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AUGUSTA, Ga. — Barring a setback within the subsequent 4 days, it appears doubtless that five-time Masters champion Tiger Woods will make his twenty sixth look at Augusta Nationwide Golf Membership this week.
Woods, 48, flew from Stuart, Florida to Augusta on Sunday and spent a while on the membership’s follow space together with his caddie, Lance Bennett. Woods and Bennett labored collectively on the Genesis Invitational at Riviera Nation Membership exterior Los Angeles in February.
Augusta Nationwide Golf Membership posted pictures of Woods working towards Sunday on its X account.
A Sunday stroll. #themasters pic.twitter.com/2El1GGM1Fj
— The Masters (@TheMasters) April 7, 2024
Will probably be the primary time Woods and Bennett have labored collectively at Augusta Nationwide. Woods’ former caddie, Joe LaCava, who helped him win his fifth inexperienced jacket in 2019, is now working as Patrick Cantlay’s full-time caddie.
This week, Woods will try and set a Masters file by making the reduce for the twenty fourth consecutive time. Final yr, he made the 36-hole reduce and tied Gary Player and Fred Couples however was pressured to withdraw earlier than the rain-delayed third spherical resumed after aggravating plantar fasciitis in his proper foot.
In his final begin, Woods was pressured to withdraw from the Genesis Invitational through the second spherical due to sickness. The 15-time main champion later confirmed that he was battling the flu. Woods additionally handled decrease again tightness throughout that match.
Notah Begay III, Woods’ former teammate at Stanford and a golf analyst for NBC Sports activities, stated on a convention name final week that Woods was affected by decrease again issues.
“He is making an attempt to formulate a method and method that he can work inside given the constraints that he is introduced with — and he is acquired some constraints,” Begay stated “He is acquired zero mobility in that left ankle and actually has low-back challenges now, which he knew he was going to have.”
Woods’ look on the Genesis Invitational, which advantages his basis, was his solely look on the PGA Tour this season. Due to his inactivity, the previous world No. 1 golfer is presently ranked 950th within the Official World Golf Rating.
Woods had surgical procedure on April 19, 2023 to deal with post-traumatic arthritis in his proper ankle that was attributable to accidents suffered in a February 2021 automobile wreck.
Woods performed in a one-day pro-member match at Seminole Golf Membership in Juno Seaside, Florida, in early March. He reportedly performed with Yasir Al-Rumayyan, governor of Saudi Arabia’s Public Funding Fund, within the Bahamas earlier than Woods and different PGA Tour coverage board participant administrators met with PIF officers a couple of potential funding.
Since returning to skilled golf after the automobile wreck, Woods has withdrawn or missed the reduce in 4 of his six begins. His two finishes have been a tie for forty fifth within the 2023 Genesis Invitational and a solo forty seventh within the 2022 Masters.
“For the previous couple months, he is been looking for a option to recuperate,” Begay stated. “He can play the golf. We all the time knew the query was going to be ‘Can he stroll the 72 [holes]?’ That is nonetheless up within the air. However can he recuperate from one spherical to the subsequent? That is the largest query that I actually do not know, and he isn’t going to know both till he will get on the market and figures out whether or not the best way he is ready for this yr’s Masters goes to work for him.”
Woods’ final top-20 end on the PGA Tour was a tie for ninth on the 2020 Farmers Insurance coverage Open. He completed exterior the highest 20 in 14 consecutive tour begins, his longest drought as knowledgeable, in keeping with ESPN Stats & Info analysis.
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