Tiger Woods Masters Speculation Intensifies With Reported Practice Round

We still don’t know for sure whether Tiger Woods will play the Masters next week, but it’s becoming harder and harder to argue he isn’t at least going to give it a try.

Speculation about Woods potentially playing the Masters has intensified in the last week or so and hit a fever pitch Tuesday morning with Twitter users tracking the private jet owned by the legendary golfer. Those flight trackers led to Augusta, Ga., and Woods is indeed playing a practice round at Augusta National Golf Club on Tuesday, according to Sports Illustrated’s Bob Harig.

Woods was joined by his son, Charlie, and PGA Tour star Justin Thomas, per Harig’s report.

That’s certainly consistent with other reports from earlier this week and over the weekend that had Woods ramping up by walking practice rounds in Florida. Woods hasn’t played a competitive tournament since the 2020 Masters (played in the fall) and has been grinding in his return from brutal injuries suffered in a February 2021 car crash.

There was no guarantee Woods would walk right again, let alone play golf following that California crash. And there’s no guarantee Woods is even ready to go next week. But this is obviously a major step forward (no pun intended) to see whether he can walk an entire round at the notoriously hilly Augusta National. Woods has expressed reservations about whether he has the strength to walk four rounds over the course of the weekend.

Woods’ betting odds opened in the mid-30s a year ago following Hideki Matsuyama’s win at the 2021 tournament. He ballooned all the way up to 66-1 as recently as Tuesday morning, per BetMGM’s John Ewing, but it didn’t take long for the news to affect the market. The BetMGM number is down to 50-1 with more than 3% (12th-most) of the bets on Woods.