Tiger Woods has wrecked enough vehicles now that a major broadcast network can’t keep them straight.
During Saturday’s third-round coverage of the Texas Children’s Houston Open, NBC Sports aired imagery from Woods’ devastating 2021 Genesis GV80 rollover in Southern California while discussing his arrest the day before in Jupiter Island, Florida. Different car, different state, different crash, different year.
Lead play-by-play announcer Dan Hicks cleaned it up later in the broadcast as the final group worked the 14th hole. “Our studio inadvertently showed the incorrect picture of the car crash Tiger Woods was in,” Hicks said. “It was another previous car crash. It was not the correct one. We apologize for that.”
The Friday incident involved a Land Rover Range Rover SV, not a Genesis GV80. Woods allegedly tried to pass a work truck on a two-lane road near his home, clipped the deployed ramp of a parked flatbed, and rolled the Rover onto its side. Martin County Sheriff John Budensiek confirmed Woods was arrested at the scene on suspicion of driving under the influence of non-alcoholic substances.
He was charged with DUI with property damage and refusal to submit to a lawful urine test. This is his second DUI. No one was injured.
The 2021 crash was a different animal entirely. That one happened at high speed on a steep stretch of road in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, and left Woods with shattered bones in his legs and feet. It nearly ended his career. It nearly ended worse than that.
NBC’s mix-up is almost understandable if you squint. A rolled luxury SUV is a rolled luxury SUV from a helicopter shot. But NBC Sports isn’t staffed by untrained eyes, or at least shouldn’t be.
The gaffe landed during a broadcast that was already navigating awkward terrain. Lead analyst Kevin Kisner, who plays alongside Woods on his TGL team, offered a visibly uncomfortable reaction. “Very disturbing,” Kisner said. “He was really working hard on his game, trying to practice and get back in shape. He signed up for the U.S. Senior Open yesterday.”
Kisner searched for silver linings, noting that “nobody was injured in the incident and we can all move forward and hopefully help him get better.” The broadcast team had avoided the topic at the top of coverage before eventually wading in.
Woods is 50 years old. His body has been rebuilt by surgeons. He was reportedly eyeing the Masters and had just registered for the U.S. Senior Open. Whatever competitive runway remained just got a lot shorter and a lot more complicated.
The legal consequences alone could be significant. Florida takes second DUI offenses seriously, and the refusal to submit to testing adds another layer. His first DUI arrest came in 2017, when police found him asleep at the wheel of a Mercedes on a Florida road, impaired by a cocktail of prescription medications.
Three high-profile vehicle incidents in nine years. A broadcast network that grabbed the wrong file footage. A playing partner who couldn’t hide his discomfort on live television. The facts do their own talking here, and NBC accidentally underlined the point by proving there are now too many Tiger Woods crashes to keep track of.
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