GOLFER Ian Woosnam was yesterday fined #2200 and banned from driving
for 12 months after he admitted driving while twice the legal drink
limit when he crashed his #80,000 Mercedes in June.
Woosnam's wife, Glendryth, was injured in the accident when the golfer
lost control of the car which crashed through a hedge and into a field,
Shrewsbury magistrates were told.
When the police were called Woosnam, 35, told them: ''What can I say?
I was going too fast.''
Tests showed Woosnam, of Oswestry, Shropshire, had more than twice the
legal limit of alcohol in his blood, said Mr Jim Shaw, prosecuting.
Woosnam, a Ryder Cup player and 1991 US Masters champion, lost control
of his open-topped Mercedes on a bend near the village of Myddle,
Shropshire, on June 24.
It clipped the kerb and went on to a grass verge before returning to
the road, Mr Shaw said.
However, Woosnam lost control again and the car went through a hedge
into a field and through another dividing hedge before spinning round
and coming to a halt.
Mrs Woosnam, 33, received minor injuries and the car was extensively
damaged.
Mr Terry Jones, defending, said Woosnam had completed a business
transaction and flown to Sleap airfield in north Shropshire on the day
of the crash.
He had one drink on the aircraft, although he had been drinking at the
business meeting the previous day.
The clear lesson was that drink remained in the body a considerable
length of time, said Mr Jones.
Arguing for a minimum ban, he added: ''He is a personality well known
in the golfing world and a ban is going to cause him incalculable
problems.''
It would also affect the enormous amount of charity work which Woosnam
undertook.
Woosnam said after the case: ''I just wanted to get it all over
quickly. Justice was done.''
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