Tiger Woods

NZ punters have placed more than 3000 bets - some wagering as much as $2000 - on Tiger to win the Masters.

Like elite athletes at their peak, our sports journalists are highly trained in the art of news. So we're asking you to support us with more than your attention. Tiger Woods carrying the hopes of his fans and a $2m payday for Kiwi punters at the Masters

Tiger Woods is due to make his return to the course for the 2022 Masters a little over a year after suffering significant injuries to his right leg in a ...

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OPINION: Can Mickelson produce his own comeback after embracing the Saudi-backed golf league despite the country's grim record on human rights?

Soccer's World Cup will be hosted at the end of the year by Qatar, which has a lengthy record of human rights violations. ... These other countries reflect the bulk of the audience in the world." “What's happened over time with globalization is the money has really shifted. The most recent Winter Olympics were held in China, which has been accused of a genocidal campaign against its Uyghur minority. There's the soccer super league. Not even with the golfers that he's fairly close to, such as Bryson DeChambeau. Ridley insisted that it was Mickelson's decision to withdraw, not one forced on him by the club. There's the NBA wanting to be more of a global brand like (soccer governing body) FIFA.” I told him that I was certainly willing to discuss that further with him if he liked.” “Phil reached out to me, I think in late February or early Match, and let me know he did not intend to play. “Why would I even consider it?" You're like, ‘Did I read that right?’”

Tiger Woods plans to compete in the 86th Masters this week, less than 14 months after suffering serious injuries in an horrific car crash in February 2021.

That’s going to be the challenge and it’s going to be a challenge of a major marathon.” We have worked hard to get to this point, to get this opportunity to walk the grounds, test it out and see if I can do this. “I think that the fact that I was able to get myself here to this point is a success. There will be a day when it won’t happen, and I’ll know when that is, but physically the challenge this week is I don’t have to worry about the ball striking or the game of golf, it’s actually just the hills out here. Pressed on what gave him motivation to deliver what is a fifth return from serious health issues, Woods said: “Well, I love competing, and I feel like if I can still compete at the highest level, I’m going to. If I feel like I can still win, I’m going to play.

Don't get used to seeing this version of Tiger too often, Michael Rosenberg writes, but appreciate the journey required to get to Augusta National.

But let’s figure he will at least try to play next month’s PGA at Southern Hills and then the U.S. Open at Brookline, too. Then he talked about it a lot – partly because he had become more open with the media, and partly, one imagines, because he wanted people to know that only extreme injuries could knock out Tiger Woods. There is each and every day.” He might have misheard the question, but the answer was revealing. The comeback that culminated in his 2019 Masters victory was stunning, but when Woods showed up that week, he was much healthier than he is now, and he had been playing championship-level golf for more than a year. How can a Presidents or Ryder Cup captain trust his health enough to use a selection on him, especially with so many matches in a short time frame? Hearing him talk, it does not: "We've worked hard to get to this point, to get to this opportunity to walk the grounds, test it out, and see if I can do this." The ramifications of that are stark. Augusta National did him a solid with tee times so ideal, he might as well have chosen them himself: 10:34 a.m. Thursday, which is late enough that he should avoid the coldest, wettest part of the day, and then 1:41 p.m. Friday, which gives him plenty of time to recover. If he plays one more event this year, the best guess is that it will be at the British Open, because that’s at St. Andrews, a place steeped in both golf and Tiger history. Playing through the weekend would be a wild success. He carried a caveat into his press conference here Tuesday, saying he plans to play “as of right now,” but fully expects to play. When Woods mangled his leg in a horrific single-car accident in Southern California last February, he was recovering from his fifth microdiscectomy surgery, with no indication of when he might return.

It has been a long road to recovery for Tiger Woods, much of in private. He did, however, give us a glimpse of his work to get back on the course in ...

There are a lot of muscle groups that are involved in walking down an incline so we shall see, but I think he can do it." You are trying to get the ankle to move, the knee to move, the hip to move again and then you start with strength and endurance and rehab and your body's awareness of space." You may remember he won the U.S. Open with a broken leg back in 2008. "Walking down those hills is going to be a challenge, and I think the most challenge for him is that and seeing how that is going to affect him in the later rounds. And then you are trying to do a lot of range of motion work. It has been a long road to recovery for Tiger Woods, much of in private.

