Woods has been granted permission by a Florida judge to leave the United States and seek treatment at an international inpatient facility having been charged with driving under the influence after crashing into a truck and rolling his Range Rover last week.
The 15-time major winner spent eight hours in prison following the incident, the latest in a string of off-course scrapes which have tarnished the reputation of golf's modern-day great, whose last competitive outdoor tournament was the 2024 Open Championship at Royal Troon.
Woods has previously admitted to taking prescription medication to manage the after-effects of numerous operations he has had over the years.
"I feel sorry for Tiger that he's living 24/7 in pain," said Faldo.
"There's two sides to this right now: there's one side like 'let's care for Tiger', and then there's got to be a responsibility and accountability side as well. This is a serious thing he's done.
"The PGA Tour statement was so predictably weak. They showed that the Tour will look after him, as they always have done, and then you've got Jack (Nicklaus) saying it's tarnished the entire sport.
"I think the world is divided quite a bit, but the bottom line is this is a serious issue and I think something should be done a little bit more serious than waving him off to a tropical island and welcoming him back in three or four months.
"You compare it to other sports or business, and if you were done for DUI a couple of times in your business what would happen to you?
"I've got a feeling that if he disappears and comes back in a couple of months, everything will carry on as normal. I'm not sure if that's right. That's not a good message to the kids of today, is it?
"It's for the official bodies to decide (on any sanctions), but you would have thought in the normal walk of life there is some accountability for doing that, isn't there?"
13°C