Tiger Woods Gives Hope To Fans Over Masters Appearance Following Heavy TGL Finals Loss

15-time Major winner Tiger Woods has reiterated he wants to play The Masters next month following a first competitive appearance in over a year at the TGL Finals on Tuesday night.

Woods last played some kind of meaningful event in Jupiter Links' 9-1 loss to Atlanta Drive on Tuesday, March 4, 2025. Since then, he has undergone Achilles surgery and a seventh career back procedure.

Back fit and firing once more, Woods subbed in for Kevin Kisner during game two of the 2026 SoFi Cup Finals, but the five-time Masters champion failed to change Jupiter Links' momentum as the Florida-based team went down 9-2 to Los Angeles GC.

The west coast outfit - made up of Tommy Fleetwood, Justin Rose and Sahith Theegala - comfortably sewed up the franchise's first TGL title via a 2-0 scoreline in the best-of-three series and consigned Woods to a rude awakening on his competitive comeback.

The 50-year-old played a crucial role in Jupiter Links' defeat, too, courtesy of a missed three-foot putt on the seventh hole that his team failed to recover from. LA then stepped on the gas and blasted off into the distance with three clinching eagles in a row.

Nevertheless, there were plenty of encouraging signs for the 82-time PGA Tour winner via a couple of full-tilt drives and a well-judged long-range putt.

Although the result did not go the way Woods or his fans had hoped, there was only one question everyone wanted the answer to afterwards. Tiger, will you play The Masters?

"As I said, I've been trying," Woods replied. "Just this body is... it doesn't recover like it did when it was 24, 25. It doesn't mean I'm not trying. I've been trying for a while.

"I've had a couple bad injuries here over the past years that I've had to fight through and it's taken some time. But I keep trying. I want to play.

"I love the tournament. I've loved being there since I was 19 years old. It's meant a lot to me and my family over the years.

"I'm going to be there either way with The Loop that's going up there, as well as the Champions Dinner."

Despite hitting a shot in a competitive environment for the first time since March 2025, Woods shared in his post-match interview that he "feels fine physically" and will continue to practice at home this week with the aim of making further progress.

A couple of Woods' drives were clocked at over 175mph ball speed inside SoFi Center, with the former Stanford University golfer revealing there is "definitely more" in the tank.

He continued: "Yeah, there's definitely more. I've never really struggled with ball speed. Ball direction is a different story. I've hit it left and right most of my life, hence my last name is Woods.

"Hey, I've always had speed. That's always been something that I've fortunately been gifted with. Even as I've gotten older and with the body not quite what it used to be, I can still get it up there.

"It's just that now everyone is living at that speed and higher. We were joking the other day that in '97 I averaged 296. That's like nothing now. I was No. 2 in driving distance behind [John] Daly. Guys are hitting that with 3-woods now."