The prospect of Tiger Woods making an incredible comeback at the Masters next week has increased after the 15-time major winner arrived on Tuesday at Augusta National for a practice round. He has not played competitive golf since incurring serious leg injuries in a car crash in February last year.
Woods is expected to assess his physical capability to play in the first men’s major of 2022 after playing 18 holes, with a decision likely before the end of this week. The reaction of Woods’s body to walking Augusta’s hilly terrain will be key. As Woods’s private jet touched down in Georgia on Tuesday morning, bookmakers immediately slashed his odds of claiming what would be a sixth Green Jacket to around 50-1.
Woods, who won the Masters of 2019 after returning from multiple back surgeries, was regarded as highly unlikely to play competitively before this year’s Open at St Andrews, at the earliest. He featured alongside his son, Charlie, at the PNC Championship in December but with the assistance of a golf cart. A month earlier, he admitted he was “lucky to be alive” after the crash in Los Angeles while adding: “Now I’m able to participate in the sport of golf. To what level? I do not know that.”
Images have surfaced in recent days of Woods playing at the Medalist club in Florida, fuelling speculation of an unlikely Masters return. While he is the master of creating mystery, the fact that the 46-year-old is willing to visit Augusta at this juncture means he regards the possibility of playing in the 86th edition of the Masters as a serious one.
“For golf and for the Masters tournament and for everyone, to have Tiger there would be phenomenal. I think it just adds to the event. Obviously, it does,” said Rory McIlroy. “Anything Tiger Woods does in the game of golf is heightened whenever he’s there. I mean, it would be awesome for him to be there.”
