Tiger Woods has not played since withdrawing from the Genesis Invitational in February but has been spotted at Augusta National.
Tiger Woods was spotted practising at Augusta just a fortnight before the Masters begins. The 48 year old hasn’t competed since he withdrew from the Genesis Invitational in February due to flu.
Woods made a comeback earlier this month, playing in the Seminole Pro-Member with his friend and business partner Rory McIlroy. Unlike McIlroy, Woods didn’t participate in the Arnold Palmer Invitational or The Players Championship in order to further his recovery.
Recently, he played a round with Yasir Al-Rummayan, the governor of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, in The Bahamas, ahead of discussions about a merger between LIV Golf and the PGA Tour.
Now, Woods has been seen on a scouting mission at Augusta. His Gulfstream G550 jet was tracked flying into Augusta.
Sports Illustrated reported that he played with club chairman Fred Ridley and fellow pro Justin Thomas. Woods is listed for his 26th appearance at the tournament, which would be his second event of the year.
If he makes the cut, the five-time Masters winner will break a record. He’s made the cut 24 times in a row, starting in 1997 when he first won the Green Jacket.
Woods has only missed the cut once, in 1996.
Nearly 30 years later, he’s set to return. After saying he planned to play an event every month this year, Woods appears keen to makeup for not meeting those plans in March, except in Seminole.
“Once a month seems reasonable,” Woods said of his playing schedule last year. “It gives me a couple of weeks to recover and a week to tune up. Maybe I can get into the rhythm.”
It’s now almost a year since Woods admitted before the last Masters that he didn’t know how many more he could play. Days later, Woods pulled out halfway through the tournament because of an injury, after playing through torrential weather conditions.
He then had fusion surgery on his arthritic right ankle the following month.
Earlier this year, he said he was feeling good and offered a positive outlook on his health status. Woods shared: “My ankle doesn’t hurt any more – the bones aren’t rubbing any more.
“But then again it’s different – other parts of my body have to take the brunt of it, just like my back is fused, and so other parts of my body have taken the brunt of that.”
He had some trouble with back spasms at Riviera when he came back to the Tour, before later being taken sick with a bout of flu.
