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Tiger Woods arrived at Augusta National Golf Club on Tuesday to play a practice round, according to multiple outlets. He walked 18 holes with his son Charlie and fellow PGA Tour pro, Justin Thomas. "He played every one of them," a source told ESPN.
"He looked good to me." It appears he used his practice round with Thomas, a close friend of the Woods family, as a fitness test to see whether he will be able to make a sensational return at the first men's major of the year.
Woods has not played an official tournament since his February 2021 car crash. The former world number one, 46, has been recovering from leg injuries suffered in the crash. The 15-time major champion underwent multiple surgeries on his right leg.
Woods subsequently said doctors nearly had to amputate his right leg. Since the accident in the outskirts of Los Angeles, Woods has only competed in the 36-hole PNC Championship, where he partnered his 12-year-old son and rode in a buggy.
He is said to be gauging whether he is fit enough to compete in the Masters next week. Not sure when he will return He has previously said that he intends to return to the PGA Tour, however, declined to provide a specific timetable.
"You'll see me on the PGA Tour, I just don't know when," Woods told CBS' Jim Nantz at the Genesis Invitational last month. "I'd love to tell you that I'll be playing next week, but I don't know when. "It's frustrating in that sense because I've been down this road before with my back when I didn't know when I was going to come back.
It's hard because it's hard not to have goals out there -- you know, 'I want to play this event so I can set myself up for that mentally and physically and emotionally.' I don't have any of those dates in my head. I don't know yet." Woods’ practice round at Augusta has prompted speculation that he will return to competitive action at Masters next week.
Numerous internet sleuths tracked the five-time Masters champion's private jet from an airport near his home in Florida to Augusta, and a source told Sports Illustrated that Woods was golfing with his son, Charlie. Last week, Woods' name appeared in the field for the April 7-10 Masters on the golf tournament's official website.
Will he or won't he? Woods is named among 91 participants for the Masters, a tournament he has won five times, most recently in 2019. "I wish I could tell you when I'm playing again," Woods said on 16 February this year, while hosting the Genesis Invitational tournament on the PGA Tour.
"I want to know, but I don't. My golf activity has been very limited." Woods added: "It takes time. What's frustrating is it's not at my timetable. I want to be at a certain place, but I'm not. "I've just got to continue working.
I'm getting better, yes. But as I said, not at the speed and rate that I would like. "You add in the age factor, too. You just don't quite heal as fast, which is frustrating." Woods has until next week to decide whether he will compete at the Masters.