AUGUSTA, Georgia (KXAN) — Perhaps the greatest golfer of all time is back at the Masters, at least for now.
Tiger Woods, who has been at Augusta National Golf Club preparing for the biggest tournament in professional golf, said he plans to compete during a press conference Tuesday, much to the delight of golf fans around the world.
"As of right now, I feel like I'm going to play," Woods said in a press conference Tuesday. When asked if he thought he could win the tournament, which he's done five times before, his answer was simple.
"I do," he said.
Woods will start his 2022 Masters Tournament Thursday at 10:34 a.m. EDT, grouped with Louis Oosthuizen and Joaquin Niemann for the first and second round.
Woods hasn't competed in a tour event since he crashed his SUV in February 2021. He shattered his tibia and fibula in his right leg in the crash, which led to a 3-month hospital stay and put him in a wheelchair temporarily.
He said he's wearing metal spikes in his golf shoes to give him more stability. He last played at The Masters in November 2020 after it was moved back due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
He's not just there to take a nice walk by the magnolia trees, either. He's playing to win.
"If I don't think I could win, I wouldn't enter," he told reporters. Woods played a practice round at Augusta last week. "When I decide to hang it up and decide I can't win anymore, that'll be it. But I still feel like I can do it."
Woods said he still feels pain in his leg and his back, which has undergone multiple surgeries, but he's going to play nine more practice holes to test out his body and see how he feels. But, as he indicated during the press conference, all signs are pointing to a return.
Woods, 46, last played competitive golf with his son Charlie at PNC Championships in December 2021. During the 2022 Genesis Invitational which he hosted, just days before the crash, he said he wouldn't return to a full PGA schedule and that he'd "pick and choose" what events he would play. He was recovering from another back surgery during that time.
Betting odds are always shaded toward Woods when he's in the field. Current odds have Tiger at 50-1 to win the first major of 2022.
