The ‘worst case’ scenario: (what everyone is skirting around trying not to ‘say’)
Tiger had an affair.
Told his wife, Elin, about it.
They had words. She picked up a golf club and had at him with it.
He ran out to his Escalade and gunned it down the driveway, lost control and hit a fire hydrant and then his neighbor’s tree.
And, horror of horrors, he may have had a drink or ten BEFORE doing this.
THIS is what all the ‘speculation’ is about…this is what all the tabloids and the internet gossip sites really want to ‘discover’.
but I still maintain:
So what.
Only ‘injury’ was to Tiger, and I’ll bet his embarassment outshines any physical injury.
The property damage done was to PRIVATE property…he can certainly afford to pay for that, and I’m sure he will.
The neighbor called 911. What would you do if a car hit a tree in your yard in the middle of the night? Completely understandable.
Tiger isn’t talking to the cops. He has a RIGHT not to do so. Excercising those rights in this country can not be a legal reason to suspect or even to ‘dig deeper’ as one court case put it. He did provide ALL the information he was required to by law.
The government can’t automatically ‘test’ for drugs/alcohol just because someone was in an accident. In some states, and I don’t about Florida, the laws are a bit different when the incident occurs on private property. Florida tends to be pretty ‘personal freedom’ conscious in their laws, though.
Medical records are protected. They belong to the patient, not the doctor and certainly not the state.
If the authorities in Florida have probable cause, they can get a warrant and acquire the medical records. They can also, with probable cause, get a search warrant for the Woods’ home to try to find any evidence of whatever it is they feel they need to investigate.
Reality says:
If Tiger really did have an ‘affair’, it’s between him and his wife. Just because we are curious doesn’t mean there is any right for us to ‘know’. People have affairs all the time. It’s none of our business.
If he and his wife had words about it, does that surprise anyone? Couples have disagreements about lots of things. It’s none of our business.
Did she actually hit him, maybe even with a golf club? That is a ‘crime’, certainly. The reality is, though, even if she did, unless Tiger wants to press charges against her, such cases don’t get prosecuted. Apparently, it either didn’t happen, or Tiger isn’t pressing charges, so it’s none of our business.
Did Tiger ‘drink and drive’. Apparently there was nothing at the scene that made the responding emergency personel suspect it. Usually such things are dealt with at the time, not the next day. All the initial reports from the authorities stated that they were investigating this as a ‘traffic accident’.
Since there is no reason to suspect that the officers on the scene neglected thier duty, it would appear that this was just that, a single vehicle traffic accident with some minor injuries. ‘Why’ it happened is none of our business.
Tiger ‘cancelled’ his appearence at ‘his’ charity tournament this weekend. He cites his ‘injuries’. Even ‘minor injuries’ can keep you from traveling comfortably, and certainly can effect an athletes performance. Figure in tha this is a charity event and that the ‘focus’ of the event would turn to Tigers accident rather than the charity, and it’s perfectly understandable that he would cancel.
Will this ‘go away’? Eventually.
In the meantime, who really cares?
Buddy