Tiger Woods breaks silence 5 days after crash, thanks fellow golfers for ‘touching’ show of support

Tiger Woods broke his silence Sunday to say he’s going through a “tough time” after his near-fatal car crash but was deeply moved by fellow pro golfers and fans wearing his trademark red.

“It is hard to explain how touching today was when I turned on the tv and saw all the red shirts,” he said in a Twitter post Sunday evening, the first post on his account in his own voice since the rollover crash.

“To every golfer and every fan, you are truly helping me get through this tough time,” he tweeted.

Rory McIlroy, Patrick Reed, Tommy Fleetwood and Cameron Champ were among the many players and fans to wear red shirts and black pants to show their support for Woods on the final day of the WGC-Workday Championship at The Concession.

Woods, 45, has been recovering from emergency surgery after his terrifying Tuesday morning crash on the border of Rancho Palos Verdes and Rolling Hills estates in Los Angeles County left him pinned in a badly mangled 2021 Genesis GV80 SUV.

Cameron Champ (left) and Tommy Fleetwood were just two of the golfers sporting Tiger Woods' final-round colors on Sunday. (Phelan M. Ebenhack/)

The golf legend was driving from his hotel to a morning photo shoot when he lost control of the vehicle traveling down a steep hill, hit a median, crossed two lanes of oncoming traffic and rolled multiple times before finally coming to a stop on an embankment.

The cause of the wreck remains under investigation, Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said during a Facebook Live chat.

“We don’t contemplate any charges whatsoever in this crash,” Villanueva said “This remains an accident. An accident is not a crime.”

Tiger Woods looks on during the trophy ceremony on the practice green after the final round of the Genesis Invitational golf tournament Feb. 21 in Los Angeles. (Ryan Kang / AP/)

Authorities have said Woods did not appear intoxicated at the scene, so investigators will need to come up with probable cause to get a search warrant to test any blood drawn from Woods at the hospital, Villanueva said.

Medical experts, meanwhile, believe Woods’ recovery will be long and arduous, likely taking a year.

Woods’ official Twitter account previously said he suffered “significant” injuries to his right lower leg.

“Comminuted open fractures affecting both the upper and lower portions of the tibia and fibula bones were stabilized by inserting a rod into the tibia,” the statement said.

“Additional injuries to the bones of the foot and ankle were stabilized with a combination of screws and pins,” it said, adding that surgeons had to “release” pressure caused by trauma to his muscles and soft tissue.

“I think he’s probably in for a long recovery. Any time somebody has this type of open fracture that’s comminuted and requires a fasciotomy to release pressure on the muscles, it signifies how much trauma there was to the limb,” Dr. Jeremy Podolnick, an orthopedic surgeon at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan, told The News.

“It could take a year for Tiger to return to his prior function,” Dr. Podolnick said.