Tiger Woods will swing with the Masters once again.
The five-time Masters Tournament winner announced that he will return to the competition now that he has recovered from a devastating car accident in February 2021.
"As of right now, I feel like I am going to play," Tiger said during a news conference on April 4. "I'm going to play nine more holes tomorrow. My recovery has been good; I've been very excited about how I've recovered every day."
The Masters Tournament begins on Thursday, April 7, with Tiger teeing off in the morning. Tiger's last Masters Tournament was in November 2020 when he tied for 38th.
Tiger's crash in 2021 occurred as he was driving to Rolling Hills Country Club to film with GOLFTV and Golf Digest. He crashed into a center divider, smashed into a sign, hit a curb and tree, then rolled 30 yards off the road, the Los Angeles Times reported.
He had fractures in his tibia and fibula bones, with additional injuries to the bones in his foot and ankle, Dr. Anish Mahajan, chief medical officer and interim CEO at the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, said in a statement at the time. Tiger had a rod inserted into the tibia, with screws and pins stabilizing the injuries in his foot.
In November 2021, Tiger, 46, opened up about his journey to recovery with Golf Digest, saying, "I have so far to go... I'm not even at the halfway point."
"I've had some hard days and tough setbacks," he said of the rehabilitation process, "but I keep progressing and I'm able to walk again."
Now the golf star is ready to hit the course once again. He has been practicing at Augusta National in Georgia, where the news conference was held, for several days. Although he feels ready to compete, he shared during the conference that he still isn't 100% recovered.
"It gets agonizing … because of simple things that I would normally just go do that would take now a couple hours here and a couple hours there to prep and then wind down," Tiger said. "So activity time to do what I want to do, it adds more time on both sides of it — pre- and post-."
He said he doesn't "have any qualms" about his golfing abilities but is more concerned about walking all 72 holes of the tournament, saying, "It's going to be a tough challenge, and a challenge I'm up for."
"I think that the fact that I was able to get myself here at this point is a success," Tiger said. "Now that I'm here, the focus is getting to Sunday on the back nine with a chance."