As part of the fallout from Tiger Woods’ rollover car crash, the five-time Masters winner will not play the 2026 Masters next week. While many observers and golf organizations have expressed their support for Woods, one Masters legend and former Masters TV analyst is taking a much different tack.
Three-time Masters champion Nick Faldo unloaded on Woods, criticizing him for the car crash for which he was charged with DUI on a recent media call.
But he didn’t stop there. Faldo also went off on the PGA Tour for not holding Tiger accountable for his actions.
Nick Faldo criticizes Tiger Woods: ‘There has to be some accountability’
For much of this year, the golf world waited to hear whether or not Woods would make his return at the 2026 Masters. But now we know the answer.
On March 27, Woods was involved in a rollover crash near his Florida home and arrested and charged with DUI. Woods has pled not guilty to the charges.
Days after, Tiger announced he would be “stepping away” to seek treatment. The PGA Tour and Masters announced their support for Woods and praised him for his difficult decision.
But Faldo sees the situation differently. In a media call this week reported by The Independent and The Times, among other outlets, Faldo criticized both Woods and organizations that offered their support to the 15-time major winner.
He called the PGA Tour’s reaction “predictably weak.”
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“There’s one side that’s like, ‘let’s care for Tiger’… there’s got to be a responsibility and accountability side as well,” Faldo said. “This is a serious thing he’s done, you know. The PGA Tour statement was so predictably weak, how they showed that the Tour will look after him, as they always have done, and then you’ve got Jack [Nicklaus] saying it’s tarnished the entire sport. You’ve got your opposites but there has to be some accountability.”
He continued: “Our sport is based on discipline. You rule yourself, you police yourself. I would have thought the PGA Tour — behind closed doors — must be very disappointed that they pay Tiger tens of millions to be on the course and off the course with this business role he has got.”
He saved some of his harshest criticism for Tiger himself and argued this was a “serious issue.”
“As a person, you know, look at his community. We’re not meant to be on the streets with two pills in our pocket,” Faldo said. “I think the world is divided quite a bit, but the bottom line is, I really think that something… this is a serious issue.”
He expressed sympathy for the fact that Woods is living in pain but also argued his injuries have been “self-inflicted.”
“I feel sorry for Tiger because he’s living in 24-7 pain. I asked him that years ago, even before the L.A. accident [in 2021], but it’s all been self-inflicted,” Faldo said.
“The bottom line is I really think that something should be done a little bit more serious than waving him off to a tropical island and saying ‘Welcome back’ in three or four months.”
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Faldo said he believes Woods will return in a few months without facing consequences, which he explained would never happen to someone charged with a DUI in other businesses.
“If you were done for DUI a couple of times in your business, what would happen to you?” Faldo said. “I got a feeling, as I said, if he disappears and comes back in a couple of months, everything will carry on as normal, and I’m not sure if that’s right, not a good message to the kids of today.”
Ultimately, Faldo said Woods has “avoided accountability” because of “who he is.”
“I don’t know what I’d ask the official bodies to decide, but you would have thought in a normal walk of life there is some accountability for doing that, isn’t there?” Faldo said. “I guess he’s always been a special case, because of who he is and what he’s done, so I suppose he’s avoided that accountability.”
Faldo, who retired as CBS’s lead analyst after the 2022 season, is currently recovering from open-heart surgery he underwent earlier this year.
