More Tiger Woods drama: Mother-in-law is rushed to hospital

Drama continued unfolding around Tiger Woods Tuesday, when his mother-in-law was rushed from his Florida home to a hospital with stomach pain and Gatorade announced it has discontinued its Tiger Focus sports drink.

Amid focus on whether Woods will lose lucrative endorsement deals as a result of “transgressions” he admitted to in the days after he crashed his Cadillac Escalade outside his home and reports emerged of the golfer’s extra-marital affairs, the Gatorade cancellation was in no way connected to the negative publicity, according to a company statement.

An industry trade magazine first reported that the drink, launched in March 2008, would be discontinued on Nov. 25, two days before Woods’ car crash.

“We decided several months ago to discontinue Gatorade Tiger Focus along with some other products to make room for our planned series of innovative products in 2010,” Gatorade first stated to CNBC Tuesday. “We hope to share more about our 2010 plans soon.”

Meanwhile, national morning news shows opened their Tuesday broadcasts with reports that a then-mystery woman had been rushed from Woods’ home to Health Central Hospital in Ocoee, Fla., the same facility where Woods was transported to following his crash and treated for facial lacerations.

In a 911 call tape released by authorities, a woman believed to be Woods’ wife, Elin Nordegren Woods, frantically tells an emergency dispatcher at 2:35 a.m., “My God! Hurry up! My mom just collapsed in the bathroom! What do I do?”

A baby was crying in the background. The situation calmed during the 911 call, with the woman at Woods’ home telling the dispatcher her mother was now “fine.”

Woods’ mother-in-law, Barbro Holmberg, 57, a Swedish government official, was released from the hospital before 11 a.m. Pacific time, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

Holmberg was visited by more than one person after being admitted with stomach discomfort, hospital spokesman Dan Yates said, not specifying whether the visitors included Tiger Woods. Holmberg left “in good spirits” and “in a good state,” Yates said.

Woods’ self-described “boring” life away from golf has become tabloid fodder since his car crash, in which he was later fined $164 for careless driving.

The National Enquirer has reported he had an affair with a New York woman who later met with high-profile civil attorney Gloria Allred in Los Angeles, and another woman emerged with an audiotape in which a voice sounding like the golfer’s instructs her to delete the personal greeting on her cellphone message.

Citing injuries from the crash, Woods canceled his scheduled participation at his charitable Chevron World Challenge at Sherwood Country Club, which ended Sunday.

The mystery of what happened in Woods’ car accident thickened this week when it was learned that law enforcement authorities reported he had been drinking alcohol that day and was taking prescription drugs Ambien and Vicodin.

lance.pugmire@latimes.com