‘God I hope so’: Tiger Woods on whether he’ll play the Masters

Tiger Woods says he’s recently lengthened his putter to the same length as his sand wedge. He’s done a lot of putting drills with the club — “blading, hitting the equator with my sand wedge, and I figure, well, if I do a lot with that, might as well lengthen my putter to the same length. So I did and it helped.”

Those were the only two clubs Woods talked about when asked about his golf on Sunday on CBS, about two months since his fifth back operation.

And about six weeks from a tournament in Augusta, Ga.

“God I hope so,” was Woods’ response whether he would play at the Masters in April. “I got to get there first. A lot of it is based on my surgeons and my doctors and my therapists and making sure I do it correctly because this is the only back I got so I don’t have much more wiggle room left here.”

Sunday’s interview was Woods’ first since undergoing microdiscectomy surgery to “remove a pressurized disc fragment” that was leading to nerve pain in his back following the PNC Championship he played in December. He’s the host of this week’s Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club and was walking the grounds at the course this weekend. 

“I’m feeling fine, I’m feeling fine,” Woods told announcer Jim Nantz. “A little bit stiff. I have one more MRI scheduled … and then I can start doing more activities. But still in the gym, still doing the mundane stuff that you have to do for rehab, you know, the little things. We’re going to start gravitating towards something a little more.”

In the meantime, Woods will continue to watch. 

“I’ve watched a lot of golf the last couple years because I was the captain of the Presidents Cup team. And also watching a lot of my friends that I’ve played at home with — they’re playing. And I didn’t really play a whole lot this past year,” Woods said. “So yes, I have watched a lot of golf. My son started getting more into it so he wants to watch golf. And it’s just crazy to see what they’re able to do with no fans. There’s no energy so they have to create it themselves. And whoever can create that energy amongst your caddie-player relationship and keep that going, you’ll be able to make your way up the leaderboard and might even win tournaments.” 

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Nick Piastowski

Golf.com Editor

Nick Piastowski is a Senior Editor at Golf.com and Golf Magazine. In his role, he is responsible for editing, writing and developing stories across the golf space. And when he’s not writing about ways to hit the golf ball farther and straighter, the Milwaukee native is probably playing the game, hitting the ball left, right and short, and drinking a cold beer to wash away his score. You can reach out to him about any of these topics — his stories, his game or his beers — at nick.piastowski@golf.com.

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