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WINDERMERE,
Fla. (AP) _ Tiger Woods and his wife were not available to speak to state
troopers for the second straight day, asking that they return Sunday to try to
clear up questions about how he crashed his SUV into a neighbor's tree.
The
Florida Highway Patrol said the announcement that the world's No. 1 golfer and
his wife, Elin, could not speak Saturday to authorities came from his agent.
Mark Steinberg of IMG did not immediately respond to a text seeking comment.
Troopers
previously tried to talk to Woods on Friday afternoon. The patrol said his wife
told troopers Woods was sleeping, and they agreed to return the next day.
Woods
smashed his Cadillac near his $2.4 million mansion at 2:25 a.m. Friday and was
briefly hospitalized, police said. His lips were cut, and Windermere police
chief Daniel Saylor has said Woods' wife used a golf club to smash out a back
window and help Woods from the car.
Sgt.
Kim Montes, the patrol spokeswoman, said Woods' agent contacted dispatch and
the call was put through to the troopers, who were on their way to Woods'
house.
``I
don't know what was said,'' Montes said.
Montes
said it was ``kind of normal'' for Woods not to speak on Friday, the day he was
treated and released from a hospital.
``It
is unusual that we haven't gotten a statement,'' she said. ``This just delays
us to getting closer to the completion of the investigation.''
Montes
said Woods is not required to talk to troopers in a traffic accident; they only
need is driver's license, insurance and registration. She said troopers inside
the gates at Isleworth are ``looking at other things for their investigation.''
She
said Woods' Cadillac Escalade was not impounded, but taken to an undisclosed
tow yard. She said the front and right of the SUV was damaged, and that both
rear passenger windows were busted out.
``We
still are going to move forward with our crash investigation,'' Montes said.
The
911 tapes of the crash could be released as early as Sunday.
Still
unanswered is where Woods was going in the wee hours of the morning after
Thanksgiving Day. The police report said alcohol was not a factor.
The
world's No. 1 golfer and his family live in the exclusive, gated community of
Isleworth, a subdivision near Orlando, set on an Arnold Palmer-designed golf
course and a chain of small lakes. The neighborhood, which is fortified with
high brick walls and has its own security force, is home to CEOs and other
sports stars such as the NBA's Shaquille O'Neal.
On
Saturday, more than two dozen media and clusters of TV trucks were camped out
in front of its gates.
Woods'
news conference for the Chevron World Challenge, the tournament he hosts that
benefits his foundation, had been scheduled for Tuesday afternoon. It's unclear
whether he would still play, or even attend.
``We
do not know if Tiger is playing; we are anticipating a great week of
competition,'' said Greg McLaughlin, the tournament director and president of
his foundation.
One
of Woods' neighbors, who didn't want her name to be used, said it was quiet in
front of his house. She said there are usually two or three cars parked outside
his home and that was the scene Saturday.
Saylor
said his two officers found the 33-year-old Woods lying in the street with his
wife hovering over him.
Saylor
said she told officers she was in the house when she heard the accident and
``broke the back window with a golf club.'' He said the front-door windows were
not broken and that ``the door was probably locked.''
``She
supposedly got him out and laid him on the ground,'' he said. ``He was in and
out of consciousness when my guys got there.''
In
a telephone interview, Woods' father-in-law, radio journalist Thomas Nordegren,
told The Associated Press in Stockholm that he would not discuss the accident.
``I
haven't spoken to her in the last few ... `` Nordegren said about his daughter,
Elin, before cutting himself off. ``I don't want to go into that.''
Woods'
mother-in-law Barbro Holmberg also refused to address the matter.
``She
doesn't want to comment on private issues like these,'' Holmberg's spokeswoman
Eva Malmborg said.
Roger
Federer, who has become close with Woods in recent years, said after losing in
the semifinals of the ATP World Tour Finals in London, ``I haven't spoken to
him. I heard it's not too serious, which is a good thing.''
Asked
at a Friday evening news conference if the couple could have been arguing,
Saylor said he had no knowledge of that.
The
accident came two days after the National Enquirer published a story alleging
that Woods had been seeing a New York night club hostess, and that they
recently were together in Melbourne, where Woods competed in the Australian
Masters.
The
woman, Rachel Uchitel, denied having an affair with Woods when contacted by the
AP.
``I
resent my reputation is getting completely blasted in the media,'' she said
during a telephone interview late Friday. ``Everyone is assuming I came out and
said this. This is not a story I have anything to do with.''
Uchitel
said she was in Melbourne two weeks ago with clients and never saw Woods the
entire time she was there.
``The
story stands for itself,'' National Enquirer executive editor Barry Levine told
the AP on Saturday.
Saylor
described Woods' wife as ``frantic'' when two officers arrived and found her
kneeling over him in the street. The couple has been married five years and
have two children, a 2-year-old daughter named Sam, and son Charlie who was
born in February.
Nordegren,
a former model from Sweden who once worked as a nanny for golfer Jesper
Parnevik, is as private as Woods. She keeps a low profile at tournaments,
watching her husband from behind the ropes, and moves on when photographers
start taking her picture.
Woods
rarely faces such private scrutiny, even as perhaps the most famous active
athlete in the world.
He
usually makes news only because of what he can do with a golf club. Few other
athletes have managed to keep their private lives so guarded, or have a circle
of friends so airtight when it comes to life off the course.
Woods
has won 82 times around the world and 14 majors, becoming the first black player
to win a major at the 1997 Masters when he was 21.
He
won six times this year after missing eight months recovering from
reconstructive surgery on his left knee. Even though he failed to win a major,
Woods said he considered this a successful year because he did not know how his
knee would respond.
___
AP
Golf Writer Doug Ferguson in Jacksonville, Associated Press writers Tamara Lush
and Lisa Orkin Emmanuel in Miami and Louise Nordstrom in Stockholm contributed
to this report.
Pictured at top is
Tiger Woods. Pictured below Woods is Rachel Uchitel.
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