Tiger Woods Changes His Not Guilty DUI Plea in Florida

Tiger Woods is due in Martin County court at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday to change the not guilty plea he entered after a March rollover crash. His lawyer, Douglas Duncan, filed the request Tuesday, five days before a Sept. 8 docket sounding that had been set to test whether the DUI case would go to a jury.

The filing does not say what the new plea will be. It does land after prosecutors spent the summer inside his pharmacy file and the hospital chart from the night he rolled a Land Rover on Jupiter Island.

The Hearing That Replaces a Jury Trial

Woods, 50, waived arraignment in March, pleaded not guilty to both misdemeanor counts, and asked for a jury. Duncan, who also handled the 2017 case in Palm Beach County, has to put his client in the room for a change-of-plea hearing. Judge Darren Steele is on the bench.

A plea conference this close to a docket sounding is how a trial date dies. The court still has not posted terms. Duncan and the State Attorney’s Office did not answer requests for comment on Tuesday.

WHAT WE KNOW

• The charges: Misdemeanor DUI with property damage, plus refusal to submit to a lawful urine test, with a careless driving citation on the side.
• The calendar: Change-of-plea hearing at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026, before Steele; a docket sounding remains listed for Sept. 8.
• The lawyer: Duncan filed the notice Tuesday and must have Woods present, rather than appearing only through counsel.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• The new plea: Guilty, no contest, or a reduced count has not been stated in the notice.
• A signed deal: No term sheet, fine, probation length, or diversion offer has been released.
• Second-offense status: Martin County prosecutors have not said they will treat this as a second DUI under the 2017 Palm Beach warning.

Until Steele takes a plea on the record, the not-guilty filing is the last formal word. The rest of the file already points one way.

Two Hydrocodone Pills and a 0.00 Breath Test

The crash happened just after 2 p.m. on March 27, on a beachside residential road with a 30 mph limit. Martin County Sheriff John Budensiek said Woods tried to pass a pressure cleaner truck on a two-lane stretch, swerved, and clipped the trailer. The Land Rover rolled onto the driver’s side. Woods crawled out the passenger door. Nobody was hurt. The truck took about $5,000 in damage.

Woods told a deputy he had been looking at his phone and changing the radio, and did not see the truck slow. He agreed to a breath test. It read 0.00. He refused a urine test. Deputies found two hydrocodone pills in his left pant pocket, an opioid used for severe pain. He denied drinking and said he had taken prescription medication earlier that morning: “I take a few.”

Budensiek said the office adjusted roadside tests for Woods’ surgical history and still arrested him.

Mr. Woods did exemplify signs of impairment. They did several tests on him. He did explain the injuries and surgeries he had; we did take that into account, but they did do some in-depth roadside tests, and when it was determined, he was taken under arrest and taken to the Martin County Jail.

John Budensiek, Martin County sheriff, crash-day press conference

DEPUTIES NOTED AT THE SCENE

• Movement: Lethargic, slow, and sweating heavily, with persistent hiccups through the stop.
• Eyes: Bloodshot and glassy, with pupils described as extremely dilated.
• Pills: Two white hydrocodone tablets in the left pocket after a 0.00 breath reading.
• Body: Seven back surgeries and more than 20 leg operations, which deputies said they factored into how they ran field tests.

Florida DUI law does not require alcohol. It requires impaired normal faculties from drink, a chemical, or a controlled substance. Hydrocodone sits in that last bucket. A legal prescription is not a defense if the state can show he was impaired behind the wheel.

Prosecutors Got the Pharmacy File First

The not-guilty plea bought time. The discovery fight spent it. Duncan objected when prosecutors reached for prescription records, arguing privacy. In May, Steele signed an agreement that let the state pull Woods’ records from a Palm Beach pharmacy for January through the end of March, under a protective order limited to prosecutors, law enforcement, experts, and the defense.

In July the same judge approved a second deal covering medical records from Cleveland Clinic Martin South Hospital, where Woods was taken after the crash. That is the paper trail a urine sample would have started on March 27. He refused that sample. The clinic chart and the pharmacy log are the substitute.

THE 2026 CASE CALENDAR

1. March 24, 2026: Plays for Jupiter Links in the TGL finals, three days before the crash, his first action of the year after disc replacement surgery in October 2025.
2. March 27, 2026: Rolls the Land Rover on Jupiter Island and is arrested on the two misdemeanor counts.
3. March 31, 2026: Pleads not guilty, demands a jury, and says he is stepping away from golf for treatment.
4. April 1, 2026: Steele grants travel outside the United States for comprehensive inpatient treatment after Duncan argued privacy in this country had failed.
5. May 2026: Pharmacy records from January through March are opened to prosecutors; Woods is later photographed back in Florida.
6. July 2026: Hospital records from the crash night are opened under the same kind of protective order.
7. Sept. 1, 2026: Duncan files for a change-of-plea hearing, collapsing the jury-trial path he opened in March.

A defense that needed to keep the pills, the dose, and the timing out of the state’s hands lost that fight twice. Changing the plea is what a file looks like when those motions are over.

Florida Made the Urine Refusal Its Own Crime

The second count is not a paperwork add-on. On October 1, 2025, five months before this crash, Florida’s Trenton’s Law (House Bill 687, Chapter 2025-121) rewrote the refusal statute. A first refusal to give breath or urine after a lawful DUI arrest had been an administrative hit on the license. It is now a crime of its own.