The 15-times major champion Tiger Woods was given little chance of a comeback at the Masters after his car crash but has defied limits throughout his ...

He still does not really have all that much mobility and does not expect to ever again; and he is in pain “each and every day”. But here he is anyway. “It’s up to me to endure all the pain” and his medical team to help him manage the rehab. Woods once said that his win here in 2019 felt like his Everest and that, having climbed it once, he did not feel the need to do it again. No one, not even Woods himself, gave him a chance of doing it after the car crash last February, when he lost control of his SUV while he was doing double the speed limit on a stretch of mountain road outside Los Angeles. No one even thought he was going to make it here this year. And because he is Tiger Woods, who is going to say he can’t? Woods never really got a good answer out of Nicklaus but, according to his book Unprecedented, this is the way he has come to think about it: “He did what he needed to do to put himself in a position to win the Masters. He was not thinking about winning.

The five-time champion at Augusta National made the announcement on Wednesday. He will play nine more practice holes before making a final decision, but will be ...

And if I feel like I can still win, I’m going to play. “I feel like if I can still compete at the highest level, I’m going to. “I can’t compete against these guys right now, no," Woods said on December 19. “I do,” he said. “I don’t have any qualms about what I can do physically from a golf standpoint. “I can hit it just fine,” Woods added.

Thirteen months after car crash that nearly required his leg being amputated, golfing great will return to competiton, chasing sixth Masters title.

“I think that the fact that I was able to get myself here to this point is a success,” Woods said. Woods wasn't planning on anything more than working on the range, anyway, and even that worked in his favour. So that’s the attitude I’ve had,” he said. “I don’t show up to an event unless I think I can win it. And if I feel like I can still win, I’m going to play." “And I feel like if I can still compete at the highest level, I’m going to. “And a challenge that I'm up for.” His 15 majors are second only to Jack Nicklaus and his 18, the gold standard in golf. Never mind that it will be 508 days from the last time he played a tournament where he had to walk, or that he returns to this Masters with screws and rods still holding the bones in place in his right leg. “Walking is the hard part. The biggest question is how he holds up over 18 holes for four straight days. No one would have been surprised if Woods never played golf again after a car crash in Los Angeles that damaged his right leg so badly he said doctors raised the prospect of amputation.

I have long wanted to ask Tiger Woods about his tee shot at 13 in the final round of the 2019 Masters. On Tuesday, I got the chance.

How did a toe-hook tee shot that started left suddenly curve right and finish in the fairway? The camera operator, Paul Padelsky, reached the same conclusion that I did: Woods’ ball likely ticked a branch and that ticking somehow changed its flight pattern. He was slightly right of the right tee marker. You can see a white ball flirting with the dark trees to the left of the fairway. “So the grass is never as pristine as it is anywhere else on the golf course, and we’re all hitting from the same spot. It just happens to turn a little bit too much, I think, for a par-4. Tiger took the blue gum in his mouth with his right hand and threw it into an azalea. I was standing there, and you could see the plops in still Rae’s Creek. Woods and Molinari and their third, Tony Finau, headed to the privacy of the 13th tee. Woods was wearing, as he often did in that period, black Nike golf shoes with round spikes — no old-timey nails — about the size of a quarter. The Masters website had then and has a feature called “Every Shot, Every Hole.” I watched the shot more than once. I have wanted to ask Woods about that tee shot for three years now. Tiger Woods won the 2019 Masters by one, over Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka and Xander Schauffele.

Golfer Woods is planning the major comeback a year after he nearly lost his right leg from injuries in a car crash.

And if I feel like I can still win, I’m going to play. “I feel like if I can still compete at the highest level, I’m going to. I don’t have any qualms about what I can do physically from a golf standpoint. I will be heading up to Augusta today to continue my preparation and practice. It will be a game-time decision on whether I compete. “My personal trainers and surgeons all said I could do this again.

Not for the first time, the golf superstar and 15-time major champion has the sports world purring with anticipation.

