It will be a long time before golf legend Tiger Woods is legally allowed to drive again after his latest DUI-related case was resolved on Wednesday.
Woods had his driver’s license suspended for five years following a plea of no contest to a reduced charge of reckless driving and refusal to submit to a lawful test, ESPN reported.
Woods arrived at the Martin County Courthouse in Florida Wednesday morning to change his initial plea of not guilty in the case alongside girlfriend Vanessa Trump, the former daughter-in-law of president Donald Trump, and his attorney Doug Duncan.
Woods was also found guilty of careless driving, a moving violation, and ordered to pay $1,500 in fines.
Martin County Judge Darren Steele gave Woods a stern warning about his now-revoked driving privileges.
“There are no exceptions,” Steele said. “If you were to drive for any reason at all, you would go immediately back to jail.”
Some social media users thought the penalty was not stiff enough given Woods’ driving history.
“This dude should never drive again!” X user @MattRyanStan wrote about the golfer’s punishment.
The case began when the 50-year-old Woods was initially arrested on suspicion of DUI on March 27, 2026. The 15-time golf major champion flipped his SUV on its side after crashing into a trailer that was being hauled by another driver’s truck.
While Woods refused a urine test at the scene, police found two hydrocodone pills in his pocket at the time of his arrest. Bodycam footage later released showed that Woods appeared to step away to make a phone call after that crash, and he later told a deputy that he had been talking with the president, referring to Donald Trump.
Vanessa Trump was married to the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., from 2005-2018, and the couple shares five children together. Woods has two children from a previous marriage with ex-wife Elin Nordegren.
The March arrest was the second time Woods was taken into custody under the suspicion of a DUI. In 2017, he was arrested after cops found him asleep behind the wheel of a running car; Woods claimed it was the result of taking a bad mix of painkillers.
In the 2017 case, Woods eventually pleaded guilty to reckless driving, entered a diversion program, and checked into a treatment facility to try and help with his abuse of prescription drugs.
Woods was also involved in a single-car crash in 2021 that resulted in a serious leg injury, although that accident did not result in charges being filed. The injury was so bad that doctors considered amputating his leg, and Woods remained in the hospital for three weeks following surgery that fortunately saved his limb.
Perhaps his most infamous car accident came in 2009, though, when Woods crashed his Cadillac outside his home in Florida. The crash came after Nordegren smashed his car windows with a golf club after she confronted him about rumored infidelity during their marriage.
In the aftermath, dozens of women came forward to allege that Woods had an affair with them while he was married to Nordegren. The massive scandal eventually led to the golfer entering rehab and badly damaged his public reputation.
While Woods still currently has a net worth in excess of $1 billion, according to Forbes, and other factors like injuries played a role, the fallout from the 2009 scandal undoubtedly impacted the trajectory of his golf career; Woods never regained the level of dominance on the PGA Tour that launched him into superstardom.
