Controversy surrounds toothless Tiger Woods’ hole-in-gum

Tiger Woods may be teeing off toothless next week at the Phoenix Open after an incident in Italy allegedly left him with a hole-in-gum.

The golf ace was in a village in the Southern Alps watching his girlfriend, skier Lindsey Vonn, capture her record 63rd World Cup race.

It was Woods who captured the headlines, however, as photos emerged of the golfer missing one of his teeth.

Speculation ran riot until Woods’ agent Mark Steinberg released a statement.

“During a crush of photographers at the awards podium at the World Cup event in Italy, a media member with a shoulder-mounted video camera pushed and surged towards the stage, turned and hit Tiger Woods in the mouth,” he said.

“Woods’ tooth was knocked out by the incident.”

Tiger Woods lost a tooth. Camera man ran right into his face #Unforgivable pic.twitter.com/85tjqAhiHU

— True North Crew (@TrueNorthCrew) January 20, 2015

Race organisers appeared to disagree with this statement, however, saying no such incident was reported to them.

Nicola Colli, the secretary general of the race organising committee, addressed the reports.

“I was among those who escorted him from the tent to the snowmobile and there was no such incident,” she said.

Organisers said Woods requested extra security and a snowmobile to exit the finish area and both requests were met.

Since the conflicting reports emerged, many have speculated that Woods’ tooth, which previous photos show was discolored, had been knocked out previously and replaced by a prosthetic.

Whatever the case, Woods still sported a smile when he congratulated Vonn, who had just become the most successful women’s World Cup skier of all time.

The American World Cup alpine ski racer made history in Cortina D’Ampezzo with a record 63rd World Cup win, solidifying her comeback after a pair of knee injuries sidelined her from the Winter Olympics in Sochi last year.

Tiger Woods, so incognito in Italy: http://t.co/MF5RlQkKrS pic.twitter.com/uohm96XRlc

— Ryan Lavner (@RyanLavnerGC) January 19, 2015

Vonn apparently had no idea that Woods was flying in for the event and the golfer wore a skull facemask to protect his identity on the slopes, pulling off his disguise during the prize-giving ceremony.

“I knew it was him immediately,” said Vonn. “He loves that stupid mask.”