Tiger Woods just made his long-awaited return to golf as the countdown to The Masters continues.
Just weeks before the world’s best converged on Augusta National, Woods made his return to competitive action in the TGL final for his Jupiter Golf Links side.
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Woods underwent his seventh back surgery last October, but he revealed at the Genesis Invitational that he was eyeing a return at this year’s Masters, where he has won five times before.
All eyes were on Woods to see how he’d fare on his return, and fans weren’t disappointed. On his first swing of the day, he carried his three-wood 270 yards on the TGL simulator, achieving a ball speed of 170 mph.
So did it make Woods more or less likely to play at The Masters this year? He revealed how he physically felt after the match.
Photo by James Gilbert/TGL/TGL Golf via Getty Images
Tiger Woods feels fine’ after making his return to competitive golf
Woods’ health update was a positive one after his return to TGL. He was swinging it extremely well, and said his body held up fine afterwards.
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The 15-time major winner said, “Feels fine physically. It was just interesting the shots because usually you have more of a rhythm when you’re actually playing a normal round of golf, hitting shots. Here, it feels like I’m getting iced a bit at times.
“It’s just a different rhythm. It’s like when you play Ryder Cup or Presidents Cups and you play in foursomes. Some matches you just don’t hit a putt for like 10, 11 holes and all of a sudden you’ve got to make a three-footer. That’s kind of what it feels like here.
“I had a couple drives I had to hit and then a couple putts. It was just — for me, it was different because I haven’t really done this. I’ve been watching these guys do it. They make it look easy. I haven’t done it in a while. It was a lot of fun, though, to be a part of it.”
So what does this mean for his chances of playing at The Masters? Unfortunately, Woods didn’t sound too optimistic.
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He said, “I’ve been trying. Just this body is – it doesn’t recover like it did when it was 24, 25. It doesn’t mean I’m not trying. I’ve been trying for a while. I’ve had a couple bad injuries here over the past years that I’ve had to fight through and it’s taken some time.
“But I keep trying. I want to play. I love the tournament. I’ve loved being there since I was 19 years old. It’s meant a lot to me and my family over the years. I’m going to be there either way with The Loop that’s going up there, as well as the Champions Dinner.”
When asked when he thinks he’ll be able to make the decision, Woods answered: “I don’t know, we’ll see how it goes. I’ll be practising playing at home this week and keep trying to make progress.”
How Tiger Woods performed on TGL return
Woods was in fine form on his return to golf, but his rust really showed up in his short game.
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He was ripping drives off the tee, hitting a stinger drive 318 yards, and hitting his three wood 272 and 281 with his two swings of that club.
His play on the greens left much to be desired, but that is typically where players suffer most when they are sidelined from the sport. The most jarring moment of the evening was a missed four-foot putt that lipped out.
In fact, Woods didn’t hole a single shot all evening for Jupiter, who lost in the TGL final to Tommy Fleetwood and Justin Rose’s LAGC.
But as one of the greatest short game players of all time, Woods’ touch on and around the green is sure to return quickly, especially if he decides to tee off at Augusta National which he knows so very well.
