Tiger Woods insists he can win a sixth green jacket and 16th major title, despite detailing the pain he faces on the vast majority of shots at Augusta National. (More Golf News)
Woods has played fewer than five-and-a-half competitive ro🎉unds since undergoing ankle surgery in April last year after withdrawing from the Masters during the third r✨ound.
The 48-year-old returned to action in the Hero World Challenge in December and completed all 72 holes, but was forced 💖to withdraw from the Genesis Invitational in February due to illness after six holes of the second round.
Woods had🔯 also suffered a back spasm which led to a dreaded shank on the 18th hole in round one, but stuck to his tried and tested answer when asked what he thought he could achieve this week.
“If everything comes together, I think I can get one more,” Woods said, adding with a smile: “Do I need t꧋o describe that any more than that, or are we good?”
Yet that question and answer came just minutes after Woods had candidly described the issues that the litany of inju💮ries he has suffered over the years – including almost losing his right leg following a car accident in 2021 – cause him on anything but a perfectly🌊 flat lie.
“Every sho♔t 🍒that’s not on a tee box is a challenge,” Woods conceded.
“The ankle doesn’t hurt anymore. It’s fused. It’s not going ⛎anywhere. So that’s fine. It’s other parts of my body that now ha൩ve to take the brunt of it.
“The back, the knee, other parts of the body ꧒have to take the load of it and just the endurance capability of walking a long time and being on my feet for a long time (is an issue).
“Things just flare up. The training that we have to do at🏅 home, it changes from a day-to-day basis. Some days I just feel really goo༒d and other days not so much. I hurt every day.
“I thought that, when I was at Hero, once a month would be a really nice rhythm. Hasn’t woꦗrked out that way. But now we have major championships every month from here through July so now the once a month hopefully kicks in.”
While writing Woods off has proved a dangerouᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚs game in the past, making a 24th-consecutive cut at Augusta National, having equalled the record shared by Gary Player and Fred Couples last year, appears a far more achievable goal than winning.
“I think it’s consistency, it’s longevity and it’s an understanding of how to play this golf course,” Woods said of that potential landmark.
“That’s one of the reasons why you see players that are in their 50s and 60s make cuts here, or it’s players in their late 40s have runs at winning the event, just the understanding ꦑof how to play it.
“Now, you still have to go out and execute it, but there’s a lot of knowledge that goes into understanding how to pla♋y it. And, granted, every tee box has bee✤n changed since the first time I played. Every green has been changed.
“But the overall configuration of how they roll and how they move and the angles you take🐲, that hasn’t change💎d.
“That’s the neat thing about this. I can still go through the 𒈔mental Rolodex and bring out a few putts from the ’90s that still move generally in that direction and the effect that Rae’s Creek has on certain shots and putts. And it means a lot.”
Woods, who will partner Jason Day and Max Homa in the first two rounds, said he remained in discussions about becoming Ryder Cup captain in 2025 and also reiterated his view that Rory McIlroy would definitely win the Masters at some point to complete the🌱 career ൩grand slam.
“No question, he’ll do it at some point,” Woods said.💃 “Rory’s too talented, too good. He’s going to be pla🐬ying this event for a very long time. He’ll get it done. It’s just a matter of when.
“I think that Rory will🐎 be a great Masters champion one day and it could be this week. The way he plays the game and the golf course fits his eye, it’s just a matter of time.”
