AUGUSTA, Ga. — Tiger Woods says barring any unforeseen circumstances, he will play the Masters, his first major event since his 2021 car crash in which he suffered a serious leg injury.
“For now, I’m going to play,” said the 46-year-old American.
The five-time champion at Augusta National made the announcement on Tuesday. He will play an additional practice nine on Wednesday before making a final decision. But he does this with the intention of being on the tee boxes on Thursday.
For the moment, we find him in a trio completed by the South African Louis Oosthuizen and the Chilean Joaquin Niemann. All three players are expected to hit the first hole at 10:34 a.m. ET Thursday.
“It’s about how my body is going to recover from that exertion and what it’s capable of the next day,” Woods explained. He has completed two nine-hole practice sessions in the past two days. On Monday, thousands of fans were there to cheer him on.
And Woods, fierce competitor at heart, does not intend to make up the numbers for his return. “I think I can win the Masters this week,” he said.
Such a feat, which would probably be the most incredible of his career, already punctuated by so many others, would allow him to equal the record of six titles won by Jack Nicklaus. This is despite the fact that he hasn’t played a tournament since the 2020 Masters, postponed to November that year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“I can hit the ball very well. I have no doubts about what I can do golf-wise. The walking is the hard part,” he said.
Golf legend, winner of 15 Grand Slam events, Woods was seriously injured in the right leg, narrowly avoiding amputation, in a car accident on February 23, 2021 near Los Angeles.
Woods, was hospitalized for weeks and unable to walk for months.
“It was a difficult path to take. To say that I was going to come back here to play then seemed very unlikely to me, ”he said.
Tiger: “I feel like I am going to play.”
— James Duthie (@tsnjamesduthie) April 5, 2022
Tuesday morning, with the weather forecast calling for rough weather, he spent a lot of time in the practice area.
Woods last played last December at the PNC Challenge, a 36-hole tournament on a relatively flat Florida course, where he and his son Charlie finished second, behind John Daly and his son.
Woods was able to use a cart during this event. Once those rounds were over, he said he was nowhere near a return to the PGA Tour.
