alongside him – I have no idea. It must be very interesting,” Kaymer added. – For the tournament as a whole, it’s just great to have three world ranking leaders playing together. Personally, I’m looking forward to it.”

“I don’t think we’re going to see it as a rivalry,” the world number two noted. – We’re going out there to have fun, play good golf and show people that we’re doing our job with love and passion. It’s not about being the winner or the loser in the end. It’s about competing against each other and having fun.”

Woods himself also likes the prospect of playing alongside Westwood and Kaymer.

“It should be fun,” the American told reporters. – The last time I played in a group of three of the best golfers in the world was at the U.S. Open in 2008. It was me, Phil Mickelson and Adam Scott. We had a lot of fun playing.”

While Woods, 26, had never met the 26-year-old Kaymer before, he had played with the 37-year-old Westwood quite often. “We always had a great time with Lee,” Tiger recalled. – He and I are on tour about the same amount of time. We ended up in the same group several times at the majors, and I always got to play well next to him.”

“It’s a fantastic draw for the tournament and for the people who will be watching,” Westwood stressed, for his part. – That’s what viewers like. Other tournaments where the ranking leaders play each other – the PGA Championship, for example – always turn out to be exciting.”

“The fact that a player like Tiger, who has dominated world golf for the last 15 years, and the number one and number two world rankings play each other in the same group is great for the European Tour,” the Englishman added.

Curiously, the three world ranking leaders will not play each other at the majors or the World Championships, but at an ordinary European Tour tournament for the first time in 17 years.

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