Tiger Woods has confirmed that he is set to play at this week’s Masters providing that he still feels good before the competition gets underway on Thursday morning. The 46-year-old has not featured in an official event for almost 18 months but is poised to make his long-awaited return at Augusta after missing the vast majority of last year through injury.
Woods was forced to sit out for the first part of 2021 after undergoing a fifth back surgery before suffering major leg injuries in a car accident in February of last year. He has been practicing at Augusta in advance of his return to action in recent days, though, and has now confirmed that he is hoping to be involved when the tournament kicks off on Thursday.
“As of right now, I feel like I am going to play,” he told reporters at a press conference on Tuesday. “I’m going to play nine more holes tomorrow.”
He went on to suggest that he could even walk away with the top prize at Augusta when quizzed on whether he would pose a threat at the top of the standings upon his return to the course. “I do [think I can win],” added Woods.
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“I can hit it just fine. I don’t have any qualms about what I can do physically from a golf standpoint. It’s walking that’s the hard part, that’s been the challenge.
“That’s why I came up here and tested out for 27 holes. We played the par three course, Charlie [Woods, his son] couldn’t help himself, but it’s the recovery.
“How am I going to get all the swelling out and recover for the next day? My team has been fantastic and worked very hard, so I’ve got another day of nine more holes and then comes game time.”
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Woods also revealed that he was unsure if he would ever play at the Masters again in the wake of last year’s car accident, in which he suffered multiple injuries to both legs. Doctors even reportedly considered the possibility of amputating his right leg in the aftermath of the crash before he defied expectations to make a stunning recovery after just 14 months.
“At that time, I was still in a hospital bed and was for the next three months,” he explained. “I never even left that bed and saw my living room for three months, so that was a tough road.
“To finally get out of that, where I wasn’t in a wheelchair or [using] crutches and walking and still had more surgeries ahead of me, to say that I was going to be here playing and talking to you guys again, it would have been very unlikely.”
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