Tiger Woods will make a remarkable comeback at The Masters this afternoon, less than 14 months after a near-fatal car crash that left the 15-time major champion fearing his right leg would be amputated.
Woods confirmed on Tuesday at a press conference that he not only feels physically ready to participate in the year’s first major but that he is confident he could mount a challenge to win the tournament come Sunday afternoon.
Here, we take a look at a career full of remarkable highs and lows:
July 2008: The US Open champion, Torrey Pines. Tiger Woods is standing on the 18th green wearing familiar red, holding his 14th major trophy as the Californian sun begins to fade. His knee has been giving him hell all week and his titanic battle with the golf course, his rivals and his own body has taken a toll, only ending after sudden death against Rocco Mediate. “It’s my greatest ever championship,” declares an exhausted Woods. “It’s the best of the 14 because of all the things that have gone on over the past week.” He skips the rest of the season to get surgery.
February 2010: The Sunset Room at TPC Sawgrass, Florida. Woods steps up to a podium wearing an oversized blazer and a harrowed expression, both designed to portray vulnerability and garner sympathy. He begins glancing nervously at the media around as he reads from his sheets of paper before fixing his eyes on the camera in front of him. “I was unfaithful. I had affairs. I cheated. What I did was not acceptable and I am the only person to blame. I stopped living by the core values that I was taught to believe in.”
March 2013: The Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill, Florida. A content Woods is sitting in front of the press having just won his third tournament of the year to finally reclaim his place as world No 1. He breaks into a broad smile as a journalist asks him how long it’s been since he felt this good. “It’s been a few years.” Nike, who stuck by Woods through the break-up of his marriage, release an advert celebrating his return to the top of the rankings with the slogan: “Winning takes care of everything.”
August 2013: The 13th fairway of Liberty National, New Jersey. As Woods plays his approach he feels pain shooting through his back, and he crumples to his knees. With a grimace he finishes the round, bending down to pull his ball out of the cup like an old man who’s dropped his glasses. It is only the start.
April 2017: Spinal fusion surgery at the Texas Back Institute, Dallas. Woods is lying on the operating table in a hospital gown, out cold. The surgeon cuts an incision into his abdomen about the diameter of a golf hole. He delves inside, easing organs and muscle out of the way, and screws a bone graft between two vertebrae at the base of the spine. This is Woods’ fourth operation on his back: he has spent weeks at a time slumped on his sofa barely able to stand, such is the pain, and days earlier he needed a nerve blocker just to attend the Masters pre-tournament Champions’ Dinner. At the age of 41 this is just about the last shot at rebuilding his body.
May 2017: Jupiter Police Department, Florida. Woods stares through the camera and out the other side. His eyelids hang heavy under the weight of a cocktail of drugs including marijuana, painkillers and sleeping tablets. The photo will reverberate around the world, along with dashcam footage of one of the world’s once-great athletes barely able to walk in a straight line. A couple of months later Woods admits for the first time that he may never play golf again.
November 2017: Hero World Challenge at Albany Golf Course, Bahamas. Woods launches yet another comeback – this is his fourth since first undergoing back surgery. He enters into the tournament that he himself has organised – “I would like to thank the committee of one,” he jokes – before finishing 15th out of a 17-man field. He will surely never win another major tournament again, but it is great for golf to have him back competing with a generation of players who grew up idolising him.
April 2019: The Masters champion, Augusta National. Woods is standing on the 18th green wearing a familiar green of his own, holding his 15th major trophy as the Georgian sun dims. Eleven years after the last one, through four back operations, a personal life ripped up and rebuilt and ripped up all over again, a career consigned to past tense, he is a major champion once more. “I missed a couple of years of this great tournament and to now be the champion... 22 years between [my first and last] wins is a long time,” he says.
“This jacket sure is comfortable.”
February 2021: Woods’ rental car veers off the road at around 75mph, almost double the speed limit, and flips several times in Ranchos Palos Verdes, Los Angeles. Woods, the sole occupant, has to be “extricated from the wreck” by firefighters and paramedics. He is rushed to hospital and is found to have suffered open leg fractures as well as injuries to his foot and ankle. The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department say Woods is “fortunate to be alive” following the incident on 23 February. In a statement on Twitter, Woods says: “I will continue to focus on my recovery and family, and thank everyone for the overwhelming support and encouragement I’ve received throughout this very difficult time.”
November 2021: Wood holds his first press conference since the accident at the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas. He says he is “lucky to be alive” and feared that his leg may have to be amputated shortly after the crash. He hits some shots on the range in public and, while conceding his mobility will always be hindered, doesn’t rule out making a comeback. “I just have to get to a point where I feel comfortable enough,” he says.
December 2021: Woods competes at the PNC Championship alongside his son, Charlie. Woods uses a buggy during the event and the pair finishes second behind John Daly and his son. “The competitive juices, they are never going to go away,” Woods says. “This is my environment. This is what I’ve done my entire life. I’m just so thankful to be able to have this opportunity to do it again.”
April 2022: Speculation stirs about a comeback after Woods’ name remains in the field on the Masters’ official website after other players’ withdrawals are confirmed. Woods’ private jet is tracked flying to Augusta the week before the tournament. He plays a practice round before returning the following Sunday to complete two nine-hole rounds on consecutive days. At a press conference on Tuesday, Woods confirms that “as of now he intends to play” in the tournament and adds that he is confident he can challenge to win a 16th major.
