After three rounds of 9 holes as training, Tiger Woods is ready to return to competition in the Augusta Masters just fourteen months after his brutal car accident in February 2021 on the outskirts of Los Angeles. It will be his first official tournament since precisely the 2020 Masters that was played in November of that year. The player himself stated that he does not make plans beyond each day and precisely wanted to test himself this Wednesday before making the final decision.
The expectation raised by the Californian was total, with authentic legions of fans following him through the legendary field of Augusta National. Already on the tee of 1 Tiger he showed off his flexibility and physical fitness, although it is true that as the holes progressed he could be seen walking with greater difficulty and even doing so with extreme caution on the many slopes of the course.
In the absence of new statements, those made on Tuesday at a press conference in which he stated “today I’m ready to play. If I didn’t believe I could win, I wouldn’t be here.”
Tiger Woods said that if he plays it is to win
The five-time champion at Augusta put the finishing touches on his preparation for this week by playing his final nine holes alongside 1992 Masters champion, Fred Couplesand number seven in the world, Justin Thomas. The scene was more like the final round of a ‘major’ than a training session prior to the tournament, since, as we say, the public lined the field from the tee to the green at each hole to see Woods, who makes 14 months many thought that he would not compete again. On the 16th hole, he delighted the spectators by participating in a tradition of Masters training, which is none other than hitting the ball and making it reach the green bouncing on the lake.
Couples, the only one to make it, said after the round that Woods was hitting the ball far enough to play at Augusta National and seemed even more in the game than he had earlier in the week. “Tiger is Tiger. I said it on Monday, that he is not like many of us, that he has been injured even at 35 years old and he is going to play just to play. He is not going to do that. He has won many times. He will compete and will be ready to win the tournament.”
Tiger tee off on the 18th hole at Augusta National Golf Club
Woods’ victory would make him the oldest Masters champion, three weeks ahead of Jack Nicklaus, winner of 18 majors, and who won his sixth Green Jacket in 1986. Tiger starred in one of the sport’s most famous comebacks professional when, at 43, he won the Masters in 2019 after enduring years of surgery and personal problems that convinced many that the greatest golfer of his generation was finished.
This Thursday at 10:34 am American time is the H hour; next to the South African Louis Oosthuizen and the Chilean Joachim Niemann The game will start, for sure, more often than the whole day.
Yes, with the permission of Hideki Matsuyama, which defends the first title achieved by Japanese golf in the last edition (and in fact in a Grand Slam) and that on Tuesday night entertained the rest of the champions with a typically Japanese dinner. “Exquisite” in the words of Txema Olazabal. The Basque explained that Hideki made his speech for the first time in English.
And also from Jon Rahm. The Biscayan, who discovered himself against Tiger – “he is unique, capable of bringing together the masses like the rest of us can’t” – arrives at his sixth Masters ready to complete a good career. At 27 years old, the golfer from Barrika is preparing for his twenty-first ‘major’ after becoming the first Spaniard to win the US Open in June 2021 in Torrey Pines (California), and occupying the first place in world golf for 43 consecutive weeks.
Yesterday Rahm was struck by the Augusta National when he shared an emotional video on his social media profiles recalling the five Spanish triumphs in Augusta: Seve in 1980 and 1983, Olazábal in 1994 and 1999 and Sergio García in 2017. In just over three minutes, photographs and objects that belonged to the Spanish players who managed to win the tournament are shown. And the Basque, who is not made of stone, was moved. He could hardly contain his emotion, especially when they showed him one of the Green Jackets that Augusta National keeps in its museum with the name of Seve Ballesteros embroidered on it. A nice gesture from the organization of the tournament with a player who wants to be the fourth Spaniard to win the Masters. History, tradition and legacy.
