Tiger Woods returns to the Masters: Can he actually contend?

Tiger Woods will attempt his biggest comeback yet when he tees off at the Masters on Thursday

It wasn’t as terse as Michael Jordan’s one-sentence statement, but the message Tiger Woods conveyed to the golf world on Tuesday was the same: he’s back.

Woods announced that he intends to play in the 86th Masters beginning on Thursday, just 14 months after suffering a near-fatal car accident in California. It will be his first competitive tournament since he finished tied for 38th place right here at Augusta National in November 2020.

What a long and arduous road it’s been since then. Long months spent lying in a hospital bed unable to get up. A year of rehab and learning to walk again. Of wondering whether he would even be able to play golf, let alone compete with the game’s best players on the PGA Tour.

When Woods tees off on Thursday, it will have been worth all that effort. But, of course, golf’s most fiercely competitive champion doesn’t just show up at a tournament to have fun. He expects to win, and this time is no different.

“I do,” Woods said on Tuesday at his press conference when asked whether he thinks he can win. “I can hit it just fine. I don’t have any qualms about what I can do physically from a golf standpoint. It’s now walking is the hard part. This is not normally an easy walk to begin with. Now, given the conditions my leg is in, it gets even more difficult. And 72 holes is a long run. It’s going to be a tough challenge, and a challenge that I’m up for.”

Can Tiger Woods win the Masters?

Usually, a 46-year-old with a bad leg who hasn’t played in 17 months wouldn’t be given much chance to compete. Woods, though, can never be counted out. He endured four back surgeries to win his fifth Green Jacket in 2019. He won the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines with a broken leg, anguish on his face every time he swung a club that week.

His game, even after all he’s gone through physically, appears back to normal. Fred Couples, who played nine holes with Woods on Monday, said afterward Woods hit it beautifully and looked as good as ever. Woods is confident his body can take the test it’s about to endure, and if he’s confident, there is no limit to what he can accomplish.

Woods has come back from long layoffs before. In 2010, he showed up at Augusta National for his first tournament in five months after the personal turmoil following the events of Thanksgiving night. He shot all four rounds under-par and finished tied for fourth. His win at Torrey Pines was his first tournament in two months.

None of those layoffs were as long as this one. For inspiration, he has to go back even further. In 1949, Ben Hogan was the best player on the planet and came off a season in which he won ten times, including two major championships. He had already won twice early in the year. Then, in the early morning of Feb. 2, Hogan’s car was hit head-on by a Greyhound bus. Some newspapers prematurely announced that he had died.

Hogan survived and showed up at the Los Angeles Open 11 months later, his legs heavily bandaged. He lost in a playoff to Sam Snead and went on to win the U.S. Open five months later, a triumph that became known as the “Miracle at Merion.” Does Woods have his own “Masters Miracle” in him? He certainly thinks so.

Sunday, April 10, will mark the 25th anniversary of when his Masters’ journey began, when a 21-year-old took over the golf world with a 12-shot victory. It was described as “a win for the ages.”

Winning his sixth Green Jacket and tying Jack Nicklaus for most all-time would far eclipse even 1997 and 2019. He’s staged remarkable comebacks before. This one would be the biggest chapter in an already legendary career.