A roughed-up Tiger Woods and his wife blew off another meeting with Florida police yesterday — the second time in two days the couple stonewalled cops looking to unravel the tangled tale of the star golfer’s bizarre SUV crash, reportedly sparked by a nasty fight over another woman.
However, the pair are expected to finally give police their side of the story today.
PHOTOS: TIGER WOODS’ ALLEGED MISTRESS
Sgt. Kim Montes, the patrol spokeswoman, said she expected troopers to return to Woods’ house when they report for duty around 3 p.m. Sunday. She said FHP investigations into minor collisions don’t normally drag on for days, but this isn’t the first time that one has stretched on.
“It’s unusual, but I will say it’s happened before,” Montes said Sunday. “This is not the first time that we’ve gone back to get a statement from a driver. … We try and give the driver every opportunity to tell us their side of the story before we complete our investigation.”
Montes has said Woods is not required to give a statement, only his driver’s license, insurance and registration of the SUV, which was towed to a private yard with damage to the front and both back-seat windows broken.
She declined to speculate what charges or penalties Woods might be facing.
The 911 tape from the incident may also be released today.
Two cars from the Florida Highway Patrol arrived at the $2.4 million mansion near Orlando at 3 p.m. Saturday and stayed there for nearly an hour — but slinked away with nothing more than a promise to try again today after Woods’ agent told them to hit the road.
“The Florida Highway Patrol has received information that Tiger Woods and his wife were not available to be interviewed by state troopers, as we had previously scheduled,” Sgt. Montes said of the failed bid.
The smack-down was relayed to the cops directly, after a police dispatcher put Woods’ agent on the line with the officers as they drove to the Isleworth gated community.
“It’s unusual that we haven’t gotten a statement,” a frustrated Montes said. “This just delays us to getting closer to the completion of the investigation.”
The rebuff came less than a day after the golf legend’s wife, Elin Nordegren, snubbed police because she said her hubby was too tired to talk.
Nordegren initially let them in Friday night, but later told them he was unavailable because “he was sleeping,” Montes said.
Yet the police spokeswoman said that after that denial, “She’s been very cooperative.
“He’s not getting any special treatment.”
E-mails and messages to Woods’ agent, Mark Steinberg, were not returned.
The bizarre early-Friday incident left the legendary golfer with cut lips and blood in his mouth, but it’s unclear whether he received the injuries in the accident or during a tussle with his Nordic-knockout spouse.
Sources said there was no blood on the steering wheel of the SUV, which careened into a fire hydrant and then barreled into a tree on a neighbor’s property just yards from Woods’ massive waterfront estate, according to TMZ.com.
The airbags did not deploy — and although a police report listed Woods’ injuries as serious, he was treated at a hospital and released.
There are also questions as to what Nordegren, with whom he has two young children, actually did in the moments after the 2:25 a.m. crash.
The blond bombshell told Windermere police that she dashed back in the house, snatched a golf club and used it to free her husband from the mangled wreck by smashing the back window.
But Woods reportedly told a friend that his wife scratched his face during a heated argument about him seeing another woman, according to TMZ.
He stormed off, but Nordegren was right on his heels with a golf club in hand. As Woods tried to make his getaway, his wife supposedly took a whack at the car, distracting the golf great and sending the SUV flying into the hydrant and tree.
Earlier, the National Enquirer reported that Woods had been seeing a beautiful event planner, Rachel Uchitel, whose fiancé was killed in the World Trade Center on 9/11.
The alleged romance stretches back to June, complete with trysts in New York, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Australia, as well as a slew of steamy text messages, a woman claiming to be Uchitel’s pal told the Enquirer.
“Rachel told me, ‘I’m having an affair with Tiger Woods. We’re in love,’ ” said Ashley Samson.
According to another source cited by the report, the pair first met in May and began “sexting” — sending explicit text messages.
“Tiger was asking things like, ‘What are you wearing? What do you want to do to me? What do you want me to do to you?’ ” the source told the magazine.
Uchitel, who reportedly has retained powerhouse lawyer Gloria Allred, has blasted the allegations.
“God forbid Tiger got into a car wreck because of this false report of him having an affair,” she told The Post.
“Despite it being completely untrue, it still must have certainly caused some problems at home — if I was his wife, I probably would have killed him.”
But in a sign that Tiger might be in the dog house, he told a pal on Friday that he “[has] to run to Zales [jewelry store] to get a ‘Kobe Special’ ” for Nordegren, who he said had “gone ghetto,” according to TMZ.com.
When the friend asked what he meant, he said — “a house on a finger” — apparently referring to the $4 million diamond ring L.A. Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant bought his wife after he was charged with sexually assaulting a 19-year-old girl in 2003.
The charges against Bryant were dropped and a civil suit settled.
Nordegren’s mom, Barbro Holmberg, wouldn’t directly address the alleged infidelity, telling USmagazine.com that “this is a private family matter” and “there is enough for them to handle already.”
“I’m praying for everyone and everything to be OK,” she said from her home in Stockholm, Sweden.
Rescuers found a bloodied Tiger lying on the ground with his wife hovering over him.
“She supposedly got him out and laid him on the ground,” Police Chief Daniel Saylor said at the time.
The golf legend had been out cold for six minutes, the Orlando Sentinel reported, and was drifting in and out of consciousness when investigators arrived.
“When he woke up, he tried to get up and lost consciousness,” said Windermere Mayor Gary Bruhn.
“He was mumbling, but didn’t say anything coherent.”
Nordegren, meanwhile, was “frantic” as she looked on, he said.
A Highway Patrol rep said “we don’t believe it’s a domestic issue,” and Windermere cops said they weren’t aware of any argument between Woods and his wife.
Alcohol was not a factor in the crash, cops said.
The twisted wreckage was hauled off by a towing company after it wound up on a neighbor’s property.
The luxury SUV sustained between $5,000 and $8,000 in damage, police said.
Dramatic, newly released photos offer an early glimpse into the sheer force of the collision.
In one of the grainy shots, the wheel and body of the car can be seen wrapped around the trunk of the tree on exclusive Deacon Circle.
Fellow golf pro Lee Janzen speculated that Woods may have been going to blow off some steam at the gym.
“There’s some speculation [around the club] that since he doesn’t always sleep well, he might have been going to work out,” he told the Sentinel.
“Sometimes he gets up really early to workout in the clubhouse. It’s hard to tell at this point. He’s not the type to go out late and be irresponsible or anything like that.”
Tiger was set to host a golf tournament for his foundation in Thousand Oaks, Calif., this week but it is not clear if he will play or attend.
Additional reporting by Kelly Magee, Annie Karni and Post Wires