Does he think he could win the Masters this week? Woods confirmed Tuesday morning the only news that could turn the Masters alone from the first big golf of the year into a mainstream sporting event: After recovering from serious injuries sustained in a car accident in California in February of 2021, intends to try to compete in the Masters, which starts on Thursday and in which he will chase the sixth green jacket that would set a record. “From now on, I feel like I’re going to play,” Woods told a 25-minute news conference here. “I will play another nine holes tomorrow. My recovery was good. “I’m very excited about how I’m recovering every day.” Shortly afterwards, the Masters announced the tee times for the first two rounds. Woods will start at 10:34 a.m. on Thursday, along with Louis Oosthuizen from South Africa and Joaquín Niemann from Chile. This trio will start playing at 1:41 p.m. Friday in the second round. What questions do you have about Tiger Woods and the Masters? Ask the Post. Woods’s last tournament was the 2020 Masters with a delay due to a pandemic, which took place in November, when he tied for 38th place. Just over three months later, he suffered crushed open fractures in his tibia and spine in his right leg after his car veered off the road in Southern California, with both bones breaking into at least three pieces and piercing the skin. Woods also suffered leg and ankle injuries and said doctors at one point considered amputation. He said on Tuesday that he still has pain in his leg “every day”. His challenges are not only to manage this pain, but to rest and recover enough from each round so that he can do it again the next day. When he first appeared in Augusta as a teenager, he was an athletic, agile force. Now, he has to manage his body more like a geriatrician. “It’s getting painful τίας because of the simple things I would normally go to do and it would now take a few hours here and a few hours there to prepare and then finish,” Woods said. “So activity time to do what I want to do adds more time to both sides – before and after.” Which was part of the calculation for whether he could fight. “The fact that I was able to get here at this point is a success,” Woods said. “Now that I’m here, the focus is on Sunday at the back nine with one chance.” For any of the other 90 players on the pitch, such an idea under such circumstances would be ridiculous. But during a career that now spans a quarter of a century – his first Masters triumph came 25 years ago, when he was just 21 – Woods showed a trend for both the absurdly the unexpected and the incredibly dramatic. He won the 2008 US Open with a broken leg and his fifth Masters victory came in 2019, after undergoing five back surgeries. However, he is probably more familiar with Augusta National than his own backyard. The challenge, he said, would not be to put the club on the ball. He will move his body around the wavy, uneven ground of Augusta for four and a half hours for four consecutive days. “I can do it just fine,” Woods said. “I have no qualms about what I can do physically in terms of golf. Walking is the hard part. Seventy-two holes is a long way. It will be a difficult challenge and a challenge for which I am ready. “ When Woods began inserting an unprecedented length from his T-shirt more than two decades ago, Augusta responded by lengthening the course. These changes continue today – the T-shirt at par-4 11th is further back this year – and contribute to his physical requirements to play Masters, even for younger players. “It’s a very difficult route to walk,” said 28-year-old Justin Thomas, a frequent Woods partner. “It is the most difficult of the year. It is very, very long, very hilly, many long walks back to the t-shirts. … Add that along with some of the craziest ripples and terrain of any track we play all year round, it creates some pretty tired, sore feet at the end of the week. ” The 508 days between tournaments will be the biggest dismissal in Woods’ career, surpassing the 466-day break he took from August 2015 to December 2016 to deal with what became of chronic back problems. Woods then did not compete seriously again until the PGA Tour 2017-18 season, when he recorded eight finishes in the top-10 and an unforgettable victory in the touring championship that ended the season. It was followed by that fifth victory at the Masters in April 2019, which is his most recent victory. Woods announced on Sunday that he was traveling to Augusta National to train for a second time in five days and that his participation in the Masters would be a “match-time decision”. On Monday, he played a training lap with Thomas and other Masters champion Fred Couples, walking the route with what has been described as a slight lameness (Woods will not be allowed to use a basket during the tournament). On Tuesday, he did not walk the course, limiting his work to the training area before the storms closed the training laps. He said he planned to play another nine holes on Wednesday. Who can win the green jacket? Dissolving the claimants. “I do not need to worry about hitting the ball or playing golf,” Woods said. “I just have to worry about the hills out there. That’s the challenge. “ Woods had previously said that his career as a full-time professional golfer ended because he could not “predict that this foot would be the same”. However, he added that he could see himself playing in occasional PGA Tour events. In December, he played in an informal father-son tournament with Charlie, using a wheelchair to cross the Florida route and finishing second behind John Daley and his son. But since becoming a professional in 1996, he has been clear about his own standards for himself: If he enters a tournament, he does so expecting to win. This seemed daunting when he was 20 years old. However, it has never wavered – and it never is. “If I feel I can not,” Woods said, “then you will not see me out here.” He is here, now, for the 24th time as a player. His five green jackets follow only Jack Nicklaus’ six. He is the only player who could show up under these circumstances, say the following and not laugh out of the room. “I do not show up at an event unless I think I can win it,” Woods said. “It simply came to our notice then. “There will be a day that will not happen, and I will know when that will happen.” Woods clarified Tuesday: It’s not this week. Bonesteel reported from Washington.
