A LONG ROAD AHEAD

Months of recovery await Tiger Woods after his catastrophic car crash – and his loved ones are worried

- DENNIS CAVERNELIS

THE greatest golfer of his generation. The first athlete to become a billionaire. One of the finest sportsmen in 100 years. The accolades go on and on.

And they ’re well deserved. You don’t have to be a fan of golf to know that Tiger Woods has something exceptional – an ability to shut out the noise, the crowds and the pressure and focus in an almost superhuman way, striking the ball with such precision and prescience it’s put him in a class of his own. The fact he was a black man in an otherwise overwhelmingly white sport made him an icon of diversity, a symbol of black excellence and a hero to millions.

Yet the life of Tiger Woods is as tragic as it is triumphant. Affairs, divorce, addiction, crippling injury – and, of course, car crashes.

The latest chapter in his complex story recently played itself out on a stretch of road in broad daylight. Unlike before, substance abuse isn’t believed to have played a role.

Investigations are still ongoing but the stories are swirling: one eyewitness says he saw the golfer leaving the hotel where he was staying and he seemed agitated and impatient as another vehicle was blocking his way. He “took off too fast” in a loaned luxury Genesis SUV and a short while later hurtled off the road near Rancho Palos Verde, a wealthy suburb in Los Angeles. The car hit the kerb, then a tree and flipped over several times.

The damage to the car was catastrophic. Authorities had to cut Woods out of the wreckage. If he hadn’t been wearing a seatbelt it’s unlikely he would’ve survived.