Tiger escapes criminal charge as questions persist

Woods, who has refused to speak topolice about the crash, was fined $164 (PA)

Tiger Woods saw at least one of his problems disappear yesterday when police announced there was insufficient evidence to pursue criminal charges in connection with last week's late-night car crash outside his Florida home.

Instead, the golfer will be fined $164 (£102) for "careless driving" after his SUV smashed into a fire hydrant and a roadside tree shortly before 2.30am last Friday. Officers have abandoned their efforts to speak to either Woods or his wife, Elin, to investigate the circumstances leading up to the incident.

A police spokesman said there was "never evidence" to support any criminal charges, or to "issue a subpoena for any additional medical evidence that may exist".

Paying the fine won't trouble the billionaire golfer, but neither will it dampen speculation about the circumstances that left him with facial injuries and two golf club-sized holes in his rear windscreen.

Yesterday, two further women came forward to claim they'd enjoyed affairs with the married father of two. One of them, a Las Vegas cocktail waitress called Jaimee Grubbs claims to also be in possession of voicemail and text messages from him.

Rachel Uchitel, the nightclub hostess named last week as his mistress by two US tabloids, gave an interview with the New York Post saying: "I do not have sex with celebrities, and I have not had an affair with Tiger Woods."