Tiger Woods leaves his participation in the Masters at Augusta up in the air. He neither confirms nor denies it. Basically because he can’t. His participation in the second match of the TGL final has not cleared up any doubts, mainly because this competition is light years away from what he’ll face in the first Major of the year. There is very little walking and very few shots are struck in a very short time. It was no test. Anyone who wanted to see it that way was mistaken
The conclusion is that no one in their right mind can say right now whether Tiger will play in the Masters or not. Probably not even he can. What is very clear, however, are his intentions. The winner of 15 Majors will do everything humanly possible to play at Augusta. Physically he looked really well. Yes, he still has that limp that will accompany him for the rest of his days, but he looks strong, perhaps stronger than ever in his upper body
There’s little to say about his play because very few shots are actually hit in this competition, which mixes alternate shots and a handful of individual-format holes. He still swings the club at very high speed. His ball travelled at 175 mph. He produced a beautiful stinger with the driver for the fans to admire. There is no problem there either. The great difficulty, as always, is whether his body will hold up to walking 18, 36, 54 or 72 holes
There was a time when the conclusion would have been easier: if Tiger doesn’t feel competitive, he won’t play at Augusta. If that were the case, we could already rule out his presence at the Masters. However, judging by his words yesterday, even if he sees himself with very little chance of making the cut, unless he cannot walk 18 holes, he will try
“I’m trying. It’s just that this body… doesn’t recover like it did when I was 24 or 25. That doesn’t mean I’m not trying. I’ve been trying for a while. I’ve had a couple of bad injuries here in recent years that I’ve had to battle through and it’s taken time. But I keep trying. I want to play. I love the tournament. I’ve loved being there since I was 19. It means a lot to me and my family. I’ll be there one way or another with The Loop (a nine-hole course he designed at The Patch, the municipal course very close to Augusta National), as well as the Champions Dinner”, he explains
Tiger’s statement of intent is clear: he wants to play above all else and he will try with all his might. It’s true there are only two weeks left. It’s logical to be pessimistic, but with Woods and the Masters everything is different. If his body holds up, he will play. “I don’t know when I’ll make the decision to play. We’ll see how it goes. I’m going to practice, play at home this week and keep trying to improve”
In that regard, Tiger continues to have faith in his golf. “There’s more left in the tank. I’ve never really had problems with ball speed. Ball direction is another story. I’ve hit it left and right for most of my life, hence my surname Woods. I’ve always had speed. Even now that I’m older and the body isn’t what it was, I can still get it up there. What happens is that now everyone lives at that speed or higher. We joked the other day that in ’97 I averaged 296 yards. That now is nothing. Back then I was number 2 in distance off the tee behind Daly. Now there are players who do that with a 3-wood”, he notes
As for his feelings playing the TGL final, Tiger doesn’t draw many conclusions. “Physically, fine. The curious thing was the shots, because normally you have more rhythm when you’re playing a normal round of golf. Here I feel that sometimes I cool down a bit. It’s simply a different rhythm. It’s like when you play the Ryder Cup or the Presidents Cup and you play foursomes. In some matches you don’t hit a putt for 10 or 11 holes and, suddenly, you have to make a one-metre putt. That’s a bit of what it feels like here. I had to hit a couple of drives and then a couple of putts. For me it was different because I hadn’t actually done it. I’ve been watching these guys do it. They make it look easy. I hadn’t done it in a long time. But it was a lot of fun to be part of it,” he says
There’s less time left for Tiger to make up his mind. In the meantime, let everyone place their bets. By the way, the team of Fleetwood, Rose and Theegala won 2-0 in the best-of-three final and were crowned TGL 2026 champions
