50-year-old Tiger Woods had not appeared in public since March, when a rollover accident on Jupiter Island, Florida, ended in an arrest for driving under the influence of some substance.
The officers who detained him reported signs of impairment. He refused to take a urine test, although he tested negative on a breathalyzer, and they found two hydrocodone pills in his pocket, a narcotic opioid painkiller. He pleaded not guilty on March 31, and days later traveled to a rehabilitation center in Switzerland, where he remained intermittently until mid-June.
His reappearance came in a video recorded to pay tribute to 53-year-old Notah Begay, his lifelong friend, at the Payne Stewart Award ceremony. Just a few seconds on camera were enough to divide social media: some claimed he looked like a shadow of his former self, while others simply saw him as sober and healthy. The definitive answer about this chapter will come on September 8, when he faces his first court hearing over the Florida case.
