Tiger Woods Drug Bombshell: Golf Icon Was Taking Vicodin ‘Like Candy’ Before 2021 Car Crash, David Spade Claims
David Spade cracked a wild joke about Tiger Woods and the painkiller Vicodin.
April 9 2026, Published 7:45 p.m. ET
David Spade has dropped a wild joke about Tiger Woods and his abuse of painkillers less than two weeks after the troubled golf great's DUI arrest, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
The comedian shared how on the eve of Woods' near-fatal SUV rollover in 2021, the two bonded over physical pain, snarking about how Woods likely had a "candy necklace of Vicodin" after so many injuries.
''He's Got a Candy Necklace of Vicodin'
A sweaty Woods is seen in the back of a police car following his March DUI arrest.
Spade recalled to Howard Stern during an April 7 appearance on his SiriusXM show that he hit the links with Woods for a Golf Digest video, filmed on February 21, 2021, one day before the golfer's high-speed rollover crash in Rolling Hills Estates, California.
Stern noted that "Tiger Woods was f------ impressed with you," about Spade's skills on the green.
The Tommy Boy star explained he can't play a full 18 holes "mostly because my neck," then wisecracked, "But with Tiger, I couldn't really complain cause he's been in 94 car crashes."
Spade then made a painful, moaning voice, saying, "I'm like, 'No, my trapezius.' Meanwhile, he's got like a candy necklace of Vicodin," while making chewing noises and referring to Woods' longtime battle with painkillers.
The comeback king just so happened to have two loose hydrocodone tablets in his pocket at the time of his arrest on March 26, after rolling his Range Roger near his home in Jupiter Island, Florida.
Tiger Woods Was 'Hoping' to Return to Golf on the Eve of 2021 Crash
Spade discussed how both he and Woods were in pain while golfing together.
Spade e discussed how the two took some practice shots, but ultimately he was in pain and didn't feel his game was up to par that day.
In the Golf Digest video, Woods was seen saying how he could relate, having undergone his fifth major back surgery just a few months before in December 2020.
"So I say, 'Are you ever going to golf again?'" Spade asked of Woods, who was in the process of yet another recovery and rehabilitation period after the operation. "He's like, 'I mean, yeah, I hope so.'"
Hours later, the 15-time major winner crashed his car.
'He Might Not Golf Again' After Horror Crash
Firefighters had to cut a trapped Woods from his mangled SUV following his 2021 solo rollover.
The next morning, Spade woke up to the wreckage of the horror crash on television.
"I go, 'He might not golf again,'" the Just Shoot Me alum confessed to Stern about what was going through his head at the time.
"I thought, 'If I'm the last guy to golf with this clown, he's going to put my head shot up just to give him motivation to go, I have to golf with one more person," Spade joked about how it would give Woods inspiration to recover and get back in the sport so he wouldn't have his last memory on the green be with the bratty comic.
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Tiger Woods Asked to Seek Treatment Outside the U.S.
The golfer's mug shot from his March 26 arrest.
Woods sustained serious right leg and ankle injuries in the high-speed wreck, where he later revealed doctors believed there was a "50-50" possibility they would need to amputate the limb. He recovered and was back playing 10 months later.
The troubled golf titan was recovering from two major surgeries in 2025 at the time of his latest car mishap. He suffered a ruptured Achilles in March of that year and underwent a lumbar disc replacement, his seventh back surgery, in October 2025.
After being charged with DUI, damage to property, and refusal to submit to testing, Woods was granted permission by a judge to seek care abroad after his attorney revealed that his privacy had been "repeatedly compromised" during treatment stays in the U.S.