And a challenge that I'm up for." Now given the conditions that my leg is in, it gets even more difficult. "I can hit it just fine. "Not quite as frenzied as that was. "Walking is the hard part. "A lot of it is Tiger, there is a lot more energy in the air in that sense.

The prestigious golf tournament tees off Thursday, with Tiger Woods announcing that he plans to participate for the first time since a serious car crash in ...

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Tiger Woods is expected to make his improbable return to action on Thursday at the 2022 Masters. Woods hasn't played a PGA Tour event in 17 months.

Now, Woods will look to pass Nicklaus on the shortlist of golfers aged 40 or older to win a green jacket. Woods is in second place all-time after his 2019 win, and even then, Nicklaus had nearly three years on him. Four of the 10 oldest major winners earned their victories on at the PGA Championship. As such, if Woods wins, he would be 19 days older than Nicklaus was when he won his last green jacket. Nicklaus was 46 years old when he won the last Masters of his career in 1986. Tiger Woods is 46 years old.

It really does look like it's about to happen. Thirteen-and-a-half months after a car crash that Tiger Woods said could have resulted in the amputation of ...

He enters the week cold, and as manageable as the decline might have been, his game was on the wane even before a life-altering car crash. If he plays, he isn’t doing it for the novelty of it. Medical problems or not, Tiger has always hit the ball farther off the tee than the average tour pro, even as the tour has caught up to him for a range of reasons. He has a deep understanding of the course’s famously fast greens, and he knows where to leave the ball to give himself the most favorable lie and angle of attack to those putting surfaces. If he is in competitive condition — his own stated mode for giving it a go — then he would be more than a fringe hope. He could card 79s in the first and second rounds and miss the cut in last place, and his presence would still give the whole tournament a vibes boost. Yet Woods has been clear about the condition that would bring about his return to professional golf: He will play when he thinks he can be competitive. But he is in the field list, he played a practice round at Augusta National last week and reports from his sessions this week have been positive. If Tiger is at 2020 levels, then by that standard he would be a possible winner but a long shot. There’s no need to beat around the azaleas: When Woods last played competitive rounds, he was in decline. In 2019, he won this tournament and then continued to perform at top-10 level despite what was already an advanced age. Outside of a fun-filled father-son event in December, Tiger has not played an official round since the COVID-adjusted November Masters in 2020.

Thursday morning is primed to be must-see TV. Here's what to watch during Tiger Woods' opening round, plus more to watch on Day 1 at Augusta National.

His caddie Scott has all the confidence his man can win this week and when you look at the big picture, it’s hard not to be confident along with him. Knock on dogwood, it appears the worst of the weather is behind us, but a different kind of storm could be brewing right under our noses: no player heading down Magnolia Lane in better form than newly minted No. 1, Scottie Scheffler, fresh off three wins in the past six weeks to make him the most heavily favored Texas Longhorn in the field, over Augusta darling Jordan Spieth. As a secret weapon, Scheffler's caddie Ted Scott was on the bag for Bubba Watson's two green jackets. At last, the 2022 Masters is here, and a field of 90 competitors is set to take on a soggy Augusta National, which has been pelted by two days of showers. By that logic he’s finished the past three Masters at 25-over, 18-over and 16-over. Thursday at Augusta is going to be a scene. But the electricity in the air should remain even after the storms clear out, as Tiger Woods is set to return from his year-long layoff after his car accident.

Thinking of placing a wager on Tiger Woods at the 2022 Masters? Here's some fodder to help inform your decision.

He’s the fiercest competitor the game has ever seen, but you still can’t blame the guy if he needs a round or two to recalibrate to the intense grind of Tour-level golf. Remember, the guy has a rod in his tibia and screws in his foot and ankle. It’s easy to think Tiger Woods will keep awing us forever, that his self-belief alone will be enough to carry him to victory. That was the last time we saw Woods in action in an official 72-hole competition. Putting the injuries aside, how will he handle such a long layoff from the heat of this level of play? Did you watch him and Charlie at the PNC? No one is suggesting the Ritz-Carlton Grande Lakes is Augusta National, but those two rounds in Orlando showed that Woods still has plenty of speed in his driver, launch in his irons and touch and feel in his wedge game. A year ago, our Rachel Bleier (now of the USGA) tracked exactly how taxing Augusta National is to walk. You can get him at +450 to finish in the top 10, or at +145 to make the cut. Augusta National is as close to a home game for Woods as any course this side of Medalist can provide. Among the consistent themes in Tiger’s career: He doesn’t just show up to events on a lark, with distant hopes of winning. In 90 career Masters rounds, his scoring average is a staggering 70.87. This course brings out the best in him — his shotmaking, his short game, his imagination. And should you bet on him to do so?

