Tiger Woods Still Listed In Field For 2022 Masters

Tiger Woods could be in line to make his comeback at next month’s Masters, with his name still appearing on the official website among the 2022 list of players. The five-time Masters champion has not played competitive golf since his serious car accident in February 2021, and last appeared in a sanctioned event at the Masters in November 2020, when he finished T38.

Earlier this week, a spokesman close to Woods said it was still too early for Tiger to decide on whether he will take part in this year’s Masters. He has until the Friday before tournament week to decide one way or the other. It had been reported last week that Tiger’s aim was to make his comeback at the 2023 Masters.

Woods has a special relationship with the Masters, with five of his 15 Majors coming at Augusta. The 46-year-old won his first Major at the 1997 Masters, and his most recent 22 years later in 2019.

While he has admitted he won’t ever return to the PGA Tour full-time, Woods has shown signs of getting closer to competing again. In December, Tiger teamed up with his son Charlie at the two-day PNC Championships and almost won the event, eventually losing by two strokes to John Daly and his son, John Daly II.

Woods will be in Augusta for the Masters next month, whether he plays or not, confirming he will be present at the champions dinner on the Tuesday of Masters week, while not ruling out the possibility of playing Wednesday’s Masters Par 3 contest.

Speaking at the Genesis Invitational, which he hosted but didn’t play last month, Woods was non-committal about entering the Par 3 contest, saying: “It’s the competitive nature, how much that takes out of you mentally, physically, emotionally. I haven’t prepared for any of that. Going for a walk, I can do that. Am I going to be sore? Hell, yeah, but I can do that. Whether I do that or not, I don’t know.”

Tiger did go on to admit a return to competitive golf was still some way off, adding, “I can still play, but I’m in a cart. Being a weekend warrior is easy, that’s not that hard. Hit your ball, hop in a cart, ride, barely step out of the cart, grab your club and hit the next one. And the longest walk you have is probably from, what, the cart to the green and back. I can do that, that’s not that hard, but walking a golf course, that’s a totally different deal. I’ve got a long way to go.”

While that does seem to make it unlikely Tiger will play in this year’s Masters, the question remains why, when the likes of three-time winner Phil Mickelson, who has confirmed his absence from Augusta for the first time in 28 years, has been removed from the entrants on the Masters website, why is Tiger still there?

The field for the Masters is smaller than at other Majors, with less than 100 players typically teeing it up. The top 50 in the world rankings are automatically invited, and while Tiger is no longer among them, as a former champion he has a lifetime exemption.