Tiger Woods Planning To Play The Masters
At a press conference on Tuesday morning, five-time Masters champion and 15-time major champion Tiger Woods (pictured) announced that he plans to play at The Masters, beginning this Thursday at Augusta National in Augusta, Georgia.
This would be the first PGA Tour tournament that he's played in more than a year (since the Genesis Invitational at Riviera CC near Los Angeles). He was severely injured in an automobile accident in the days after the tournament back in February of 2021.
Woods' quotes today from his press conference included:
"As of right now I feel like I'm going to play."
Woods was asked "Do you think you can win the Masters this week?", Tiger responded "I do."
Tiger last won the Masters in 2019 with a thrilling one-shot victory over Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, and Zander Schauffele.
He last played over the Christmas holiday in a Father/Son tournament in Florida with his son, Charlie. And his last public appearance was in March when he was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in Florida.
This year is also the 25th anniversary of Tiger's historic 12-shot victory at Augusta to win his first major championship (1997). His -18 winning score stood until Dustin Johnson broke that in 2020 with his -20 winning score.
The 86th Masters begins on Thursday morning in Augusta, Georgia with round 1. Round 2 is on Friday, and rounds 3 & 4 are Saturday and Sunday, respectively.
Michigan State University fifth-year senior golfer James Piot is in the field this year as the current U.S. Amateur champion. He won the Amateur last August at Oakmont Country Club in Pennsylvania with a 2 & 1 victory over fellow American Austin Greaser (who's also in the Masters field this week).