Tiger Woods may have conquered golf courses around the world, but his next driving restriction could be coming from somewhere nobody saw on the scorecard: the golf cart.
The 15-time major champion agreed Wednesday to a five-year suspension of his Florida driver’s license after pleading no contest to a reduced reckless-driving charge stemming from his March rollover crash. The deal allows Woods to avoid jail time, but the judge delivered a blunt warning: there would be no exceptions to the driving ban.
Naturally, that raised one very important question for the golf world: Can Tiger Woods still drive a golf cart?
The question came up after the court hearing, and even State Attorney Thomas Bakkedahl initially wasn’t sure. He noted that driving a golf cart while impaired on public roads is prohibited, but said officials would need to determine whether Woods could operate one on a golf course.
Enter Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who offered a much more golf-friendly interpretation of the situation. DeSantis said Woods should still be able to drive a golf cart on a golf course despite the five-year suspension of his regular driver’s license.
That could become particularly relevant if Woods returns to competitive golf. At 50, he is eligible for the PGA Tour Champions, where golf carts are permitted under tournament rules. In fact, Champions Tour regulations allow players to drive carts during official rounds.
So, for now, Tiger Woods’ driving future comes with an extremely strange asterisk: no cars, but potentially plenty of carts.
It is an almost perfectly bizarre chapter for one of golf’s biggest stars. Woods can apparently still navigate a fairway at tournament speed, but getting to the clubhouse parking lot could be a considerably bigger challenge.
The bigger question now isn’t whether Tiger can drive. It’s whether he can stay out of the driver’s seat anywhere that has a license plate.
