Tiger Woods withdraws from tournament, not talking (Reuters)
November 30, 2009
* Swirl of mystery still surrounds Woods accident
* Pulls out of event he has hosted for nine years
* Declines to talk to police about incident
By Jim Loney
MIAMI, Nov 30 (Reuters) – Tiger Woods pulled out of a golftournament this week, the latest fall-out from a minor caraccident that has left a swirl of mystery and a hint of scandalaround the world’s top golfer and pushed him into full damagecontrol.
The Florida Highway Patrol said in a terse statement onMonday that it was pursuing the crash investigation but hadstill not been able to interview Woods, who declined to meetwith investigators during the weekend.
Woods pulled out on Monday of the Chevron World Challengein Thousand Oaks, California, a tournament he has hosted fornine years. He said he could not attend the event that startson Thursday because of injuries suffered in the accident.
The greatest golfer of his generation and an unparalleledproduct pitchman whose personal fortune is estimated at $1billion, Woods was hospitalized briefly on Friday after hisCadillac Escalade hit a fire hydrant and a tree as he left thedriveway of his Windermere, Florida, home after 2 a.m.
Woods met Florida’s legal requirement by providing policewith his driver’s license, car registration and proof ofinsurance, and is not obliged to volunteer medical records,video from home security cameras or anything else investigatorsmight want, prominent Florida lawyer Roy Black said.
“Any lawyer with a brain in their head is not going toallow him to talk to the police because nothing good can comeof talking to the police,” said Black, who defended WilliamKennedy Smith, a member of America’s Kennedy clan, against arape charge, and radio host Rush Limbaugh in a drug fraudcase.
Woods said in a written statement on Sunday that theaccident was his fault and was “obviously embarrassing to myfamily and me.” He called irresponsible the “many false,unfounded and malicious rumors that are currently circulatingabout my family and me.”
TABLOIDS AWASH WITH SPECULATION
Tabloid media and celebrity websites are awash withspeculation that Woods and his wife, Elin, had been arguingbefore the crash. The National Enquirer has reported that Woodshad an extra-marital relationship with a “New York City partygirl.” The woman named in that report has denied arelationship.
The Florida Highway Patrol said it had not made anycomments on Woods’ medical information, an apparent referenceto a published report that investigators were seeking a searchwarrant for the hospital where the golfer was treated to obtainhis medical records.
Under Florida law, Woods has a right to keep medicalinformation private, but Black said under certain circumstancespolice have been able to seize hospital records.
“Unfortunately, yes. That was the issue in Rush Limbaugh’scase and the court upheld the use of a search warrant to seizemedical records,” he said. “But they (police) would have toconvince a judge that there was probable cause to believe acrime had been committed.”
One of the world’s most recognizable figures, Woods haslucrative endorsement deals with companies such as Nike andAT&T. So far, signs are that companies are standing by thepopular golfer.
The chatter about the greatest golfer of his generationand, according to Forbes magazine the world’s first billionaireathlete, was fueled in part by the circumstances—why was heleaving home at 2:25 a.m.?—and in part by a hint of troublein the Woods household.
The Enquirer report said that a New York nightclub hostessRachel Uchitel, had been “telling friends about a jet-setliaison” with the golfer. Uchitel has issued a denial.
“I did not have any involvement with him,” E! News quotedUchitel as saying.
Woods’ handlers have done the right thing by keeping theirclient away from the police, Black said, citing the recent caseof U.S. television talk show host David Letterman, who twomonths ago revealed he was the target of a $2 million blackmailplot, then admitted having affairs with women on his staff.
“By reporting that blackmail attempt to the police, all hedid was guarantee that all his dirty laundry would be playedout in the news media,” Black said. “Tiger Woods is a lotsmarter, so far at least.”
But William Moran, an attorney whose practice with the NewYork office of McCarter and English includes crisis management,said Woods would have been wiser to meet with the police.
“His problem that he’s now facing is that he’s possiblyrunning the risk of turning himself from a victim into anoffender here, if the police determine that he is obstructingjustice or tampering with evidence,” Moran said.
(Additional reporting by Mark Lamport-Stokes and SteveGorman in Los Angeles and Ben Klayman in New York; Editing byFrances Kerry) ((jim.loney@thomsonreuters.com; +1 305 810 2688; ReutersMessaging: jim.loney.reuters.com@reuters.net))
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