WHAT TRENTON’S LAW CHANGED

• The offense: The statute now makes a first refusal a second-degree misdemeanor if the driver was arrested, warned, and still said no.
• The penalty: Up to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine, stacked on the DUI case rather than replacing it.
• The license: A first refusal still brings a one-year administrative suspension, separate from any court sentence.
• The warning: Officers must tell the driver that refusal is a misdemeanor, which is also the main defense if that warning was skipped.

Woods blew the breath test and stopped the urine test. That is the fact pattern the new law was written to criminalize. A jury can acquit on DUI and still convict on refusal. Folding both counts in one hearing is how a defendant keeps that split from becoming a two-verdict problem.

The 2017 Reckless Driving Deal Does Not Travel

Jupiter has seen this movie. On May 29, 2017, Jupiter police found Woods asleep at the wheel of a Mercedes about 15 miles from home. A toxicology report later listed Vicodin, Dilaudid, Xanax, Ambien, and THC, and no alcohol. On Oct. 27, 2017, with Duncan beside him, he pleaded guilty to reckless driving. Prosecutors dropped the DUI. He entered a first-offender diversion program: one year of probation, a $250 fine, 50 hours of community service, a 10-day vehicle immobilization, DUI school, and a victim-impact panel.

Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg said then that Woods had no prior record, had cooperated, and had not crashed. Aronberg also said a new DUI arrest would be treated as a second-time offense. That warning was a Palm Beach condition in 2017, not a charging sheet from Martin County in 2026, and the 2017 DUI count was dropped. It still sits in the file as the last time this lawyer and this client walked a pill case to a lesser count.

HOW THE TWO ARRESTS COMPARE

The 2017 off-ramp needed a parked car, a completed lab test, and first-offender status. This case has a rollover, a criminal refusal count that did not exist in 2017, and prosecutors who already read the pharmacy log. A copy of that older deal would have to survive a different county, a different statute, and a wreck.

What a First-Degree Misdemeanor DUI Can Cost

A first DUI conviction in Florida carries a fine of $500 to $1,000 and up to six months in jail. A DUI that damages another person’s property is charged as a first-degree misdemeanor, the box this crash occupies because of the trailer. The court also places DUI offenders on monthly reporting probation and requires a substance-abuse course through a licensed DUI program.

STATUTORY EXPOSURE ON THE SHEET

• DUI, first conviction: $500 to $1,000 and up to six months, plus probation and DUI school.
• Property damage: Elevates the driving count to a first-degree misdemeanor under the crash clause.
• Urine refusal: Separate second-degree misdemeanor, up to 60 days and $500, plus a one-year license suspension.
• License: A first DUI without injury brings the license revoked for at least 180 days and up to one year. DUI convictions stay on a Florida record for 75 years.

Jail is not required on a first DUI, and a famous defendant who already completed inpatient treatment will argue that the Zurich stay and the time off golf are the punishment. The statutes still give Steele jail, fines, probation, school, and a long record if a plea is entered as charged. A reduced count would have to be spoken in court to exist.

Golf Has Been Waiting Since Troon

Woods has not started an official PGA TOUR event since he missed the cut at the 2024 Open Championship. Disc replacement in October 2025 was his seventh back operation. He tore an Achilles in 2025. He still showed up for TGL on March 24 with Jupiter Links, the indoor team he co-founded, and talked about trying to make the Masters. Three days later he was in the jail.

On March 31 he posted that he understood the seriousness of the situation and was stepping away to seek treatment.

I know and understand the seriousness of the situation I find myself in today. I am stepping away for a period of time to seek treatment and focus on my health. This is necessary in order for me to prioritize my well-being and work toward lasting recovery. I’m committed to taking the time needed to return in a healthier, stronger and more focused place, both personally and professionally.

Tiger Woods, March 31, 2026, statement posted to social media

The PGA TOUR called him a legend and a person, and said he had its full support. CEO Brian Rolapp said the same. Augusta National said he would not be there in person for the Masters. A judge then let him leave the country. He went to an inpatient program in Zurich. He was photographed back in Florida in May. His first public appearance after the crash came in June at the Travelers Championship, where Rolapp announced tour-structure changes from the Future Competition Committee that Woods chairs.

He has 15 majors, second to Jack Nicklaus’s 18. He has also now been in four vehicle crashes since 2009, including the 2021 Los Angeles wreck that nearly cost him his right leg, and two DUI arrests built on pain medicine rather than alcohol. The plea on Wednesday does not put him in a fairway. It ends the stretch of the calendar where a pending jury trial was the official reason he could not talk about one.

Steele will call the case at 8:30 a.m. The notice on the docket still does not name the plea. The pharmacy file, the hospital chart, and the new refusal statute are already in the room.

Disclaimer: This article is news reporting and analysis of a pending criminal case, and it is for information only. It is not legal advice, does not predict the plea Steele may accept, and does not tell anyone how to handle a DUI, a test refusal, or a records fight. Readers who face similar charges should consult a licensed Florida criminal-defense lawyer about their own facts before they act. Charges, penalties, and hearing results are those in the court file and the Florida statutes as of Sept. 2, 2026, and they can change once a plea is entered.