Authorities: Tiger Woods hurt in Fla. car crash

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - Tiger Woods was seriously injured in a car accident early Friday when his car struck a tree near his mansion in a gated waterfront community, authorities said.

The Florida Highway Patrol said Woods, 33, hit the hydrant and a tree after pulling out of his driveway in his 2009 Cadillac sports utility vehicle.

The patrol reported his injuries as serious, and that he was taken to Health Central Hospital. His condition was not immediately known. A supervisor in the emergency room said Friday afternoon that Woods was not a patient there.

The report said alcohol was not involved, though the accident remains under investigation. No one else was in the car, patrol spokeswoman Kim Montes said.

Woods, who has won 82 times around the world and 14 majors, returned to his $2.4 million home in the exclusive Isleworth subdivision near Orlando earlier this week after attending the Stanford-Cal football game, where he tossed the coin at the start of the game and was inducted into Stanford's sports Hall of Fame at halftime.

He had traveled to China and Australia earlier in the month, winning the Australian Masters on Nov. 15.

Woods was to host his tournament, the Chevron World Challenge, on Monday at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, Calif.

He won six times this year after missing eight months recovering from reconstructive surgery on his left knee. Even though he failed to win a major, Woods said he considered this a successful year because he did not know how his knee would respond.