Ahead of the Masters, Tiger Woods Hits the Driving Range and the Back Nine

Woods additionally performed a follow spherical final week at Augusta Nationwide.

The 15-time main champion has a popularity for keen himself to victory underneath probably the most challenging circumstances, and based mostly on his swings on Sunday, he has regained a semblance of his golf prowess. However taking part in at Augusta Nationwide, a prolonged course identified for its unforgiving elevation modifications, could possibly be a frightening problem. On Wednesday, in a convention name with reporters, Curtis Unusual, the two-time U.S. Open champion who’s now a golf analyst for ESPN, referred to as Augusta Nationwide “the toughest stroll in golf.”

One other two-time winner of the U.S. Open, Andy North, who can also be an ESPN commentator, mentioned he thought the British Open can be a probable place to return to competitors for Woods as a result of this 12 months’s venue — St. Andrews — is “flat and it’s a simple stroll.”

“Augusta is the final place you’d have thought he may probably play,” North mentioned.

However Woods, who received his first Masters title 25 years in the past, in 1997, has fastidiously managed expectations — of the golf world and, maybe, of his personal — for a return to the tour at a number of factors because the crash.

In mid-February, earlier than the Genesis Invitational, Woods mentioned in a information convention that he had labored totally on chipping, placing and brief irons, however had not frolicked “significantly” on his lengthy recreation due to his proper leg.

“I’m nonetheless engaged on the strolling half,” Woods mentioned then. “My foot was somewhat tousled there a few 12 months in the past, so the strolling half is one thing that I’m nonetheless engaged on, engaged on energy and growth in that. It takes time. What’s irritating is it’s not at my timetable. I need to be at a sure place, however I’m not. I’ve simply bought to proceed working. I’m getting higher, sure. However as I mentioned, not on the pace and price that I would really like.”