Tiger Woods, who has been on a two-month leave from competition to work on his game, will play in the 79th Masters next week, he announced on his Website on Friday. He will be in search of his fifth Masters title, 10 years after he last won the event.
Woods, 39, missed the Masters last year
after having a back operation. In 19 starts at Augusta National Golf
Club, Woods has 13 top-10 finishes, including 11 finishes of fifth or
better, and he has never missed the cut. He was fourth in his last
appearance, in 2013.
“I’m playing in the
Masters,” Woods said in a statement on his website. “It’s obviously very
important to me, and I want to be there.
“I’ve
worked a lot on my game and I’m looking forward to competing. I’m
excited to get to Augusta and I appreciate everyone’s support.”
This
is not the first time Woods comes into the Masters after a lengthy
layoff. In 2010, he returned after a nearly four-month break and finished fourth. The difference is that break was a consequence of the unraveling of his personal life, not his game.
The
last official event in which Woods, a 14-time major champion, posted
four rounds was the British Open in July; he was 69th of the 72 players
who made the cut. Over time, his back improved, but he has not shown the
same form he did during his five-win season in 2013.
Woods missed the cut
at the P.G.A. Championship after posting consecutive 74s. He took the
next four months off to allow his back to heal. In his return, at the
December tournament he hosts, Woods struggled with his short game and finished tied for 17th in the 18-man field.
His short game showed no improvement in his next start, at the Phoenix Open in January. After an opening 73, Woods carded his worst score as a professional, an 82, and finished tied for last among the 36-hole finishers, missing the cut by 11 strokes.
The next week, at the Farmers Insurance Open, Woods withdrew during his first round,
with more short-game woes and a tight back. As he memorably described
it, “I tried to activate my glutes as best I could, but they never
stayed activated.”
Six days later, in a statement posted on his website, Woods announced his leave. He said his play and his scores “are not acceptable for tournament golf” and added, “When I think I’m ready, I’ll be back.”
After he announced he would not play the Arnold Palmer Invitational, a mid-March event he has won eight times, Woods wrote on his website, “I hope to be ready for the Masters, and I will continue to work hard preparing for Augusta.”
This
week Woods, who was ranked No. 1 as recently as March 2014, fell out of
the top 100, to 104th, for the first time since 1996.
Woods
won the 2005 Masters in a playoff against Chris DiMarco, who said
recently that if Woods decided to play this year, the tournament would
be a “make-and-break week.”
“I
never thought I’d ever say it because I thought when I played with him
he had the greatest mind ever, he was the strongest mind I’ve ever seen,
but it’s getting mental, and if it doesn’t get fixed, I don’t know if
he can overcome it,” DiMarco added.
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