Tuesday 27 January 2015 19:38, UK
Tiger Woods has described the bizarre collision with a cameraman at a ski event that left him with a missing tooth.
The 14-time Major winner, 39, was watching girlfriend Lindsey Vonn compete at the skiing World Cup in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, before being struck in the face by a camera - resulting in damage to two of his teeth.
Woods said: "There were two different podiums. When they come down for the run, the top three are there. After the race is completed, they move that up on the hill for the champagne etc.
"Lindsey had finished and I still had my mask on so nobody knew who I was. I was trying to blend in because there aren't a lot of brown dudes at ski races. We blend in don't we? That was the whole idea why I wore the mask.
Lindsey had finished and I still had my mask on so nobody knew who I was. I was trying to blend in.
"All the camera guys were below me, on their knees or standing. They were moving all around trying to get a picture because she was saying congratulations to the other people.
"The dude in front of me was kneeling down with a camera on his shoulder and he stood up, turned and caught me square in the mouth, so he chipped that one, cracked the other one and I was trying to keep the thing on so the blood wasn't all over the place.
'Even breathing hurt'
"Luckily, he hit the one that I had a root canal on. That's the one that chipped. The other one had to be fixed as well because it had cracks all through it.
"The flight home was a joke. I couldn't eat or drink until he fixed them and put the temporaries on. I couldn't even have anything touch them - even breathing hurt because of the air over the nerve. I had to fly home and get it done first thing in the morning."
Woods returns to the course at the Phoenix Open in Arizona this week following a two-month lay-off and admits he is refreshed and raring to go.
"It's great to be back," he said. "I had to take a little break there for a while then that flu bug got me pretty good for another three weeks afterwards and I lost a lot of weight.
"But I'm good now and looking forward to this week. I am hitting my drives a lot longer than I ever thought I could be again. My speed is way back up and I'm touching numbers I did 15 years ago.
"I start practicising with Chris (swing coach Chris Como) and we done some really good work. We have a gameplan where we need to get to and each stage we are ahead of schedule and that's a good sign.
"Overall I am very pleased to go out there and hit shots again and it's going to be a fun year."
Watch Tiger's return at the Phoenix Open, live on Sky Sports 4 from 8pm this Thursday
