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Tiger Woods withdraws from tournament, not talking

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-12-01 11:39

MIAMI: Tiger Woods pulled out of a golf tournament this week, the latest fall-out from a minor car accident that has left a swirl of mystery and a hint of scandal around the world's top golfer and pushed him into full damage control.

Tiger Woods withdraws from tournament, not talking

Tiger Woods walks to the 14th green during the Arnold Palmer Invitational golf tournament in Orlando in this March 12, 2008 file photo. The world number one golfer was seriously injured in a car accident on Friday, a Florida newspaper reported. The Orlando Sentinel, citing the Florida Highway Patrol, said Woods' car struck a fire hydrant and a tree in Florida's Isleworth community, near Orlando. [Agencies]

The Florida Highway Patrol said in a terse statement on Monday that it was pursuing the crash investigation but had still not been able to interview Woods, who declined to meet with investigators during the weekend.

Woods pulled out on Monday of the Chevron World Challenge in Thousand Oaks, California, a tournament he has hosted for nine years. He said he could not attend the event that starts on Thursday because of injuries suffered in the accident.

The greatest golfer of his generation and an unparalleled product pitchman whose personal fortune is estimated at $1 billion, Woods was hospitalized briefly on Friday after his Cadillac Escalade hit a fire hydrant and a tree as he left the driveway of his Windermere, Florida, home after 2 a.m.

Woods met Florida's legal requirement by providing police with his driver's license, car registration and proof of insurance, and is not obliged to volunteer medical records, video from home security cameras or anything else investigators might want, prominent Florida lawyer Roy Black said.

"Any lawyer with a brain in their head is not going to allow him to talk to the police because nothing good can come of talking to the police," said Black, who defended William Kennedy Smith, a member of America's Kennedy clan, against a rape charge, and radio host Rush Limbaugh in a drug fraud case.

Woods said in a written statement on Sunday that the accident was his fault and was "obviously embarrassing to my family and me." He called irresponsible the "many false, unfounded and malicious rumors that are currently circulating about my family and me."

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