Tiger Woods Makes Emotional First Statement Since His Accident While Forensic Experts Offer Up Reasons Why the Crash May Have Occurred
For the first time since his single-car accident last week, Tiger Woods spoke to the world on Sunday as he took to Twitter to thank the group of fellow PGA Tour players that paid tribute to him at the WGC-Workday Championship by wearing his signature red and black Sunday attire and also thanked his fans for helping him “get through this tough time.”
Sunday was also a day on which forensic experts offered up some insight into what may have caused the crash that required Woods to undergo emergency surgery for multiple leg injuries.
Numerous golfers in multiple tournaments paid tribute to Tiger Woods on Sunday by wearing red
Seemingly at the suggestion of Rory McIlroy, numerous golfers in multiple tournaments paid tribute to Tiger Woods on Sunday by wearing a red shirt and black pants, which has long been Tiger’s go-to outfit in the final round of any tourney he’s playing.
At the WGC-Workday Championship, McIlroy was joined by the likes of Tommy Fleetwood, Cameron Champ, Patrick Reed, Jason Day, Sebastian Munoz, and Tony Finau in wearing red and black. Finau even took things a step further by showing up to The Concession Golf Club in Bradenton, Florida, with his black Nike hat on backward, which is how Tiger often shows up to tournaments.
Justin Thomas and Jon Rahm joined in as well, although their shirts were a little more pink than red. Tournament winner Collin Morikawa was set to wear red and black as well but his shipment never made it as it was delayed due to weather issues. But he made sure to thank Tiger for everything he’s done in his post-tournament interview with NBC Sports.
Day, Bryson DeChambeau, and Matt Kuchar, who are all part of the Bridgestone family as Woods is, had Tiger’s name stamped on their golf balls for Sunday’s round as well.
At the PGA Tour’s opposite-field event, the Puerto Rico Championship, the entire grounds crew wore red and black in tribute, as did Woods’ longtime friend Annika Sorenstam, who was playing her first official tournament in more than a dozen years at the Gainbridge LPGA. Playing on the Champions Tour for the third time, Phil Mickelson actually went out and bought a red shirt from the store to pay tribute to his longtime rival.
Tiger Woods thanked his fellow golfers and fans in his first comments since the accident
In the days since Tiger Woods’ single-car accident, the 15-time major champion hadn’t made any comments himself as all statements and updates surrounding his situation came from his team. But that all changed on Sunday when Tiger took to Twitter to thank his fellow golfers for honoring him and his fans for supporting him.
“It is hard to explain how touching today was when I turned on the tv and saw all the red shirts. To every golfer and every fan, you are truly helping me get through this tough time.”
Tiger Woods
Forensic experts say the 82-time PGA Tour winner may have fallen asleep at the wheel
On Sunday morning, USA Today released an article in which a number of forensic car accident experts gave their opinions on Tiger Woods’ crash and the general consensus is that the 82-time PGA Tour winner was not paying attention to the road before wrecking the 6,000-pound Genesis GV80 SUV.
Jonathan Cherney, a former police detective who provides accident analysis as an expert witness in court cases and has examined the crash site in Los Angeles County, believes Woods fell asleep at the wheel while driving as Tiger’s vehicle went straight when the road he was driving on curves where the wreck occurred.
There were no skid marks on the road to indicate that Woods had applied the brakes and Cherney believes Tiger hit the brakes very late in the process, which is perhaps why he suffered so much damage to his right leg.
Rami Hashish, the principal at the National Biomechanics Institute, suggests Tiger “wasn’t paying attention at all” and agreed with Cherney that Woods’ leg injuries were likely caused by a “very delayed response.”
Felix Lee, an accident reconstruction expert at the Expert Institute, agrees with the assessments of the other two as he said “it was some kind of inattention that caused the curb strike” and not the vehicle’s speed as others have suggested.
At the time of this writing, the investigation into Tiger Woods’ crash by the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department’s is still ongoing as “traffic investigators have not made any conclusions as to the cause of the collision.”
