{"id":553706,"date":"2026-03-30T06:25:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T06:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/553706\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T06:25:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T06:25:09","slug":"will-tiger-woods-play-in-the-masters-explaining-what-goes-into-that-decision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/553706\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Tiger Woods play in the Masters? Explaining what goes into that decision"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the ramifications of Tiger Woods\u2019 rollover crash and DUI charge<\/a> on Friday continue to unfold, more questions present themselves.<\/p>\n

While a week ago, all focus was on whether Woods could physically play in the Masters, which starts on April 9, there are now complicating factors. Augusta National Golf Club wields more unilateral power than most professional sports leagues. And it has a long history of using it.<\/p>\n

So what does this all mean for Woods, the 2026 Masters and what could happen next week? Let\u2019s explain.<\/p>\n

When is the deadline to enter the Masters?<\/p>\n

There isn\u2019t one. Unlike PGA Tour events, where players must formally commit by 5 p.m. Friday the week before a tournament, players are simply invited to the Masters and are considered in the field unless otherwise noted. In theory, a player can take their decision up until Thursday before the first round.<\/p>\n

Normally, there\u2019s a common courtesy for players to notify Augusta National as early as possible. For example, there are already 15 past champions confirmed as not playing.<\/p>\n

But Woods has taken advantage of the flexibility before. In 2022, just a year after he nearly lost his leg in a car crash<\/a>, he made a surprise appearance in the days leading up to the Masters. He decided on Tuesday to play.<\/p>\n

What were the chances he was going to play before Friday?<\/p>\n

Pretty slim. He refused to rule out a return when asked in February and said he was hitting full shots, but he also acknowledged his focus was more on his responsibilities with the PGA Tour\u2019s Future Competition Committee.<\/p>\n

Woods then increased intrigue when he played last Tuesday in the TGL Finals<\/a>, but Woods, a co-founder of the simulator league, hit just five shots outside of putts and didn\u2019t play any of the full singles holes. He didn\u2019t look sharp, but he still had some of the goods as he hit a nice stinger and put an approach near the pin from 279 yards out. Still, the gap between being able to hit five shots on a simulator and playing multiple rounds at the extremely hilly Augusta National is hard to put into words.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been trying. Just this body is \u2014 it doesn\u2019t recover like it did when it was 24, 25,\u201d Woods said Tuesday. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t mean I\u2019m not trying. I\u2019ve been trying for a while. I\u2019ve had a couple bad injuries here over the past years that I\u2019ve had to fight through, and it\u2019s taken some time. But I keep trying. I want to play. I love the tournament. I\u2019ve loved being there since I was 19 years old. It\u2019s meant a lot to me and my family over the years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Does the Masters have character rules for its participants?<\/p>\n

This is a tricky one, and the answer is unwritten and takes some reading between the lines. There is no published set of character rules, but there is a history of players sitting out (or perhaps being politely nudged to do so) while dealing with off-the-course issues.<\/p>\n

There are on-course examples too, like defending champ Frank Stranahan getting kicked out of the 1948 Masters for playing two balls during a practice round, but even then, there were also rumors of it really being about an inappropriate fling with a woman who was in a relationship with a member. Or there are plenty of times Augusta National will quietly \u201cask\u201d a past champion to stop playing the tournament when they\u2019ve overstayed their welcome.<\/p>\n

Broadcasters like Jack Whitaker and Gary McCord stopped covering the tournament after using terms like \u201cmob\u201d and \u201cbikini wax,\u201d respectively, on the broadcast. Wayne Player, Gary\u2019s son, was banned from Augusta National after an \u201cambush marketing\u201d stunt during the ceremonial opening tee shot in 2021.<\/p>\n

And then there are examples like Phil Mickelson, who took a quiet \u201cleave of absence\u201d in early 2022 after he was quoted describing how he was using Saudia Arabia\u2019s Public Investment Fund as leverage on the PGA Tour, despite the Saudis being \u201cscary mother\u2014\u2014-.\u201d Publicly, Mickelson said he decided to do so, and ANGC Chairman Fred Ridley maintained Mickelson was invited. But questions were raised (and reported) about how much influence the tour and the Masters had over that decision.<\/p>\n

Similarly, 2009 champion Angel Cabrera didn\u2019t play for five years while dealing with legal issues from a domestic violence charge, but there was never a formal suspension. After Cabrera\u2019s 2 1\/2 year prison sentence, Ridley said he\u2019d be welcomed back once he straightened out his visa situation. Cabrera returned in 2025<\/a> and is in the field again this year.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Tiger Woods celebrates winning the 2019 Masters. (Andrew Redington \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

If Tiger won\u2019t play, will he still go to Augusta?<\/p>\n

This is likely the main question right now. The plan was indeed for Woods to, at the very least, be in Augusta for next week\u2019s opening of The Patch, an 18-hole municipal course the club has renovated, as Woods and his firm designed a 9-hole short course called The Loop on the site.<\/p>\n

Woods also planned on attending the annual Champions Dinner. Now, it\u2019s less clear as Woods deals with legal issues from his DUI charge and greater scrutiny of his off-course life. He was not at the Masters in 2025, citing his recent surgery for an Achilles issue.<\/p>\n

What is Tiger\u2019s relationship with Augusta National like?<\/p>\n

It is perhaps the most complicated relationship in Augusta National history. Woods is, along with Jack Nicklaus, among the club\u2019s greatest icons and ambassadors. From his runaway win in 1997, as a 21-year-old becoming the first player of color to win the tournament, to 2019, when at 43 he authored perhaps the greatest comeback story in golf history, Woods has created more iconography here than anyone. His 2001 win completed the Tiger Slam, the first golfer to win the four modern majors in a row. His 2005 win included his chip-in on No. 16 that will go down among the most famous moments in golf history.<\/p>\n

But he\u2019s also been scolded by the club. In 2010, after Woods\u2019 cheating scandal, former ANGC Chairman Billy Payne unleashed an unprecedented public scolding in his annual pre-tournament press conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not simply the degree of his conduct that is so egregious here,\u201d Payne said. \u201cIt is the fact that he disappointed all of us, and more importantly, our kids and our grandkids. Our hero did not live up to the expectations of the role model we saw for our children.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps the pure reverence from his 2019 win and Woods\u2019 involvement in The Loop showed the relationship has been mended, if not becoming stronger. But there\u2019s a history of Augusta National punishing Woods for his private life, and that\u2019s worth remembering in the coming days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the ramifications of Tiger Woods\u2019 rollover crash and DUI charge on Friday continue to unfold, more questions…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":553707,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-553706","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=553706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}