Tiger Woods has a 'hitch in his giddy-up,' as fans and media gathered to watch him play his final nine-hole warmup session Wednesday morning.

But the most noticeable issue: When walking down a steep slope, Woods moved with a noticeable hitch to take as much weight off the right leg. Some folks on the Internet got a little panicky on Wednesday: And then, as if purposely done for the thousands of fans encircling him during Wednesday’s practice round, their focus on his every move, specifically that right leg of his, Woods wiggled his raised foot.

Tiger Woods made his final Masters preparations on Wednesday at Augusta National alongside Justin Thomas and Fred Couples.

The days and weeks and months that he couldn’t do anything and do the same thing every single day but would look at it as an opportunity to get better and get stronger and get 1 percent better that day. It was 14 months ago that Woods survived a single-car accident north of Los Angeles. On February 23, Woods was traveling above 80 mph when his luxury Genesis GV80 SUV hit a center median and then a tree and rolled over several times. He looks the exact same to me. He knows what to do.” He did spin his tee shot back into the pond on 12, got home in two on the par-5 13th, came up just short in two on the par-5 15th. After finding the middle of the green on 16, he failed to skip his ball across the pond on 16.

Entering the week, the betting action on the odds to win the Masters at Caesars Sportsbook was very evenly distributed between Woods and two top-tier contenders ...

Jon Rahm (10-1) and Thomas (12-1) are the favorites at most sportsbooks. "Him returning after everything to win in 2019, I think that gives people hope at long odds that something like that can happen again," Sherman said. The sportsbook's liability on Woods winning was seven times greater than any other player as of Wednesday morning.

Tiger Woods has already exceeded expectations by being here. The tournament iself presents a new test.

He wouldn’t say he has a chance to beat JT and Rahm and Rory if he didn’t have his full arsenal of shots. It’s worth noting that Woods, for as loose as his game has been in years past, has never missed the cut at the Masters as a professional. In 2015, he emerged from a two-month hiatus and the chipping yips to tie for 17th. I know the leg is hurt, but he's driving it with JT. Maybe JT today was a little more pumped up, got him a few times, but he's hitting it plenty far enough to play this course, and he plays this course as well as he does where he's won seven or eight times, and he's won here a bunch. Woods has returned to the Masters after an extended break multiple times before, and with some success. Woods inspires optimism like few others, and the most ardent Tiger-stans can point to that 2019 tournament as evidence that Woods can pull off the impossible yet again. By “a few” he means three, when he completed what looked like the ultimate comeback to win a fifth green jacket. “I don't know if you watched any holes, but he stood over the ball, and he says, ‘watch this,’ and he drew it around the corner. Then he’ll sleep, and then he’ll play in the world’s biggest tournament, 508 days after his last competitive round and 408 days after his right leg was crushed by the weight of a large automobile. It’s understandable—the greatest player of his generation, the biggest star in the sport’s history, clawing out of the ashes yet again to make a most improbable return at the tournament that has defined his career more than any other, on the 25th anniversary of his first major championship. The lunch hour brings an air of resignation to the 91 players in the field; there is no choice but to accept that prep time is done and showtime awaits. Can he drive a 7-iron into a headwind off an upslope?

Tiger Woods hits a tee shot during a Wednesday practice round at the Masters. Getty Images. Check in each day of this week's Masters for the unfiltered opinions ...

In his last five Masters starts, Woods has broken par just twice in the first round. What will Woods shoot in his opening round, and why? Why? Because he could probably shoot 74 blindfolded, and he’s not going to be blindfolded on Thursday.

Five players can go to No. 1 in the world by winning the Masters. Another can complete the career Grand Slam with a green jacket.

