Tiger Woods was recovering from surgery at a Los Angeles hospital early Wednesday after surgeons placed a rod in his lower right leg and screws and pins in his foot and ankle.
The legendary golfer suffered “significant orthopaedic injuries to his right lower extremity” following his devastating SUV crash outside Los Angeles earlier in the day, according to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Anish Mahajan.
Woods, 45, sustained “open fractures affecting both the upper and lower portions of the tibia and fibula,” Mahajan said.
Surgeons stabilized Woods’ leg bones by inserting a rod into the tibia.
Injuries to the golfer’s foot and ankle bones were treated with screws and pins.
Woods “is currently awake, responsive, and recovering in his hospital room,” according to a statement from his charity, TGR Foundation.
The athlete was traveling alone at around 7:12 a.m. on Hawthorne Boulevard and Blackhorse Road in Rancho Palos Verdes when he apparently lost control of the 2021 Genesis GV80 and crashed into a raised median.
The vehicle crossed two oncoming lanes, hit a curb and a tree and rolled over several times before coming to a stop on its side in a grassy area, authorities said.
Woods was “calm and lucid” when fire officials pulled him from the wreckage.
Authorities said the golfer was wearing a seatbelt at the time.
The cause of the crash is still under investigation, but authorities said that it did not appear Woods was impaired
There was no smell of alcohol or any other signs that the golfer was under the influence, the officials said.