Golf star Tiger Woods has a lot on his plate these days.
But is he resorting to painkillers to deal with it?
That’s the rather invasive question one golf announcer wondered aloud on Thursday — and the moment has gone viral.
In the video, Woods, who is competing in the 152nd British Open, is seen walking on the Royal Troon course in Scotland.
The announcer, identified as Mark Roe by the U.K.’s Daily Mail, then commented on the appearance of his eyes.
“You look at the eyes, you got to think that there’s a lot of painkillers being taken to cope with the pain, you know?” he said in a seemingly offhand comment.
Featured groups basically calling Tiger a drug addict because “you look at the eyes, you gotta think there’s a lot of painkillers being taken.” pic.twitter.com/udylWo5BsT
— Cameron Jourdan (@Cam_Jourdan) July 18, 2024
The remark immediately caught the attention of social media, which broadly blasted the comments as insensitive and cruel.
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The charitable interpretation from social media is that Roe was referring to painkiller use in the context of the injuries from which Woods has battled back.
The noncharitable interpretation is that it was a below-the-belt shot at the golf star’s 2017 DUI arrest in Florida, where painkillers were found in his system.
Tiger Woods had pain, anxiety and sleep medications in his system when he was arrested, a toxicology report finds https://t.co/IBfmYK8USg pic.twitter.com/Tb6yYLBjZq
— CNN (@CNN) August 14, 2017
Another reason Woods’ eyes might have appeared sunken or didn’t look right? A lack of sleep.
In an interview with BBC Sport published Tuesday, he said the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump left a lasting physical impression on him.
(The two men have a well-documented friendship that predates Trump’s presidency. Trump also bestowed a Presidential Medal of Freedom on the golf star in 2019.)
“I didn’t accomplish a lot because I wasn’t in the right frame of mind,” Woods told the outlet about his poor practice outing.
The assassination attempt happened while Woods was flying from Florida to Scotland on Saturday.
Woods said that instead of sleeping on his transcontinental flight, he stayed up, worried and watching coverage like many Americans.
“It was a long night [because of the assassination attempt] and that’s all we watched the entire time on the way over here,” he said.
“I didn’t sleep at all on the flight, and then we just got on the golf course.”
