Tiger Woods’s license been suspended for a period of five years after he entered a no contest plea to reckless driving in Florida on Wednesday (Sept. 2).
Notably, this marks a reduction in the severity of what Woods was initially charged with in the March crash at the center of Wednesday’s hearing: driving under the influence. The golf champ, as part of a deal, also pleaded no contest to refusing to submit to a lawful test. In addition to the five-year license suspension, Woods has been fined $1,500. He will not serve time for the crash.
Thomas Bakkedahl, State Attorney for Florida's 19th Judicial Circuit, followed up Wednesday’s hearing with a decidedly impassioned (and rare, for him) press conference during which he detailed how this plea deal came to be.
“I would rather be just about anywhere in the world than here today in front of you,” Bakkedahl remarked at one point in the presser, seen in full above.
The Woods incident, Bakkedahl argued, marked a “particularly difficult DUI case to prove” for several reasons.
“Our ace in the hole was he refused to provide a urine sample, which is a crime in the state of Florida,” Bakkedahl said of how he and his team ultimately opted to proceed in the case.
This incident isn’t the first time Woods has faced a DUI-related controversy, as he was previously arrested under similar circumstances back in 2017. His latest arrest was met with calls for humanity, including from friend Whoopi Goldberg, who said she doesn’t like “kicking a man when he’s down.”
