Tiger Woods practices at Augusta one last time ahead of his HIGHLY anticipated return at US Masters

3

View
comments

With a gallery of thousands of adoring fans in tow, Tiger Woods was back on the course at Augusta National early Wednesday morning for one of the most highly anticipated practice rounds in recent memory.

The PGA icon already indicated his plans to play Thursday in the first round of this year’s Masters Tournament, but he did caution that his status for golf’s first major of the year was contingent on his performance Wednesday.

No one would have been surprised if Woods never played golf again after a car crash in Los Angeles that damaged his right leg so badly he said doctors raised the prospect of amputation. Out of the public eye for nine months, Woods sent hopes soaring last November with a video of him swinging the club with a simple message, ‘Making progress.’

And here he is at Augusta National, making a Monday practice round feel like Sunday at a major because of the gallery, walking the steep slopes, swinging well and making it clear he has every intention of playing in the Masters.

Does he think he can win?

Woods offered the shortest answer of his press conference: ‘I do.’

He said Tuesday he is planning to play and thinks he can win. Never mind that it will be 508 days from the last time he played a tournament where he had to walk, or that he returns to this Masters with screws and rods still holding the bones in place in his right leg.

Woods also is 46. He would be the oldest Masters champion by three weeks over Jack Nicklaus.

The biggest question is how he holds up over 18 holes for four straight days. Woods walked 18 holes last week — his first big test — during a scouting trip with 13-year-old son Charlie (including a stop at the Par 3 course).

He played the back nine on Sunday, the front nine on Monday.

Woods plans nine more for Wednesday and then it’s ‘game time.’ He is to tee off at 10:34 a.m. Thursday with Louis Oosthuizen and Joaquin Niemann.

‘I can hit it just fine. I don’t have any qualms about what I can do physically from a golf standpoint,’ Woods said. ‘Walking is the hard part. This is normally not an easy walk to begin with. Now given the conditions that my leg is in, it gets even more difficult.

‘Seventy-two holes is a long road and it’s going to be a tough challenge,’ he said. ‘And a challenge that I’m up for.’

That might be the biggest reason Woods is even at Augusta National for more than the sushi and miso-glazed cod and Wagyu beef that defending champion Hideki Matsuyama put on the menu for the champions-only dinner Tuesday night.

If he never plays — if he never wins — Woods said he is satisfied with what he has achieved.

‘I think 82 is a pretty good number,’ Woods said. ‘And 15 is not too bad, either.’

His 15 majors are second only to Jack Nicklaus and his 18, the gold standard in golf. He is tied with Sam Snead for the PGA Tour career record with 82 wins.

So why keep coming back? What else is there to prove?

‘I love competing,’ Woods said. ‘And I feel like if I can still compete at the highest level, I’m going to. And if I feel like I can still win, I’m going to play.’

‘I don’t show up to an event unless I think I can win it. So that’s the attitude I’ve had,’ he said. ‘There will be a day when it won’t happen, and I’ll know when that is.’

Shortly after he spoke, the starting times were released. Woods is helped by being part of the early-late rotation, meaning he will have some 22 hours between rounds.

Otherwise, Tuesday was mostly a wash. Woods wasn’t planning on anything more than working on the range, anyway, and even that worked in his favor. Heavy storms moved over Augusta about the time he finished his work, and the course was closed the rest of the day.

As long as Woods has been part of Masters lore — Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer once predicted he would win more green jackets than both of them combined (10) — the reality is rust from no serious competition and a body that has endured at least 10 surgeries to both legs and his back.

But he’s planning to play, and that feels like enough for now.

‘I think that the fact that I was able to get myself here to this point is a success,’ Woods said. ‘And now that I am playing, now everything is focused on, ‘How do I get myself into the position where I’m on that back nine on Sunday with a chance?’ Just like I did a few years ago.’

That was 2019, his fifth Masters title that followed four surgeries the previous five years on his lower back.

‘How many comebacks has he had?’ Jordan Spieth asked in wonderment.

There was the return from reconstructive knee surgery after his 2008 U.S. Open victory. He won seven times worldwide the following year. There was a return to No. 1 following the implosion in his personal life, and before the back surgeries.

