Tiger Woods has offered a further hint that he may make a sensational return to competitive golf at the Masters by completing a practice round at Augusta.
Woods has not played a high-level tournament since suffering major leg injuries in a car crash in February 2021.
The 15-time major champion was last week included on the start list for a tournament he has won five times, but it was thought that he may withdraw with a hilly course in Georgia perhaps not best suited for his return to the highest level.
Yet Woods was able to complete a round with his son Charlie and 2017 PGA Championship winner Justin Thomas.
The 46-year-old has suggested that he is unlikely to return in a full-time capacity to the PGA Tour after coming close to requiring the amputation of his right leg after the accident in California last year.
“I wish I could tell you when I’m playing again,” Woods said in February while hosting the Genesis Invitational tournament. “I want to know, but I don’t. My golf activity has been very limited.”
“It takes time. What’s frustrating is it’s not at my timetable. I want to be at a certain place, but I’m not.
“I’ve just got to continue working. I’m getting better, yes. But as I said, not at the speed and rate that I would like.
“You add in the age factor, too. You just don’t quite heal as fast, which is frustrating.”
Woods’ last major triumph was at Augusta in 2019, ending an eleven-year, injury-plagued drought in extraordinary fashion.
He has until next week to decide if he will play in the 2022 Masters, and is said to be keen to see how his body recovers from the exertions of the 18 holes played on Tuesday.
The Masters, the first major of the year, begins on Thursday 7 April.