Golf: Woods unavailable for crash interview, say police
Posted: 29 November 2009 0703 hrs

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MIAMI - Tiger Woods wasn't available Saturday to be interviewed by officers trying to determine the cause of a one-car crash that left the golf superstar with facial cuts, the Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) said.

The FHP said they were informed by Woods's agent that the golfer and his wife, Elin, were not available, even though officers who had visited Woods's home on Friday had been asked to come back on Saturday.

"Troopers were asked to return tomorrow (November 29th)," a statement from the FHP said. "This is still an ongoing crash investigation."

Woods crashed his Cadillac SUV near his two million-dollar home at 2:25 am on Friday.

He was briefly hospitalized and released, suffering cuts to both lips.

The FHP has said they are investigating the incident as a traffic crash, although the celebrity news website TMZ.com reported that a dispute between Woods and his wife, former Swedish model Elin Nordegren, was at the center of the accident.

By the website's account, Nordegren confronted her husband about reports that he was having an affair with a New York club hostess.

Nordegren told police she heard the crash and then used a golf club to break the back window of the SUV to help her husband.

The FHP declined to be drawn into speculation on what their investigation into the cause of the crash -- which will include a review of the 911 emergency call -- would find.

Woods, a 14-time major winner, was scheduled to play his last tournament of the year at the Chevron World Challenge at Thousand Oaks, California, next week. He hosts the event annual to benefit his charitable foundation.

He was scheduled to hold a news conference Tuesday in California, and that schedule had not been revised as of Saturday afternoon.

According to Forbes business magazine, Woods is the first athlete to have broken through the billion-dollar earnings mark.

At age 25, he became the first man to win the US Open, the British Open, the USPGA and the Masters on a roll to make him the first simultaneous holder of all four major championship titles at the same time.

Earlier this month, Woods landed the Australian Masters but had returned home for a break prior to next week's tournament.

In addition to his Australian victory, Woods won six US PGA Tour titles this year and helped the United States win the Presidents Cup team match play title.

Although he failed to win a major, he has said he was pleased with the season which followed an eight-month layoff as he recovered from reconstructive surgery on his left knee.

The Woods have two children, Sam Alexis, born in 2007, and Charlie Axel, born earlier this year.

- AFP /ls