Tiger Woods on competing at The Masters 2022 Event: ‘As of right now, I feel like I am going to play’. Tiger Woods last competed at the Masters in 2020 and won the event in 2019, for his 15th Major.
“As of right now, I feel like I am going to play, as of right now,” Woods said during a news conference Tuesday. “I’m going to play nine more holes [Wednesday]. My recovery has been good. I’ve been very excited about how I’ve recovered each and every day, and that’s been the challenge.”
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He put emphasis the second time he said, “as of right now,” alluding to his earlier declaration that his status for the 86th Masters will be a game-time decision.
“I’m going to play nine more holes tomorrow. My recovery has been good. I’ve been very excited about how I’ve recovered each and every day, and that’s been the challenge,” Woods said. “How am I going to get all the swelling out and recover for the next day?
“I’ve worked hard. My team has been unbelievable. I’ve been lucky to have had great surgeons and great PTs and physios that have worked on me virtually every day. And we’ve worked hard to get to this point … It’s been a tough, tough year,” said Woods, who had multiple surgeries to his right leg after the crash.
“I do,” Woods answered when asked if he could win his sixth green jacket this week. “I can hit it just fine. I don’t have any qualms about what I can do physically from a golf standpoint. It’s now walking is the hard part.
“This is normally not an easy walk to begin with. Now given the conditions that my leg is in, it gets even more difficult. You know, 72 holes is a long road, and it’s going to be a tough challenge and a challenge that I’m up for.”
Woods is grouped for the first two rounds with South Africa’s Louis Oosthuizen and Joaquin Niemann of Chile. They’re scheduled to tee off the second round at 1:41 p.m. ET on Friday.
His dramatic return comes 25 years after the 1997 Masters, the first of his 15 major championships. Woods was only 21 when he transformed the game — and his life — by becoming the first nonwhite golfer to win the sports most storied tournament.
Woods said it is “hard to believe it’s been 25 years.”
“It’s great to be back and be able to feel the energy and the excitement of the patrons again.”
Following an outstanding junior, college, and amateur golf career, Woods turned professional in 1996 at the age of 20. By the end of April 1997, he won three PGA Tour events in addition to his first major, the 1997 Masters, which he won by 12 strokes in a record-breaking performance. He reached number one in the world rankings for the first time in June 1997, less than a year after turning pro. Throughout the first decade of the 21st century, Woods was the dominant force in golf. He was the top-ranked golfer in the world from August 1999 to September 2004 (264 consecutive weeks) and again from June 2005 to October 2010 (281 consecutive weeks). During this time, he won 13 of golf’s major championships.
On his return to regular competition, Woods made steady progress to the top of the game, winning his first tournament in five years at the Tour Championship in September 2018 and his first major in 11 years at the 2019 Masters.
Woods has held numerous golf records. He has been the number one player in the world for the most consecutive weeks and for the greatest total number of weeks of any golfer in history. He has been awarded PGA Player of the Year a record 11 times and has won the Byron Nelson Award for lowest adjusted scoring average a record eight times. Woods has the record of leading the money list in ten different seasons. He has won 15 professional major golf championships (trailing only Jack Nicklaus, who leads with 18) and 82 PGA Tour events (tied for first all time with Sam Snead). Woods leads all active golfers in career major wins and career PGA Tour wins. Woods is the fifth (after Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus) player to achieve the career Grand Slam, and the youngest to do so. He is also the second golfer (after Nicklaus) to achieve a career Grand Slam three times.
On February 23, 2021, Woods was hospitalized in serious but stable condition after a single-car collision and underwent emergency surgery to repair compound fractures sustained in each leg in addition to a shattered ankle.[15] In an interview with Golf Digest in November 2021, Woods indicated that his full-time career as a professional golfer was over, although he would continue to play “a few events per year”.
As a nine year-old, Tiger made a bold commitment to his father, Earl: I’m going to be professionally excellent
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Tiger (Eldrick) Woods, born December 30, 1975, is a professional golfer and entrepreneur.
Since turning professional in 1996, Tiger has built an unprecedented competitive career. His achievements on the course–106 worldwide wins and 15 majors–have mirrored his success off the course as well.
Woods serves as Founder and CEO of TGR, a multibrand enterprise comprised of his various companies and philanthropic endeavors, including TGR Design, the golf course design company; The TGR Foundation, a charitable foundation; TGR Live, an events production company; and The Woods Jupiter, an upscale sports restaurant.
He has 82 PGA TOUR wins, tied with Sam Snead, holding the record for most wins in history. His majors victories include the five Masters Tournaments, four PGA Championships, three U.S. Open Championships, and three British Open Championships. With his second Masters victory in 2001, Tiger became the first golfer ever to hold all four professional major championships at the same time.
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In winning the 2000 British Open at St. Andrews, Woods became the youngest to complete the career Grand Slam of professional major championships and only the fifth ever to do so, following Ben Hogan, Gene Sarazen, Gary Player, and Jack Nicklaus. Tiger was also the youngest Masters champion ever, at the age of 21 years, three months and 14 days, and was the first major championship winner of African or Asian heritage. The 2000 U.S. Open and 2001 Masters victories came by record margins, 15 strokes and 12 strokes, respectively.
He is the career victories leader among active players on the PGA TOUR, and is the career money list leader.
