Tiger Woods Pleads Not Guilty to DUI Charge Through His Attorneys

Fifteen-time major champion Tiger Woods entered a plea of not guilty Tuesday to charges of misdemeanor DUI with property damage and refusal to submit to a lawful test.

Attorney Douglas Duncan of West Palm Beach, Florida, submitted Woods' not guilty plea and demand for a jury trial in Martin County Circuit Court in Stuart, Florida. Woods also waived his arraignment hearing, which had been scheduled for April 23. The waiver means Woods is not required to appear in court for the initial hearing, a routine procedural step that keeps defendants out of the courtroom during the early stages of a case while their legal team engages the process on their behalf.

Woods' eyes were bloodshot and glassy, his pupils dilated, and he had hydrocodone pills in his pocket when deputies interviewed him at the scene of the crash. His movements were slow and lethargic, and he was sweating as he talked to deputies, according to an incident report released by the Martin County Sheriff's Office. Deputies found two white pills, identified as the opioid hydrocodone, in his pocket.

After Woods was arrested, he was transported to the Cleveland Clinic Martin South ER, but he refused all medical treatment. He was transported back to the Martin County Jail, where he was held until he was released on $1,000 bond later Friday night. The charges filed following the March 27 crash in Hobe Sound, Florida, are two in number, the first being DUI with property damage, stemming from a collision between Woods' black Range Rover and a pickup truck that had slowed to turn into a driveway.

The choice of Duncan is significant. Woods entered a not guilty plea in his latest DUI case and rehired attorney Douglas Duncan, the same lawyer who represented him in his 2017 DUI arrest. Duncan represented Woods in that 2017 case in which the golfer was arrested on suspicion of DUI after police officers found him asleep at the wheel in his running car, which had two flat tires and damage on the front and rear bumpers. Woods said he had taken a bad mix of painkillers. Under Duncan's representation, Woods ultimately pleaded guilty to the reduced charge of reckless driving, entered a DUI diversion program, served 12 months of probation, and completed 50 hours of community service. The DUI charge itself did not stick.

A not guilty plea at this stage carries no admission of guilt and is standard practice in criminal proceedings, preserving the defendant's full range of legal options while the case moves toward either a negotiated resolution or trial. Woods is now facing two charges: DUI with property damage and refusal to submit to a lawful test. The refusal charge is notable because it eliminates blood-alcohol or drug concentration evidence from the prosecution's case, though deputies' field observations and the hydrocodone found on his person remain part of the record.

Woods has played in 11 tournaments since his 2021 rollover crash but finished only four, and it is not clear whether he will play in next month's Masters Tournament. After a TGL indoor golf league match last week, Woods said he was "trying" to return to competitive golf, but his "body doesn't recover like when I was 24/25." "I've had a couple bad injuries here in the past year," Woods told reporters after the match.

With the arraignment waived and a jury trial demanded, the case now moves into the pretrial phase in Martin County Circuit Court, where negotiations over charges and potential diversion options will shape what comes next for one of golf's most scrutinized figures.