Court Filings Indicate Golf Icon Tiger Woods Plans Plea Alteration In Florida Crash

Golf legend Tiger Woods plans to change his not guilty plea in a driving under the influence (DUI) case stemming from a rollover crash in Florida earlier this year, according to court documents filed on Tuesday. Woods is expected in court Wednesday morning for a plea conference hearing, according to a notice of the hearing posted the previous day. No additional details about the nature of the plea change were released, and it remains unclear whether Woods has reached a formal agreement with prosecutors ahead of the hearing.

The case stems from an incident in March, when Woods's Land Rover clipped a truck on a beachside residential road on Jupiter Island, causing his vehicle to roll onto its side. According to an incident report, Woods was travelling at high speed on a road with a 30 mph (roughly 50 kph) speed limit at the time of the collision, which caused approximately $5,000 in damage to the truck involved. Woods managed to crawl out of his vehicle without sustaining any injuries and told a responding deputy that he had been looking down at his phone and changing the radio station when he struck the truck.

Woods was subsequently arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence, and he later pleaded not guilty to the charge in Martin County circuit court, located just north of Palm Beach County. Court records indicate he also faced related charges connected to the crash, including refusal to submit to testing, and his legal team filed the not guilty plea and requested a jury trial on his behalf shortly after the incident.

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In the weeks following the crash, Woods said he intended to step away from the public eye to pursue recovery treatment, and court records have since indicated he travelled outside the United States for inpatient care. The plea conference hearing had originally been scheduled for later in the month before being moved up, according to court filings, though the reasons for the change were not disclosed. This is not the first time Woods, a 15-time major champion, has faced legal proceedings tied to a DUI arrest.

In 2017, he was arrested in Jupiter, Florida, after being found asleep at the wheel of his vehicle, with a subsequent toxicology report showing a combination of pain, anxiety and sleep medications, along with THC, in his system at the time. He later pleaded guilty to reckless driving as part of a plea agreement that required him to complete a first-offender DUI program. Woods has also endured a series of serious physical setbacks over the years, including a February 2021 single-vehicle crash outside Los Angeles that left him with severe fractures to his lower right leg and required emergency surgery, in addition to years of injury-related absences from competitive golf. Despite those setbacks, Woods made a brief return to competition earlier this year, just days before the crash that led to his current legal proceedings in Martin County.

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