Five months after Tiger Woods was found asleep behind the wheel of his banged up Mercedes on Military Trail in Jupiter, the golfing great on Friday is expected to plead guilty to reckless driving as part of a DUI diversion program that offers him the chance to erase the arrest from his record.

The big question that hovers over the hearing at the North County Courthouse in Palm Beach Gardens is whether the 41-year-old Jupiter Island resident will appear before County Judge Sandra Bosso-Pardo or whether his attorney Doug Duncan will speak on his behalf.

» PHOTOS: Tiger Woods in South Florida golf tournaments

Neither state prosecutors nor Duncan are talking. Wearing a Los Angeles Dodgers jersey, Woods was spotted in the crowd at Game 2 of the World Series between the Houston Astros and Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday — the same day he was to appear in court here before the hearing was rescheduled for unspecified reasons.

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Attorneys who specialize in defending people charged with DUI are split about whether Woods will attend today’s hearing. Some, like defense attorney Barry Paul, are convinced Woods, like many non-celebrities, will skip the hearing and allow his attorney to enter the plea for him. Others, like attorney Fred Susaneck, say they suspect Woods will show up.

“If I were a betting guy I would say he is going to show because the state doesn’t want it to look like he is being treated differently and the judge doesn’t want it to like like he’s being treated differently,” said Susaneck.

Tiger Woods’ attorney, Douglas Duncan, leaves the north Palm Beach County courthouse after filing paperwork in Woods’ DUI case on Aug. 9, 2017. (Lannis Waters / The Palm Beach Post)

Lannis Waters/Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Without mentioning Woods specifically, State Attorney Dave Aronberg has shunned those assertions, repeatedly pointing out that all first-time offenders are offered the chance to enter the program that allows them to avoid having a DUI conviction on their records. More than 2,100 have enrolled in it since it was instituted in 2013 and few have been arrested again, he said.

Woods had no alcohol in his system when arrested at 3 a.m. on May 29 south of Indian Creek Parkway but attributed his dazed condition to prescription medicine he was taking after his fourth back surgery in April. With his speech slurred and his stance unsteady, arrest video showed Woods unable to follow a Jupiter police officer’s instructions.

He already apparently has embraced a key term of the treatment program, one that requires participants to get help for substance abuse.

In posts on his Twitter account weeks after his arrest, Woods said he was “currently receiving professional help to manage my medications and the ways that I deal with back pain and a sleep disorder.”

Weeks later, on July 3, he tweeted: “I recently completed an out of state private intensive program. I will continue to tackle this going forward with my doctors, family and friends.”

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Toxicology reports, obtained by ESPN, showed he had narcotic painkillers Vicodin and Dilaudid, along with the anti-anxiety drug, Xanax, and the sleeping aid, Ambien, in his system at the time of his arrest. It also showed his blood contained THC, typically linked to marijuana use.

In addition to rehab, there are other hoops Woods will have to jump through for his record to be wiped clean. Other requirements include: attending DUI school, meeting with people who have lost loved ones to drunk drivers and performing community service. He also will have to remain on probation for 12 months during which time he will be banned from drinking alcohol or possessing or taking illicit drugs.

If he completes all the requirements, the DUI charge would disappear from his record. A judge also would withhold adjudication on the misdemeanor charge of reckless driving, which would allow him to petition to have his record sealed.

Woods, who has won more major tournaments (14) than any golfer other than the legendary Jack Nicklaus, has struggled with injuries and has had multiple surgeries, including four knee surgeries in addition to the four back surgeries over the years. He also has been dogged by a November 2009 crash in Windermere, a luxury town between Orlando and Walt Disney World.

He was hospitalized with a sore neck and cut lip and was charged with careless driving after he drove over a fire hydrant and into a tree. But the real injury occurred to his reputation when a string of women claimed they had affairs with the golfer. He underwent treatment for sex addiction and divorced Elin Nordegren, the mother of his two children, after nearly seven years of marriage.

Since then, he has struggled on the links. He hasn’t won a major since 2008 and his last tournament win came in 2013.

Days before his arrest, he posted a missive on his web site, expressing hope that the back spasms and leg pain had been cured by the back surgery he had in April in Texas.

“It has been just over a month since I underwent fusion surgery on my back, and it is hard to express how much better I feel,” he wrote on May 24. “It was instant nerve relief. I haven’t felt this good in years.”