Tiger Woods made another comeback on Tuesday night. It lasted nine shots and included one 318-yard drive and a fluffed three-foot putt. “We got our ass kicked,” he said after his Jupiter Links team were thrashed by Los Angeles Golf Club in the finals of his TGL indoor simulator league. And so to the Masters?
After Justin Rose, Tommy Fleetwood and Sahith Theegala beat Woods, Tom Kim and Max Homa 9-2 in the TGL finale, the 15-times major winner was again not ruling out playing at Augusta next month.
Although his only other appearances since the 2024 Open were in the “hit and giggle” PNC Championship and the TGL early last year, he said: “I’ve been trying. Just this body, it doesn’t recover like it did when it was 24, 25. It doesn’t mean I’m not trying. I’ve been trying a while.
Woods showed he can still swing, but Augusta’s undulating course poses a significant physical challengeJamie Squire/Getty Images
“I’ve had a couple of bad injuries last year that I’ve had to fight and it has taken some time. I want to play. I love the tournament. I’ll be practising and playing at home this week and keep trying to make progress.”
Woods, 50, is well versed in little miracles, so do not write him off. In 2022, a year after his life-threatening car crash, he made his 23rd consecutive cut at the Masters, but it has been grim since then. Indeed, since his accident he has played eight majors, missed four cuts, withdrawn twice and finished 47th and 60th.
Yet his stature is such that even striking one solid drive into a simulator screen garners microscopic attention. Can he still swing? Can he walk? Yes, and a bit, are those answers.
Augusta, however, is a topographical nightmare for him. It is an undulating course that will test him physically, let alone the technically. Such is his love of the place, and the knowledge that it is unlikely to get any easier from here, that he may wait until the last minute before deciding whether he will play. His absence means he is now ranked No3,483 in the world, but he gets in as a past champion.
Despite his age and lowly ranking of No3483, Woods is still a bucket-list draw for fans, as he proved at the 2024 Open Pedro Salado/Getty Images
It is not just “the ass” that is the problem. Seven back surgeries mean the old Big Cat is as agile as an old fireside tabby these days. And lest we forget, it was five years last month since he crashed that car, nearly lost a leg and suffered a shattered ankle; a year since he ruptured his achilles; six months since he had a disc replacement. The competitive fire is still burning, as witnessed by his reaction when he missed that short putt, but it would be a feat of rare resilience if he made it through four major rounds. He must look at the form of Rose, only five years younger, with some envy.
If Woods does make it to Augusta then, regardless of what he will say, he is not going there to win. The denial is an essential part of his belief, and his friend Notah Begay III says one of his assets is being unafraid of embarrassment in front of the world. But everyone else should know better by now and accept Woods is battling to become the very thing he always said he would never be: a ceremonial golfer.
Woods once said that if a time came when he could not win, he would walk away from the sportAndrew Redington/Getty Images
There is nothing wrong with that, and the urge to retire great sportspeople when they are waning talents is an unseemly trait. Andy Murray was subject to that, but like Woods, he had the right to choose when it was his time. Woods remains the premier bucket-list draw for fans.
He is facing a dilemma, though. Three years ago he said: “There will come a point in time — and I haven’t come around to it fully yet — when I won’t be able to win again. When that day comes, I will walk — now I can walk.”
Maybe what has transpired since has changed his mind and playing is enough for him. Certainly, Augusta National will want him as an honorary starter down the line, but Jack Nicklaus was 70 when he took on that role and Arnold Palmer was 77.
We can be sure Woods will not give up early. When Ian Woosnam finally stopped playing at Augusta in his sixties because of a spinal condition, he said: “Augusta is like paradise, but it’s a killer too.” Ditto for Woods, who is not facing a race against time to make the Masters, but rather a painful endurance race against age and a battered body.