Tiger Woods at the Masters: ‘I feel like I’m going to play’
AUGUSTA, Ga. –
Tiger Woods says, for now anyway, he is planning to play this week within the Masters, slightly greater than a yr after practically dropping a leg in a automotive crash.
The five-time champion at Augusta Nationwide made the announcement Tuesday morning. He’ll play 9 extra observe holes on Wednesday earlier than making a closing resolution, however will probably be doing so with the intention of taking part in Thursday.
“As of proper now,” Woods mentioned, “I really feel like I’ll play.”
Woods was requested if he believes he can win this week. “I do,” he mentioned.
“I can hit it simply nice,” Woods added. “I haven’t got any qualms about what I can do bodily from a golf standpoint. It is now, strolling’s the exhausting half. This isn’t a straightforward stroll to start with. Now given the situation that my leg is in, it will get slightly harder. And 72 holes is an extended street. It will be a tricky problem and a problem that I am up for.”
There had been loads of alerts in latest days that Woods was on the cusp of deciding it was time to play once more. He got here to Augusta Nationwide for a observe spherical final week, then returned Sunday — saying he’d be “a game-time resolution” — and Monday for extra. On Tuesday morning, with unhealthy climate within the forecast, he spent loads of time within the observe areas.
“It is nice to be again,” Woods mentioned.
He is scheduled to tee off Thursday at 10:34 a.m. with Louis Oosthuizen and Joaquin Niemann. That threesome performs once more Friday beginning at 1:41 p.m.
Woods performed in December on the PNC Problem, a 36-hole scramble on a flat Florida course the place he and his son Charlie completed second to John Daly and his son. Woods was allowed to make use of a cart in that occasion, and when these rounds had been over he flatly dismissed any notion that his sport was tour-ready once more.
“I can not compete towards these guys proper now, no,” Woods mentioned on Dec. 19. “It will take a whole lot of work to get to the place I really feel like I can compete at these guys and be at a excessive stage.”
About 3-1/2 months later, Woods apparently feels in another way. If he performs, he’ll be within the Masters for the twenty fourth time; he is completed within the high 5 12 instances in his earlier 23 appearances.
“I really like competing,” Woods mentioned. “I really feel like if I can nonetheless compete on the highest stage, I’ll. And if I really feel like I can nonetheless win, I’ll play. But when I really feel like I can not, then you definately will not see me out right here.”
Thursday’s opening spherical would mark the primary time Woods competes towards the world’s greatest gamers since Nov. 15, 2020, which was the ultimate spherical of that yr’s pandemic-delayed Masters.
He had his fifth again surgical procedure two months later and was nonetheless recovering from that on Feb. 23, 2021 when he crashed his SUV over a median on a suburban coastal street in Los Angeles and down the facet of a hill.
Woods’ accidents from that crash had been so extreme that docs thought-about proper leg amputation, earlier than reassembling the limb by inserting a rod within the tibia and utilizing screws and pins to stabilize further accidents within the ankle and foot.
“It has been a tricky, robust yr … however right here we’re,” Woods mentioned.
