Florida Highway Patrol said they were informed by Woods' agent that the golfer and his wife, Elin Nordegren, were not available for an interview yesterday. The patrol said Woods' wife had told investigators that her husband was sleeping when they came to their house a day before on Friday.

Sergeant Kim Montes, the spokeswoman for patrol, said "it is unusual that we haven't gotten a statement. This just delays us to getting closer to completion of the investigation."

The champion golfer drove his 2009 Cadillac Escalade into a fire hydrant in front of his USD 2.4 million mansion and then into a tree in a neighbour's lawn in the wee hours on Friday.

Montes said, "We are currently investigating a traffic crash. We will not be addressing any rumours or other scenarios. If our investigation takes us in a different direction, we will let the media know."

Montes said Woods' Cadillac Escalade was not impounded, but taken to an undisclosed tow yard. She said the front and right of the SUV was damaged, and that both rear passenger windows were busted out.

"We still are going to move forward with our crash investigation," Montes said.

The tapes of emergency phone calls made after the crash could be released soon.

Earlier, the police issued a statement that "the crash remains under investigation and charges are pending." It has been established that Woods' wife broke the rear window of this car with a golf club to get him out of the SUV at 2.25 am.

"It was her husband laying on the ground," said, Daniel Saylor, Windmere police chief, describing his wife as "frantic and upset."

The cops arrived to find Woods lying in the street slipping in and out of consciousness with his wife hovering over him. Woods was taken to the Health Central Hospital in Ocoee where he was released on Friday morning in good condition, according to his spokesman, Glenn Greenspan. His website reported the incident as a "minor accident."

The police said he suffered lacerations to his upper and lower lips and was bleeding from mouth when they arrived. Still to be known is where Woods was going in the wee hours of the morning. The police have ruled out alcohol as a factor in the crash but said charges could still be filed. The Orlando Sentinel reported on its Web site yesterday that the Highway Patrol said Woods' Escalade received USD 5,000 to 8,000 worth of damage.

Woods, a 14-time major winner, was scheduled to play his last tournament of the year at the Chevron World Challenge at Thousand Oaks, California, next week. He hosts the event annually to benefit his charitable foundation. He was scheduled to hold a news conference on Tuesday in California. But it was not clear if he would still play, or even attend the news conference.

The accident came after stories appeared in the media that Woods had been seeing a New York night club hostess, and that they recently were together in Melbourne, where Woods competed in the Australian Masters.