Tiger Woods says he feels stronger than final 12 months as he prepares to make one other emotional return to the Masters.
A 12 months in the past, Woods shocked the golf world by enjoying within the Masters, 14 months after sustaining critical leg accidents in a 2021 automotive crash.
The 15-time main champion struggled to stroll 72 holes and completed forty seventh at Augusta National however says his health and power has improved dramatically heading into subsequent week’s showpiece in Georgia.
“My core is so much stronger than it was then,” Woods stated. “That’s one of the reasons why I’ve got the (Club) speed that I have.
“I’ve had to use it a different way but also be careful with my back being fused. It’s a challenge and that’s the fun part about it.”
Woods shared forty fifth on the PGA Genesis Invitational six weeks in the past, his third-round 67 the bottom spherical of his comeback from bone-shattering accidents that proceed to make strolling a higher take a look at than shotmaking.
“I can hit golf balls, I can chip. I can putt, I can do all that stuff, but I haven’t walked and played a lot so that’s the challenge,” Woods stated.
“The body, sometimes it says no even though the mind says yes.”
Woods, 47, trimmed his 2022 schedule to the Masters, the PGA Championship — the place he withdrew earlier than the ultimate spherical — and the British Open, the place he missed the lower.
“I’m not going to play any more than probably the majors and maybe a couple more. That’s it, that’s all my body will allow me to do,” Woods stated of future years.
“My back the way it is, all the surgeries, my leg the way it is, I just can’t. That’s just going to be my future… Hopefully this year I can get all four and maybe sprinkle in a few here and there.
“But that’s it for the rest of my career. I know that and I understand that. That’s just my reality.”
Woods has additionally confronted the truth that time is working out for him to even handle a slimmed-down schedule.
“There will come a point in time when my body will not allow me to do that anymore,” Woods stated. “And it’s probably sooner rather than later.”
Woods, whose 82 PGA Tour titles share the all-time document with Sam Snead, has joined Rory McIlroy in TGL, an arena-golf hybrid with video expertise mixed with a short-game space set to launch subsequent January.
It’s with such issues, McIlroy stated, that Woods will prolong his golf legacy lengthy after his enjoying days.
“I think Tiger will still hang around the game forever,” McIlroy stated. “I’m pretty sure he’ll be involved in the game… trying to be an ambassador and bring the game into the 21st century.
“Still being around golf and making his presence felt doesn’t necessarily have to mean hitting the golf ball in tournament play.”
‘In right direction’
For now, Woods stated he made progress in restoring his sport with 4 rounds at Riviera.
“It means a lot. It’s progress, headed in the right direction,” Woods stated. “It certainly was a little bit more difficult than I probably let on.
“Even if I played four days at home, it’s not the same as adrenaline, the system being ramped up like that, the intensity, just the focus that it takes to play at this level.”
Woods should additionally chill his physique after excessive efforts to prepared himself for the subsequent day’s challenge.
“I pretty much lay in ice pretty much all night. It’s not fun, very cold all the time,” Woods stated. “The ebb and flow of that, it’s hard. It’s hard mentally, it’s hard physically.”
