The long wait is over and the comeback is on.
Tiger Woods will play in the Masters beginning on Thursday, confirming his participation with the same ringing declaration that has remained true throughout his career.
‘I’m here to win,’ he said. ‘I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think it was possible. I can hit the ball just fine. I don’t have any qualms physically from a golf standpoint.
Tiger Woods has said that ‘as of right now’ he is planning to play the Masters this week
‘It’s now walking that’s the hardest part. You know, 72 holes is a long road and it is going to be a tough challenge. But it’s one that I’m up for.’
Eighteen months since his last competitive appearance and 14 months after he feared his right leg would have to be amputated following a near-fatal car accident in Los Angeles, Woods will confound the world once more at 10.34am local time on Thursday (3.24pm UK time) in the company of South African Louis Oosthuizen and Joaquin Niemann from Chile.
Woods has ended the frenzied speculation after arriving to practice at Augusta on Sunday
Wow. Is there anyone remotely interested in sport who won’t be watching?
Remotely interested in the indefatigability of the human spirit, for that matter. Just don’t refer to the comeback as complete. Not yet.
Tempting as it is, the man himself clearly has more lofty designs than simply making it to the first tee.
‘I’ll know when I can’t win anymore, and that’s when I’ll hang it up,’ he said. ‘But right now I still think it’s possible.
Woods has not played in a top-level event since being involved in a horrific car crash in 2021
‘I still have the hands to do it and I can still move. I’ve been in worse situations than I feel right now and won tournaments.’
During the course of a spell-binding and emotional press conference, Woods gave an insight into what it had taken to get this far.
He spoke of the three months he had spent immobile in a hospital bed, as numerous pins, steel plates and rods were inserted into his right leg.
The 46-year-old had to be cut from the wreckage after his runaway SUV smashed into a tree
‘I never left that hospital bed for three months even to visit my living room,’ he said.
He paid tribute to his team of surgeons and physical trainers. Asked to sum it all up in one word, he gave an instant response. ‘Thankful,’ he said.
There was also humour as well, as he addressed the extraordinary warmth he had received from 60,000 patrons during his nine holes of practice on Monday in the company of Justin Thomas and 1992 champion Freddie Couples.
‘Freddie is a very popular guy,’ he wisecracked. ‘I’m not surprised they all came out to see him.’
Woods is scheduled to tee off at 10.34am local time (15.34pm BST) in Thursday’s first round
Asked if he’d have felt frustrated if his career had been curtailed, Woods said he could have lived with it: ‘Eighty tournament victories is a pretty good number, and 15 majors isn’t bad either.’
Woods arrived at Augusta on Sunday and said it would be a ‘game-time decision’.
Rather thrillingly, he had seen enough by yesterday morning to give the green light to the green jackets and bring the verdict forward by 48 hours.
‘I’ve been very excited about how I’ve recovered each and every day, that was always going to be the challenge,’ he said.
‘How am I going to get all the swelling out and recover for the next day? My team has been fantastic. So we’ve got another day of nine more holes and then it’s game time.’
Woods started to believe he could make it after flying up last week for a practice round with his son Charlie.
Woods insisted that his rebuilt body can withstand the rigours of competing in the Masters
‘It was supposed to be 18 holes but it turned into 27 because Charlie couldn’t resist playing the par 3 course,’ he said, smiling.
‘Obviously playing my home course in Florida which is flat is one thing but I needed to test it round here, where the only flat pieces of ground are the 18 tee boxes. It went well.’
The good news continued on Sunday and Monday, as he has moved with a freedom that defied his vast litany of injuries, including five back surgeries and five knee operations.
His 15th major win was his most miraculous to date – but a win this week would eclipse that
This is his third comeback where the recovery time has taken longer than a year.
‘It’s been very hard,’ he conceded.
‘We’ve pushed it and I recover the best I can and then I see how it is the next day.
‘Then you go through that whole process again as you warm the leg up and then warm it back down and that’s it, day in, day out.
Woods won his first major as a professional by 12 shots in 1997 at the Masters in Augusta
‘It gets agonising and teasing as well because some of the things that I used to do as a matter of course now take a couple of hours here and a couple of hours there.
‘Of course, it’s not like it’s something I haven’t done before, so I can draw on that. But the times have got longer both before and after.’
The great amateur Bobby Jones, the man who built Augusta National, once famously declared that ‘I could take out of my life everything except my experiences of St Andrews, and I would still have had a rich, full life’.
Woods overcame all of his adversities to become a Masters winner once again back in 2019
Ditto Woods at Augusta. This is the 25th anniversary of his first major as a professional, one that he won by 12 shots, and the victory that had such a transformational effect on the game.
It was here in 2001 that he completed the previously unfathomable feat of holding all four majors at the same time; here that he played perhaps the greatest shot in Masters history in 2004, a holed chip from behind the 16th green; here that he achieved the most remarkable of his 15 majors in 2019.
Given all that, nowhere else would have felt right for him to make this truly astounding return.
As he made his way to the press building following a 60-minute practice session, a siren sounded signaling an approaching thunderstorm that would close the course for the day.
Given Tiger’s tumultuous impact on this event already, it seemed only appropriate that all activities should be suspended as he broke the news that felt like the answer to every golfer’s silent prayer.
TIGER WOODS’ RECOVERY TIMELINE TO PLAY THE MASTERS
February 2021 – Suffers career-threatening injuries in a serious single-vehicle car crash in Los Angeles
November 2021 – Footage of Woods hitting a shot with a wedge is posted to his social media accounts
December 8, 2021 – Woods announces he will play the PNC Championship with son Charlie
December 18, 2021 – Woods and his son produce stunning final round but finish second at the tournament in Orlando
February 2022 – Woods admits recovery has been slower than he wanted. ‘I wish I could tell you when I’m playing again,’ he said
March 29, 2022 – Fuels speculation of return after playing practice round at Augusta
April 3, 2022 – Woods practices at Augusta again with less than a week before start of the Masters
April 5, 2022 – Woods reveals in a press conference that he is planning to compete at the 2022 Masters. Will make final decision after nine practice holes on Wednesday morning
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