Woods, one of the highest paid sports professionals in history, was released on his own recognizance on Monday, after a traffic stop just eight miles from his home found him asleep at the wheel of his 2015 Mercedes while the motor ran and the right indicator light flashed. Subsequent sobriety tests showed him to be intoxicated, leading to his arrest in Palm Beach County, Florida.
Now, new details have have emerged, revealing that there was no trace of alcohol in his system. Instead, the intoxication seems to have come from the medications prescribed to Woods to manage pain related to his four back surgeries over the past two years.
Updates to Wood's police report document a potent cocktail of pharmaceuticals prescribed to the sports pro, including the painkiller Vicodin and several anti-inflammatory drugs, among them Solarex, Torix and Vioxx. The report noted that Vioxx had not been consumed by the star this year.
The report added that during the traffic stop Woods had extremely "slow and slurred speech," and although he was fully cooperative, officers found him to be "very droopy, extremely sleepy, hard to keep eyes open, hard to walk," according to the Associated Press.
Woods, a California native now living in the pricey Jupiter Island community in Florida in a 10,000 square-foot house, had another back surgery last month and has been known to use various prescribed drugs, including Ambien, as reported by TMZ.
In 2009, Woods was involved in a high-profile divorce after he was injured in a minor car accident in his driveway during an altercation with his then-wife, Elin Nordegren, due to infidelities he publicly admitted to.
The golfer acknowledged that doctor-prescribed pharmaceuticals were involved in that incident, and police did not make an arrest at the time. The glimpse into Wood's personal life turned into a tabloid scandal as a parade of mistresses came forward to talk about their time with the golfer.
Just last week Woods stated on his web site that he intended to return to professional golf after his back surgery.
"It's just a matter of not screwing up and letting [the spinal cord] fuse," Woods wrote at the time. "I'm walking and doing my exercises, and taking my kids to and from school. All I can do is take it day by day. There's no hurry."
The celebrated golf legend is due in court in July.