On the other side of the course, both sides of the 15th fairway were lined with spectators to watch Woods take two shots with his fairway metal to reach the green. “I know if I play well, I’ll give myself chances to win this golf tournament,” McIlroy said. On the third fairway, the caddie for Joaquin Niemann was walking the course to check yardages when someone suggested he should enjoy such a quiet day. He’s won so many times, and he’s just not a guy to go do something mediocre. Scheffler is the only player who has won this year while ranked among the top 10. Rory McIlroy is not on that list, though he can claim something far greater. On the par-5 second hole, Louis Oosthuizen had a fairway metal in hand as he tried to reach the green. Five players can go to No. 1 in the world by winning the Masters. Another can complete the career Grand Slam with a green jacket. Storms halted this edition of the Par 3. Woods is grouped with Oosthuizen and Niemann for the opening two rounds. Tiger is the needle for professional golf.” In December, when he rode a cart to compete in a 36-hole event with his son, and Matt Kuchar suggested his swing was PGA Tour-ready, Woods smiled and said, “No, no, no, no.

There was little to indicate that Woods nearly lost his right leg 14 months ago in a devastating car wreck.

Woods' career was in jeopardy after the car wreck left him confined to a hospital bed for three months. “A loss of concentration there,” he moaned. A sloppy bogey at the par-5 eighth brought some groans, but Woods' brilliant short game kept him from posting one of those big numbers that can spell doom at Augusta. Yep, there's still a long way to go. His lone tournament in the 508 days since he last competed was a just-for-fun event in December in which he rode in a cart and was paired with his 13-year-old son, Charlie. Woods was out of the public eye until last November, when he posted a video of him swinging a club with a simple message, “Making progress.” “I felt good,” Woods said. Woods failed to make solid contact with his first shot: a 264-yard drive that faded behind a bunker on the right side of the fairway. His approach rolled off the front of the green, but he sank a 10-foot putt to save par, bringing another huge roar from the patrons. The ball climbed up a ridge on the green and stopped 2 feet short of the flag, leaving Woods with a gimme that put him in red numbers for the first time. He was just three strokes off the lead - with roughly half the field still on the course - after making three birdies, a pair of bogeys and a whole lot of solid pars — many of them salvaged by his deft touch around the greens. He walked among the azaleas with just the slightest hint of a limp.

Tiger Woods has defied the odds to post an under-par opening round to begin his quest for a sixth US Masters title and complete an incredible sporting ...

Chip to 6 feet. No. 17, 440 yards, par 4: Driver to second cut on right side. No. 13, 510 yards, par 5: Drive to centre of fairway. No. 11, 520 yards, par 4: Driver to middle of fairway. Approach to front of green, rolled back to fairway. Approach to front of green, rolled back to fairway. Pitch to short of green. No. 7, 450 yards, par 4: Fairway metal to pine straw past the right side of fairway. No. 5, 495 yards, par 4: Driver to fairway. Approach to front of green, rolling just back onto the fairway. "You just can't not watch him," said Australia's Cameron Smith, among those tied for the lead after shooting a 68. Woods' career was in jeopardy after the car wreck left him confined to a hospital bed for three months.

Tiger Woods crouches to read a putt on the 18th hole in the first round of. Watching this Tiger Woods prepare for his shots was at times difficult. But almost ...

One is that he can summon more rounds like Thursday’s. The other is that even if he doesn’t, he can still find joy in the game and share it with others. That is the difference between a future World Golf Hall of Famer and Tiger Woods. He kept crediting his team, and for once, a golfer talking about his “team” did not sound ridiculous. If he does make the cut, will making the next cut be a win? He said he felt “as sore as I expected to feel.” He also said he “had a terrible warmup session. The walking's not easy … my leg, it's going to be difficult for the rest of my life. Woods said this week that he expects the pain to go down over time, but his mobility will probably not improve. That's just the way it is, but I'm able to do it. I hit it awful.” But as soon as he put a tee in the ground on No. 1, he was Tiger Woods and this was Augusta National and nothing else mattered. If he can’t practice nearly as much as elite golfers, and he can’t compete as often as elite golfers, and every walk from tee to green brings considerable pain, can he really win again? That's just the way it is … and this is only one round. “If you would have seen how my leg looked to where it's at now, the pictures — some of the guys know,” he said.