Tiger Woods was again on the course at Augusta Nationwide early Wednesday morning for some of the extremely anticipated apply rounds in latest reminiscence.
The PGA icon already indicated his plans to play Thursday within the first spherical of this yr’s Masters Match, however he did warning that his standing for golf’s first main of the yr was contingent on his efficiency Wednesday.
Nobody would have been shocked if Woods by no means performed golf once more after a automotive crash in Los Angeles that broken his proper leg so badly he mentioned medical doctors raised the prospect of amputation. Out of the general public eye for 9 months, Woods despatched hopes hovering final November with a video of him swinging the membership with a easy message, ‘Making progress.’
And right here he’s at Augusta Nationwide, making a Monday apply spherical really feel like Sunday at a significant due to the gallery, strolling the steep slopes, swinging nicely and making it clear he has each intention of taking part in within the Masters.
Does he assume he can win?
Woods provided the shortest reply of his press convention: ‘I do.’
Tiger Woods walks on the fifteenth fairway throughout a apply spherical for the Masters on Wednesday in Augusta, Georgia
Woods wasn’t having fun with a quiet spherical together with his caddie, however was as an alternative adopted by hundreds of adoring followers
Woods watches his strategy shot on the twelfth gap at Augusta Nationwide forward of Thursday’s opening spherical on the Masters
Tiger Woods pictured on the thirteenth gap throughout the remaining apply spherical for the 2022 Masters Match
Woods mentioned Tuesday he’s planning to play and thinks he can win. By no means thoughts that will probably be 508 days from the final time he performed a match the place he needed to stroll, or that he returns to this Masters with screws and rods nonetheless holding the bones in place in his proper leg
Tiger Woods speaks together with his caddie Joe LaCava on the twelfth gap throughout a apply spherical for the Masters golf match
He mentioned Tuesday he’s planning to play and thinks he can win. By no means thoughts that will probably be 508 days from the final time he performed a match the place he needed to stroll, or that he returns to this Masters with screws and rods nonetheless holding the bones in place in his proper leg.
Woods is also 46. He could be the oldest Masters champion by three weeks over Jack Nicklaus.
The largest query is how he holds up over 18 holes for 4 straight days. Woods walked 18 holes final week — his first huge take a look at — throughout a scouting journey with 13-year-old son Charlie (together with a cease on the Par 3 course).
He performed the again 9 on Sunday, the entrance 9 on Monday.
Woods plans 9 extra for Wednesday after which it is ‘recreation time.’ He’s to tee off at 10:34 a.m. Thursday with Louis Oosthuizen and Joaquin Niemann.
‘I can hit it simply nice. I haven’t got any qualms about what I can do bodily from a golf standpoint,’ Woods mentioned. ‘Strolling is the exhausting half. That is usually not a straightforward stroll to start with. Now given the situations that my leg is in, it will get much more troublesome.
‘Seventy-two holes is an extended highway and it’ll be a tricky problem,’ he mentioned. ‘And a problem that I am up for.’
That is perhaps the largest motive Woods is even at Augusta Nationwide for greater than the sushi and miso-glazed cod and Wagyu beef that defending champion Hideki Matsuyama placed on the menu for the champions-only dinner Tuesday night time.
If he by no means performs — if he by no means wins — Woods mentioned he’s glad with what he has achieved.
‘I feel 82 is a fairly good quantity,’ Woods mentioned. ‘And 15 is just not too unhealthy, both.’
His 15 majors are second solely to Jack Nicklaus and his 18, the gold normal in golf. He’s tied with Sam Snead for the PGA Tour profession report with 82 wins.
So why hold coming again? What else is there to show?
‘I really like competing,’ Woods mentioned. ‘And I really feel like if I can nonetheless compete on the highest stage, I will. And if I really feel like I can nonetheless win, I will play.’
‘I do not present as much as an occasion until I feel I can win it. So that is the perspective I’ve had,’ he mentioned. ‘There will likely be a day when it will not occur, and I will know when that’s.’
Shortly after he spoke, the beginning instances had been launched. Woods is helped by being a part of the early-late rotation, that means he can have some 22 hours between rounds.
In any other case, Tuesday was largely a wash. Woods wasn’t planning on something greater than engaged on the vary, anyway, and even that labored in his favor. Heavy storms moved over Augusta in regards to the time he completed his work, and the course was closed the remainder of the day.
So long as Woods has been a part of Masters lore — Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer as soon as predicted he would win extra inexperienced jackets than each of them mixed (10) — the fact is rust from no severe competitors and a physique that has endured a minimum of 10 surgical procedures to each legs and his again.
Tiger Woods putts on the tenth inexperienced throughout a apply spherical for the Masters golf match
Tiger Woods of the US hits from the green on the fourteenth gap throughout Wednesday’s apply spherical
However he is planning to play, and that seems like sufficient for now.
‘I feel that the truth that I used to be in a position to get myself right here so far is a hit,’ Woods mentioned. ‘And now that I’m taking part in, now every part is concentrated on, ‘How do I get myself into the place the place I am on that again 9 on Sunday with an opportunity?’ Similar to I did just a few years in the past.’
That was 2019, his fifth Masters title that adopted 4 surgical procedures the earlier 5 years on his decrease again.
