Tiger Woods insists that he still wants to make his major return at The Masters and is ‘trying’ to be fit to feature at Augusta National next month, live on Your Site.
Woods has completed just four 72-hole tournaments in the last five years and only featured in 11 official events during that period, following multiple injury setbacks since his career-threatening car crash in 2021.
The 50-year-old has not appeared on the PGA Tour since missing the cut at The Open in July 2024, having undergone back surgery later that year, torn his Achilles last spring and then undergone disk replacement surgery in October.
Woods featured for Jupiter Links GC on Tuesday in the final night of the TGL season, , although remains unsure whether he will be able to feature in the opening major of the year.
"It [the body] doesn't recover like it did when it was 24, 25," Woods admitted. "It doesn't mean I'm not trying. I've been trying for a while. I've had a couple bad injuries here over the past years that I've had to fight through and it's taken some time.
"I keep trying. I want to play. I love the tournament. I've loved being there since I was 19 years old. It's meant a lot to me and my family over the years. I'm going to be there either way with The Loop that's going up there, as well as the Champions Dinner."
On whether Woods would make a decision ahead of Masters week, he added: "I don't know, we'll see how it goes. I'll be practicing, playing at home this week and keep trying to make progress."
Woods replaced Kevin Kisner to join Max Homa and Tom Kim in the Jupiter Links line-up, where he hit two drives over 300 yards - including a 318-yard trademark stinger - and also fired a 272-yard three-wood to help win a hole.
The former world No 1 only played nine shots across the match, which included a missed putt from inside four feet, as Los Angeles fought back from 2-0 down to win five consecutive holes to wrap up victory with five holes to spare.
"Feels fine physically," Woods insisted. "It was just interesting because usually you have more of a rhythm when you're actually playing a normal round of golf, hitting shots. Here it feels like I'm getting iced a bit at times.
"I had a couple drives I had to hit and then a couple putts. For me, it was different because I haven't really done this. I've been watching these guys do it. They make it look easy. I haven't done it in a while. It was a lot of fun, though, to be a part of it."
On the TGL defeat, Woods added: "We got our a** kicked at the end. Three eagles in a row, we didn't respond. I missed a short one to kind of get it started and give them momentum and we never got it back.
"I'm frustrated that we didn't get it done, we had opportunities like last night - we should have won that match - and they steamrolled us at the end."
Woods is listed in the field for The Masters as a past champion and has no deadline to commit to featuring in this year's contest, leaving him more time to decide whether he feels physically ready to return.
He used the 2022 contest as a previous injury comeback, less than 14 months on from a car crash leaving him with serious leg and ankle injuries, where he battled to a 47th-placed finish after back-to-back 78s over the weekend.
Woods withdrew ahead of the final day of the 2023 contest, won by Jon Rahm, where he sat bottom of the leaderboard after cold weather aggravated plantar fasciitis in his foot and left him struggling to walk.
He made a record 24th consecutive cut at the event in 2024, before carding a third-round 82 - the worst round of his major career as a professional - and finishing last of those who made the weekend.
Woods missed Rory McIlroy's victory last year due to the Achilles injury, which subsequently ruled him out of the entire major season.
His five Masters wins came in 1997, 2001, 2002, 2005 and 2019, leaving him one behind Jack Nicklaus' record of six victories at Augusta National.
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