Tiger Woods pleaded no contest Wednesday to a reckless driving charge months after a rollover crash near his home in Jupiter, Fla. He was initially charged with driving under the influence in the March incident.
Woods, 50, agreed to the lesser charge at a hearing in a Martin County court where the judge ordered a five-year suspension of his driving licence and a $1,500 fine.
The golfer said little during the hearing and beforehand sat at the defence table, looking back at the courtroom gallery.
He departed the courthouse alongside his girlfriend, Vanessa Trump, President Donald Trump’s former daughter-in-law and the mother of five of his grandchildren.
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She sat behind him during the hearing. Woods left the courthouse without addressing reporters.
He also pleaded no contest to refusing to submit to testing, according to court documents, The Associated Press reported.
A no-contest plea is not an admission of guilt, but it means the accused will offer no defence. The plea is treated as a conviction in the criminal justice system.
Woods was arrested in March on suspicion of driving under the influence of an unknown substance. Nobody was injured in the crash.
At the time of the incident, investigators described the golf star as being lethargic at the scene after crawling out of the passenger side of his rolled-over Land Rover.
Woods did a breathalyzer test at the scene, which came back negative, but he refused to give a urine sample.
Authorities charged him with driving under the influence with property damage and refusal to submit to a lawful test.
He had pleaded not guilty to the original DUI charge.
The golfer was previously injured in a 2021 crash in Rolling Hills Estates in Southern California.
He was driving at twice the speed limit in a 45-mile-per-hour (74 kilometres per hour) zone when he lost control of his SUV and struck a tree, flipping the car onto its side.
Woods seriously injured his right leg in that crash and underwent multiple surgeries.
The golf star has played 11 tournaments since that 2021 crash, not finishing within 16 shots of the winner on any of the four occasions he completed 72 holes.
He was also arrested on a DUI charge in 2017 when South Florida police found him asleep behind the wheel of his car, which was parked awkwardly with damage to the driver’s side. Woods said he had taken a bad mix of painkillers. He later pleaded guilty to reckless driving.
— with files from the Associated Press
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