‘What number of comebacks has he had?’ Jordan Spieth requested in wonderment.
There was the return from reconstructive knee surgical procedure after his 2008 U.S. Open victory. He received seven instances worldwide the next yr. There was a return to No. 1 following the implosion in his private life, and earlier than the again surgical procedures.
Nothing compares with this one, primarily due to the strolling concerned on a leg so badly broken that Woods spent three months in a hospital mattress earlier than advancing to a wheel chair, crutches, a compression sleeve and nonetheless the occasional limp.
‘It is wonderful if you concentrate on the place he was at a yr in the past to now,’ Spieth mentioned. ‘I do not know the way many individuals — if anyone — might be out right here. And this isn’t a straightforward stroll. So to be out right here and to not throw his age within the combine, however I do not assume that helps a lot for that restoration.
‘However is anyone shocked?’
Tiger and his 12-year-old son Charlie share amusing throughout on the the PNC Championship, the place the elder Woods performed his first aggressive golf following his horrific automotive crash in 2021
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 recreation was tour-ready once more.
‘I can not compete in opposition to these guys proper now, no,’ Woods mentioned on December 19. ‘It will take quite a lot of work to get to the place I really feel like I can compete at these guys and be at a excessive stage.’
Thursday’s opening spherical would mark the primary time Woods competes in opposition to the world’s greatest gamers since November 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 February 23, 2021 when he crashed his SUV over a median on a suburban coastal highway in Los Angeles and down the aspect of a hill.
Woods’ accidents from that crash had been so extreme that medical doctors thought-about proper leg amputation, earlier than reassembling the limb by putting 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.
For the reason that accident, Woods has gone from crutches to slowly strolling after which taking part in in the previous couple of months. He began hitting balls on the again finish of the vary at Albany throughout his Hero World Problem within the Bahamas final November.
However regardless of these obstacles, Woods has regarded sharp, in response to those that noticed him on the PNC Championship in December. The daddy of Justin Thomas received the primary have a look at Woods taking part in a spherical in ten months and noticed greater than he anticipated.
‘It is loopy how good he is hitting – and much he is hitting – for what he is been by means of,’ Mike Thomas mentioned. ‘It is spectacular the place he is at.’
Woods instructed sheriff’s deputies he didn’t know the way the collision occurred and did not even bear in mind driving
It has been 14 months since Woods rolled an SUV in Rancho Palos Verdes, California after allegedly driving at greater than 80mph — almost twice the authorized velocity restrict.
Woods, the one particular person concerned within the wreck, suffered a number of compound fractures in each legs and has been out of the general public eye ever since as he is continued to endure rehab from his accidents.
He beforehand had his fifth again surgical procedure in January of 2021, however burdened that he anticipated to return to the tour.
Nonetheless, Woods would miss all the 2021 season as a result of February wreck, which he was fortunate to outlive, in response to police. Investigators thought-about the crash to be an accident, however wouldn’t launch the trigger because of privateness considerations. Surprisingly, Woods uncared for to hit the breaks for 400 ft after working into the media.
‘I am fortunate to be alive and now have a limb,’ Woods instructed reporters in November. ‘These are two essential issues, I am very grateful that somebody upstairs was caring for me, that I can not solely be right here, but in addition to stroll with out a prosthesis.’
Anish Mahajan, the interim chief govt of the Harbor-UCLA Medical Middle, mentioned a rod and pins had been wanted to stabilize Woods’s leg following the crash.
‘Mr Woods suffered vital orthopedic accidents to his proper decrease extremity that had been handled throughout emergency surgical procedure,’ he mentioned. ‘Comminuted open fractures affecting each the higher and decrease parts of the tibia and fibula bones had been stabilized by inserting a rod into the tibia.
‘Trauma to the muscle and soft-tissue of the leg required surgical launch of the overlaying of the muscle tissues to alleviate strain because of swelling.’
In April of 2021 (left), Woods confirmed himself in his first picture because the accident. Though he was smiling, Woods was leaning on crutches and his proper leg remained in a protecting solid. In November of 2021 (proper), Woods is strolling with out crutches or a solid on his proper leg
Followers and golfers responded by sporting purple for Woods throughout the World Golf Championships later that month.
‘It’s exhausting to clarify how touching right now was once I turned on the television and noticed all of the purple shirts,’ Woods tweeted. ‘To each golfer and each fan, you’re really serving to me get by means of this robust time.’
In April of 2021, Woods confirmed himself in his first picture because the accident. Though he was smiling, Woods was leaning on crutches and his proper leg remained in a protecting solid.
Woods, who is not any stranger to recovering from damage, described the grueling course of to Golf Digest a month later.
‘This has been a completely totally different animal,’ he mentioned. ‘I perceive extra of the rehab processes due to my previous accidents, however this was extra painful than something I’ve ever skilled.’
On this February 23 file picture, a regulation enforcement officer appears to be like over a broken automobile following a rollover accident involving golfer Tiger Woods within the Rancho Palos Verdes suburb of Los Angeles. A person who discovered Woods unconscious in a mangled SUV final week after the golf star who later instructed sheriff’s deputies he didn’t know the way the collision occurred