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.''