Tiger Woods, wife unavailable for interview

WINDERMERE, Fla. — The Florida Highway Patrol said Saturday that Tiger Woods and his wife, Elin, aren't available for an interview by state troopers and asked investigators to return Sunday to try to clear up questions about how he crashed his SUV into a neighbor's tree.

The patrol said the announcement came from Woods' agent. Troopers previously visited Woods' home Friday afternoon to speak to him and were asked then to come back Saturday.

The world's No. 1 golfer smashed his Cadillac into the tree and a fire hydrant near his $2.4 million mansion at 2:25 a.m. Friday and was briefly hospitalized, police said.

Though there still has been no information on where he was heading at that hour, plenty of details from the crash have emerged: His lips were cut, and Windermere police chief Daniel Saylor said Woods' wife, Elin Nordegren, used a golf club to smash out a back window and help Woods from the car.

The police report said alcohol was not a factor.

Meanwhile, a patrol spokeswoman said earlier Saturday that the department plans to release the recording of the 911 call on Sunday. It's unclear if it will still be released as a result of Saturday's announcement.

Saylor said his two officers found the 33-year-old Woods lying in the street with his wife, Elin, hovering over him.

"She supposedly got him out and laid him on the ground," he said. "He was in and out of consciousness when my guys got there."

Asked at a Friday evening news conference if the couple could have been arguing, Saylor said he had no knowledge of that.

The wreck came two days after the National Enquirer published a story alleging that Woods had been seeing a New York night club hostess, and that they recently were together in Melbourne, where Woods competed in the Australian Masters.

Saylor described Woods' wife as "frantic" when two officers arrived and found her kneeling over him in the street. The couple has been married five years and have two children, a 2-year-old daughter named Sam, and son Charlie who was born in February.

Woods has won 82 times around the world and 14 majors, becoming the first player of black heritage to win a major at the 1997 Masters when he was 21.

He won six times this year after missing eight months recovering from reconstructive surgery on his left knee. Even though he failed to win a major, Woods said he considered this a successful year because he did not know how his knee would respond.

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Latest Comments

The event is strange, I don't fault him for guarding his privacy and his family.

An entire week goes by before he chats with the officers, try that if you are not rich and famous.

Wonder if he was using his seat belt and why not use the OnStar system in the SUV instead of using neighbor to call ?

Guess a small animal, fox, rabbit, etc ran out in front of the suv, I don't know if any deer are inside the gated community.

The neighbor has their atty do all the talking, very smart.

james27613
December 1, 2009 6:08 p.m.