Jack Nicklaus: Tiger Woods ‘needs some help’ after DUI arrest

PALM BEACH – Jack Nicklaus is not worried about Tiger Woods, the golfer.

He is worried about Tiger Woods, the man – and he wants his friend to get the help that he needs.

Woods was arrested on March 27 in Florida and is facing charges of driving under the influence (DUI) with property damage and refusal to submit to a lawful test.

He passed a breathalyser test but refused to submit to a urinalysis. Police found two pills in his pocket that later were revealed to be hydrocodone, a strong opioid painkiller.

The arrest affidavit stated Woods was “sweating profusely,” his movements were “lethargic and slow,” his eyes were “bloodshot and glassy,” his pupils were “extremely dilated” and that during the field sobriety exercises, Woods was “limping and stumbling to the right.”

“Sometimes you get, you know, too far down the line and you just need somebody to help you,” Nicklaus told the Palm Beach Post of Woods.

“I think he probably needs some help. And we all want to help him. We’re all on his side. Obviously, I feel bad for Tiger. I like Tiger. I don’t just like him, I like him a lot.

“He’s been taking painkillers for a long time and I don’t know how much pain he’s in because I just don’t know.

“But I don’t think he’d be taking them if he didn’t need them.”

Nicklaus, 86, is an 18-time Major champion and owner of 73 PGA Tour victories.

Woods, 50, has won 15 Majors and owns 82 wins on Tour, tied for the all-time lead with Sam Snead. The World Golf Hall of Fame member’s most recent victory was at the 2019 Zozo Championship.

Woods has not played in an official event since the 2024 Open Championship. He ruptured his left Achilles tendon last spring and underwent lumbar disk replacement surgery in October.

Woods had told first responders to his rollover crash that he hoped to play in the April 9-12 Masters, per multiple reports citing body camera footage released by the Martin County, Florida Sheriff’s Office on April 2.

As responders retrieved his golf clubs from the back of his Land Rover while it was lying on its side after the accident, an investigator asked Woods, “Are you golfing in the Masters this year?”

Woods responded, “Hoping to. It depends on you all.”

His answer drew laughter from multiple people, with one voice heard saying, “It don’t depend on me.”

Just three days before the crash, Woods said he would “keep trying” to get himself ready for the Masters, which starts April 9.

Speaking after playing his first TGL match of the season, Woods said of the season’s first major, “I want to play. I love the tournament.”

Woods contends that he was looking at his phone and changing the radio station when his Land Rover clipped the back of a truck and rolled onto its side on Jupiter Island, Florida.

The release of the bodycam footage came one day after Woods was granted a request by a Florida judge to leave the United States to enter a comprehensive inpatient treatment facility as he faces misdemeanour driving under the influence charges.

Martin County Judge Darren Steele granted the motion to travel submitted by Woods’ attorney, Douglas Duncan, who cited the 50-year-old golf superstar’s need for an “intensive, highly individualized and medically integrated program” away from media and public scrutiny.

Woods released a public statement on March 31 and entered a plea of not guilty in a Florida court to charges of misdemeanour driving under the influence with property damage. REUTERS