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AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — Tiger Woods says, for now anyway, he is planning to play this week within the Masters, a bit of greater than a 12 months after almost shedding a leg in a automotive crash.
The five-time champion at Augusta Nationwide made the announcement Tuesday morning. He’ll play 9 extra follow holes on Wednesday earlier than making a ultimate choice, however shall be doing so with the intention of enjoying Thursday.
“As of proper now,” Woods mentioned, “I really feel like I will play.”
Woods was requested if he believes he can win this week. “I do,” he mentioned.
“I can hit it simply positive,” Woods added. “I don’t have any qualms about what I can do bodily from a golf standpoint. It’s now, strolling’s the onerous half. This isn’t a simple stroll to start with. Now given the situation that my leg is in, it will get a bit of tougher. And 72 holes is a protracted street. It’s going to be a troublesome problem and a problem that I’m up for.”
There had been loads of indicators in latest days that Woods was on the cusp of deciding it was time to play once more. He got here to Augusta Nationwide for a follow spherical final week, then returned Sunday — saying he’d be “a game-time choice” — and Monday for extra. On Tuesday morning, with unhealthy climate within the forecast, he spent loads of time within the follow areas.
“It’s nice to be again,” Woods mentioned.
He is scheduled to tee off Thursday at 10:34 a.m. with Louis Oosthuizen and Joaquin Niemann. That threesome performs once more Friday beginning at 1:41 p.m.
Woods performed in December on the PNC Problem, a 36-hole scramble on a flat Florida course the place he and his son Charlie completed second to John Daly and his son. Woods was allowed to make use of a cart in that occasion, and when these rounds had been over he flatly dismissed any notion that his recreation was tour-ready once more.
“I can’t compete towards these guys proper now, no,” Woods mentioned on Dec. 19. “It’s going to take lots of work to get to the place I really feel like I can compete at these guys and be at a excessive degree.”
About 3-1/2 months later, Woods apparently feels otherwise. If he performs, he’ll be within the Masters for the twenty fourth time; he is completed within the high 5 12 occasions in his earlier 23 appearances.
“I really like competing,” Woods mentioned. “I really feel like if I can nonetheless compete on the highest degree, I’m going to. And if I really feel like I can nonetheless win, I’m going to play. But when I really feel like I can’t, then you definitely received’t see me out right here.”
Thursday’s opening spherical would mark the primary time Woods competes towards the world’s finest gamers since Nov. 15, 2020, which was the ultimate spherical of that 12 months’s pandemic-delayed Masters.
He had his fifth again surgical procedure two months later and was nonetheless recovering from that on Feb. 23, 2021 when he crashed his SUV over a median on a suburban coastal street in Los Angeles and down the aspect of a hill.
Woods’ accidents from that crash had been so extreme that docs thought-about proper leg amputation, earlier than reassembling the limb by putting a rod within the tibia and utilizing screws and pins to stabilize further accidents within the ankle and foot.
“It has been a troublesome, robust 12 months … however right here we’re,” Woods mentioned.
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Extra AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf and https://twitter.com/AP—Sports activities
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