Tiger Woods changed his DUI plea in a Florida court on Wednesday, 2 September 2026, accepting reduced charges of reckless driving and careless driving in a negotiated agreement with prosecutors.
The 50-year-old golfer appeared at Martin County circuit court in Stuart, Florida, for a plea conference, as reported by ABC News.
Prosecutors amended the driving under the influence charge to reckless driving as a second offence, and reduced the refusal-to-test count to a careless driving citation.
What did the Tiger Woods DUI plea change involve?
Woods had pleaded not guilty to driving under the influence with property damage and to refusing a lawful urine test.
Wednesday’s hearing did not produce a trial verdict. He entered a plea to the two lesser charges under a negotiated agreement, so no DUI conviction was recorded.
The judge imposed a five-year suspension of his driver’s licence on both charges, to run at the same time rather than one after the other. Woods, who was accompanied in court by his girlfriend Vanessa Trump, the former wife of Donald Trump Jr, was addressed directly from the bench.
“There are no exceptions. If you were to drive for any reason at all, you would go immediately back to jail,” the judge said, adding that the suspension “is for the safety of the public.”
What led to the Tiger Woods DUI charge?
The case stemmed from a rollover crash on Jupiter Island on Friday, 27 March 2026.
Woods was attempting to pass a truck on a beachside residential road with a 30 mph limit when his Land Rover clipped the back of the trailer and tipped onto its side. Nobody was injured.
A breathalyser test showed no alcohol in his system, and the crash caused $5 000 in damage to the truck. Woods refused a urine test and deputies found two hydrocodone pills in his pocket.
The arrest report described him as “sweating profusely”, with bloodshot eyes and “extremely dilated” pupils.
He told a deputy he had been looking at his phone and changing the radio station when he hit the truck, and told police he had taken “a few” prescription medications.
Court records show he later travelled outside the United States for inpatient treatment.
What does the Tiger Woods DUI plea change mean now?
The March crash was the fourth of Woods’ career away from the course. He was arrested on a separate DUI charge in 2017 after Florida police found him asleep behind the wheel, and later said a bad mix of painkillers was responsible.
He survived a rollover outside Los Angeles in 2021 that left his right leg so badly damaged that doctors reportedly considered amputation, and in 2009 his SUV struck a fire hydrant and a tree near his Orlando home.
Woods has not returned to tournament play since the crash and no comeback date has been confirmed. His most recent public appearance came on Tuesday, 23 June 2026, when he introduced the PGA Tour’s revamped 2028 schedule as chairman of its Future Competition Committee and took no questions.
The licence suspension is now in force.