Despite being unable to play the majority of 2016, Woods, the entrepreneur and philanthropist, made significant news. In February, the TGR Learning Lab in Anaheim celebrated its 10th anniversary, with satellite facilities now located in Washington, DC, Philadelphia and Stuart, Florida. Eight months later in October, the Tiger Woods Foundation commemorated its 20th anniversary with a gala event at the New York Public Library featuring Woods and Nike’s Phil Knight.
The Woods Jupiter celebrated its first anniversary—the restaurant opened in August, 2015—and TGR Design’s Bluejack National course located outside Houston, Texas was selected Best New Private Course by both Golf Digest and Golf Magazine/Sports Illustrated.
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He is the career victories leader among active players on the PGA TOUR, and is the career money list leader.
Tiger is the son of Earl Woods, a retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, and his wife, Kultida, a native of Thailand. He was nicknamed Tiger after a Vietnamese soldier and friend of his father, Vuong Dang Phong, to whom his father had also given that nickname.
He grew up in Cypress, California. He took an interest in golf at age 6 months, watching as his father hit golf balls into a net and imitating his swing. He appeared on The Mike Douglas Show at age 2, putting with Bob Hope. He shot 48 for nine holes at age 3 and was featured in Golf Digest at age 5.
Tiger played in his first professional tournament in 1992, at age 16, the Los Angeles Open, and made the 36-hole cut and tied for 34th place in the 1994 Johnnie Walker Asian Classic in Thailand, He entered Stanford University in 1994 and in two years he won 10 collegiate events, concluding with the NCAA title.
Woods compiled one of the most impressive amateur records in golf history, winning six USGA national championships before turning professional on August 27, 1996. He concluded his amateur career by winning an unprecedented third consecutive U.S. Amateur title, finishing with a record 18 consecutive match-play victories.
The week after winning his third U.S. Amateur title, Woods played his first tournament as a professional in the Greater Milwaukee Open. It was one of only seven events left in 1996 for him to finish among the top 125 money winners and earn a player’s card for the PGA TOUR. He won twice and placed among the top 30 money winners.
Woods won four PGA TOUR events in 1997, plus one overseas, and was the leading money winner. He achieved No. 1 on the Official World Golf Ranking for the most rapid progression ever to that position. On June 15, 1997, in his 42nd week as a professional, Woods became the youngest-ever No. 1 golfer at age 21 years, 24 weeks.
Woods won eight times on the PGA TOUR in 1999 (11 worldwide), including the PGA Championship. He won four consecutive PGA TOUR events to end the year and started 2000 with two more victories for a total of six in succession.
In 2000, Woods won 11 events, including three professional majors in the same year, and also became the first player since 1936-37 to win the PGA Championship in consecutive years. Woods won five times, including the Masters, in 2001 and eight times worldwide. He won five times again on TOUR in 2002, and seven times worldwide, and was the TOUR’s leading money winner for the fourth consecutive year.
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Woods won five times, including the Masters, in 2001 and eight times worldwide.
He won a total of 20 times from 2003-06, lead the TOUR’s money list twice and captured four majors. Woods joined Nicklaus as the only player to win the Grand Slam twice. His emotional win the following year at the British Open at Royal Liverpool came two months after his father’s death. He won the 2006 PGA Championship by five strokes at Medinah CC, the same venue where he won the event in 1999.
He began 2007 with his seventh consecutive PGA TOUR victory and ended the year with a total of seven official wins, including a second-consecutive PGA Championship. In 2008, he won four of six PGA TOUR events, including his 14th major at the U.S. Open—his last event of the year before season-ending knee surgery—plus the Dubai Desert Classic, and finished second on the TOUR money list in just six starts. At his major win at Torrey Pines, Woods sank a 12-foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole to force an eventual 19-hole playoff (tied at even-par 71 after 18 holes) the following day. He later revealed that he had played the tournament with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee and a double stress fracture in the same leg.
In 2009, he returned to the winner’s circle after 286 days and ended the year leading the PGA TOUR in victories (6) and money ($10,508,163). He also won his first tournament in Australia. He captured three tournaments in 2012 and five in 2013.
Sports Illustrated selected Woods as the 1996 and 2000 Sportsman of the Year, the first to win the award more than once. L’Equipe (France) selected him as the 2000 World Champion of Champions. The Associated Press chose Woods as the Male Athlete of the Year for 1997, 1999 and 2000. He and Michael Jordan are the only athletes to win the award three times. He was chosen ESPY Male Athlete of the Year in 1997 (tied with Ken Griffey, Jr.), 1999, 2000 and 2001. The founding members of the World Sports Academy, in voting for the Laureus Sports Awards, also selected him as the 1999 and 2000 World Sportsman of the Year. In 2008 Businessweek made Woods No. 1 in The Power 100 for the most influential people in sports. In 2009 he was selected AP Athlete of the Decade. Woods received 56 of 142 votes cast by AP editors throughout the country. He was also inducted into the Stanford Athletics Hall of Fame.
Woods was selected as the 1997, 1999, 2000-2003, 2005-2007, 2009, 2013 Player of the Year by the PGA TOUR (Jack Nicklaus Award) and the PGA of America and by the Golf Writers Association of America in 1997, 1999, 2000-2003, 2005-2007, 2009. His adjusted scoring average averages in 2000 and 2007 of 67.79 strokes were the lowest ever and earned him the Byron Nelson Award on the PGA TOUR and the Vardon Trophy from the PGA of America. He also had an actual scoring average in 2000 of 68.17, breaking Nelson’s record of 68.33 in 1945.