Nothing compares with this one, mainly because of the walking involved on a leg so badly damaged that Woods spent three months in a hospital bed before advancing to a wheel chair, crutches, a compression sleeve and still the occasional limp.

‘It’s amazing if you think about where he was at a year ago to now,’ Spieth said. ‘I don’t know how many people — if anybody — could be out here. And this is not an easy walk. So to be out here and not to throw his age in the mix, but I don’t think that helps much for that recovery.

‘But is anybody surprised?’

Woods played in December at the PNC Challenge, a 36-hole scramble on a flat Florida course where he and his son Charlie finished second to John Daly and his son. Woods was allowed to use a cart in that event, and when those rounds were over he flatly dismissed any notion that his game was tour-ready again.

‘I can’t compete against these guys right now, no,’ Woods said on December 19. ‘It’s going to take a lot of work to get to where I feel like I can compete at these guys and be at a high level.’ 

Thursday’s opening round would mark the first time Woods competes against the world’s best players since November 15, 2020, which was the final round of that year’s pandemic-delayed Masters.

He had his fifth back surgery two months later and was still recovering from that on February 23, 2021 when he crashed his SUV over a median on a suburban coastal road in Los Angeles and down the side of a hill.

Woods’ injuries from that crash were so severe that doctors considered right leg amputation, before reassembling the limb by placing a rod in the tibia and using screws and pins to stabilize additional injuries in the ankle and foot.

‘It’s been a tough, tough year … but here we are,’ Woods said.

Since the accident, Woods has gone from crutches to slowly walking and then playing in the last few months. He started hitting balls on the back end of the range at Albany during his Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas last November. 

But despite those obstacles, Woods has looked sharp, according to those who saw him at the PNC Championship in December.  The father of Justin Thomas got the first look at Woods playing a round in ten months and saw more than he expected.

‘It’s crazy how good he’s hitting – and far he’s hitting – for what he’s been through,’ Mike Thomas said. ‘It’s impressive where he’s at.’ 

It has been 14 months since Woods rolled an SUV in Rancho Palos Verdes, California after allegedly driving at more than 80mph — nearly twice the legal speed limit.

Woods, the only person involved in the wreck, suffered multiple compound fractures in both legs and has been out of the public eye ever since as he’s continued to undergo rehab from his injuries. 

He previously had his fifth back surgery in January of 2021, but stressed that he expected to return to the tour. 

However, Woods would miss the entire 2021 season due to the February wreck, which he was lucky to survive, according to police. Investigators considered the crash to be an accident, but would not release the cause due to privacy concerns. Strangely, Woods neglected to hit the breaks for 400 feet after running into the media.

‘I’m lucky to be alive and also have a limb,’ Woods told reporters in November. ‘Those are two crucial things, I’m very grateful that someone upstairs was taking care of me, that I’m able to not only be here, but also to walk without a prosthesis.’ 

Anish Mahajan, the interim chief executive of the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, said a rod and pins were needed to stabilize Woods’s leg following the crash. 

‘Mr Woods suffered significant orthopedic injuries to his right lower extremity that were treated during emergency surgery,’ he said. ‘Comminuted open fractures affecting both the upper and lower portions of the tibia and fibula bones were stabilized by inserting a rod into the tibia.

‘Trauma to the muscle and soft-tissue of the leg required surgical release of the covering of the muscles to relieve pressure due to swelling.’

Fans and golfers responded by wearing red for Woods during the World Golf Championships later that month.

‘It is hard to explain how touching today was when I turned on the tv and saw all the red shirts,’ Woods tweeted. ‘To every golfer and every fan, you are truly helping me get through this tough time.’

In April of 2021, Woods showed himself in his first photo since the accident. Although he was smiling, Woods was leaning on crutches and his right leg remained in a protective cast.

Woods, who is no stranger to recovering from injury, described the grueling process to Golf Digest a month later.

‘This has been an entirely different animal,’ he said. ‘I understand more of the rehab processes because of my past injuries, but this was more painful than anything I have ever experienced.’