Tiger Woods will finally return to competition this Tuesday in the final of the TGL and his comeback has implications that go far beyond the result of Jupiter Links. A week before April begins, his presence in the indoor league brings back to the fore a question that has been hovering over world golf for weeks: to what extent can he make it in time to play the Masters at Augusta.
Woods, 50, has been included in the Jupiter Links lineup for the second match of the final against Los Angeles Golf Club, a best-of-three series in which his team must win to force a decider after the defeat in the opening match held earlier this morning. He will replace Kevin Kisner and will team up with Max Homa and Tom Kim. He is also scheduled for a possible third meeting. Competitively, that is the news. Symbolically, there is much more.
Tiger’s appearance marks his debut this season in the TGL after the back surgery he underwent in October. He has not competed since, and his physical situation has remained wrapped in the usual caution that now surrounds each of his moves. Therefore, although the TGL does not have the physical demands of a conventional tournament, seeing him back in action is an important sign. There are no four days of championship play, no long walks, nor the wear and tear of a major, but it is a competitive step forward that he had not yet taken.
This step inevitably connects with Augusta. Woods himself recently admitted that he is still working with the idea of trying to make the Masters, albeit without certainty. His presence this Tuesday does not confirm anything definitively, but it does reinforce the feeling that that objective is still alive. If he feels fit to compete, even in a more controlled format, it is reasonable to think that the next test on his mind will be the first major of the year.
The Masters will begin in just over two weeks and would be Woods’s 27th appearance at Augusta National, the setting where he claimed his fifth green jacket in 2019. We’ll have to wait.
