Tiger Woods has remained silent on his current fitnessGETTY
Tiger Woods will officially tee it up at Augusta National next month after the 15-time major winner was listed in the field for the 2024 Masters on Wednesday.
The 48-year-old is continuing his comeback from ankle surgery after he was forced to withdraw from last year’s Masters following the third round due to injury.
Tiger Woods last played competitively at the Genesis Invitational in February where he was also forced to withdraw, this time through illness just six holes into the second round.
The golf legend backed out of the Genesis after suffering ‘flu-like symptoms’ and entering his second round with a fever, his business partner and close friend Rob McNamara had said.
There had been anticipation for Woods to bounce back from his early exit from Riviera Country Club with an appearance at The Players Championship last week.
Tiger Woods had revealed his intention to play a tournament per month throughout 2024, while speaking to the media at the Hero World Challenge at the trail end of last year, and many viewed the prestigious event at TPC Sawgrass a likely tune up for the first major of the year.
However, it was revealed that Woods would not be playing The Players after he missed the 5pm ET deadline to commit on the Friday before the tournament.
It came as somewhat of a surprise for the icon to skip the prestigious event with this year marking its 50th anniversary.
But fans of the icon will not be left disappointed again as Woods was listed in the 2024 field for The Masters when the major’s website refreshed Wednesday morning.
Woods was among the PGA Tour’s Player Directors who met with LIV Golf’s chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan in the Bahamas on Monday amid the ongoing negotiations between the Tour and the breakaway’s Saudi financiers, PIF.
According to Dan Rapaport, Woods played some holes with Al-Rumayyan while they were in Albany for the meeting.
Woods made a remarkable return to competitive golf at The Masters in 2022, just 14 months after a single-car crash in February 2021 almost cost him his leg.
The injuries he sustained during the accident have made walking the course a struggle with the 82-time winner on the PGA Tour limping at times.
Woods was in visible pain during the wet, blustery third round at Augusta National last year, before being forced to withdraw due to reaggravated plantar fasciitis.
He underwent surgery in April to help with the injury and kept a relatively low profile on and off the course, before making a competitive return at the Hero World Challenge.
The previous concern over Woods’ ability to play a round was not his game itself but rather the issue of walking the course due to the pain in his ankle and leg.
However, following the surgery, he revealed that walking was no longer as great a concern.
‘I’m not concerned at all walking it,’ he said back in November. ‘I don’t have any of the ankle pains I had with the hardware that has been placed in my foot. That’s all gone, but it’s more the other parts of my body, my knee hurts, my back, the forces go somewhere else. Just like when I had my back fused, the forces got to go somewhere. It’s up the chain.
‘So as I said, I’m just as curious as with all of you what’s going to happen. I haven’t done this in a while.’
Augusta National has been a special place for Woods and his career, providing the site for not only his 2022 return but also his triumphant comeback in 2019 when he won his fifth Masters and his first major in 11 years – 15th in total.
Woods’ last win on Tour came at the 2019 Zozo Championship, where he tied Sam Snead’s record for all-time PGA Tour wins of 82.
He has repeatedly insisted that he will not enter tournaments if he doesn’t believe he has a chance of winning.
When pressed on whether that meant he still believes he can win again, which could break his tie with Sam Snead for the PGA Tour record wins, the golf icon adamantly responded: ‘Absolutely.’
