Masters Augusta, Tiger Woods: “I want to enjoy moments like this”

Here it is again. Serene and relaxed, at peace with himself, Tiger Woods is experiencing his first days at Augusta National as a gift. A bit of driving range, a couple of test laps with Rory McIlroy and Fred Couples, a few chats with friends, smiles for the fans and jokes for the press too. Here he has won 5 times but he knows that time is not infinite: “I don’t know how many Masters are left inside me, how many times I will still be able to play, but I know that I want to enjoy these moments”. Tiger is limping. Even to present himself in the conference room, he drags his right leg destroyed in the car accident in February 2021 a bit. Right here in Augsburg he returned to competitions a year ago, passing the cut in what was considered by all to be a (semi) miracle : “Twelve months ago I arrived without even knowing if I could really play, but completing 72 holes was a small victory”.

Improved

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Today Tiger, who has been the world ranking leader for 683 weeks, is world number 1001. And he has learned to smile as he rarely did in the past: “My level of play is better now than it was a year ago. Stamina has also improved. Of course, I still feel a little bad. After all, I have a pile of scrap metal inside my leg…”. The solution would be to use a cart, but he doesn’t want to ask for favouritism, even if he might be entitled to it: “To use the cart, I’ll wait until I’m 50 when maybe I could play on the Champions Tour, where the cart is allowed. After all, I already know more people who make the Champions League than those who make the regular PGA. Matter of age. Here I played with Fred Couples who when I came on the Tour he kind of dad me. It’s always nice to have a shot with Fred.” The Masters kicks off on Thursday and Tiger will play the first round alongside Viktor Hovland and Xander Schauffele at 10.18am local time, 6.18pm in Italy. Easy to predict who will be the group with the most fans in tow. Tiger never goes out of style.