Tiger Woods Is Back, But What to Expect at the Masters Is Anyone's Guess
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This will be Tiger Woods’s 25th Masters appearance – assuming all goes well this week and he is able to tee it up. While there is no word to suggest otherwise, there’s not been a lot of word, period.
There has been little about Tiger and his golf game since he tied for 45th at the Genesis Invitational on Feb. 19. It was a genuinely good week for Woods, who was never a lock to play at Riviera, although his foundation’s ties to the event were always the lure.
Woods had a good opening day, hung on to make the cut, then shot a third-round 67 that offered plenty of promise before a lackluster final round. Adding the Wednesday pro-am took a toll for Woods, who walked on his severely injured right ankle and foot for five straight days.
“It means a lot," he said after the final round. “It's progress, headed in the right direction, yes. It certainly was a little bit more difficult than I probably let on. My team has been fantastic in getting my body recovered day to day and getting me ready to play each and every day.
“That's the hard part that I can't simulate at home. Even if I played four days at home, it's not the same as adrenaline, it's not the same as the system being ramped up like that, the intensity, just the focus that it takes to play at this level. No matter how much—I'm very good at simulating that at home, but it's just not the same as being out here and doing it."
There was some hope that Woods would enter the Players Championship—which was three weeks ago—and use that as another way to test his game and ramp up his conditioning. But he passed on that tournament and appears to not have done any pre-Masters week scouting missions.
A year ago, it was incredible that he showed up and played, remarkably making the cut in his first tournament since the car crash that occurred 14 months prior. A couple of weekend 78s were his highest scores ever at the tournament, and yet it didn’t much matter. Woods was struggling, as expected.
About five weeks later, he made the cut at the PGA Championship, then withdrew prior to the final round due to complications with his leg. He skipped the U.S. Open, then missed the cut at the British Open.
After skipping the Hero World Challenge due to plantar fasciitis, Woods played in a couple of December exhibitions, then made his official return at Riviera. It was a solid week, but for now, there are more questions than answers.
Is the leg better? What about Woods’s back, which is sometimes overlooked in all of this? How much has he been able to practice? To play? To walk?
We will be finding out more over the next few days.