Following Tiger Woods’ less than impressive performance at the range on Monday, the 27-year-old joined the five-time Masters winner for a practice round at Augusta.
At Augusta National, Tiger Woods outperformed playing partner Will Zalatoris during their morning practice round.
The 48-year-old five-time champion and the 2021 Masters runner-up played the back nine on Monday morning. The popular American, who almost lost his leg in a car accident in 2021, has only participated in one round of the PGA Tour this year, at the Genesis Invitational, before having to withdraw due to the flu.
Zalatoris, though, stated: “He did a great job today. There were some chirping sounds as he beat me a few times. He looks fantastic. He is moving as efficiently as possible. It’s quite astounding to see how well he’s swinging considering everything he’s been through.”
That decision is preferable to what a security guard at the Masters saw when he watched Woods on Monday morning from the shooting range. The 15-time major winner surprised spectators by showing up at precisely 8 a.m. ET, an earlier start time than in previous years.
However, Woods did not impress even though he arrived at the earliest time the employee—whose first shift was back in 2016—has ever seen him. He remarked, “He appeared to be 48 years old.” He appeared slow and elderly. I’m not betting on him.”
Of course, Woods is still recovering from ankle fusion surgery; in the previous 14 months, he has only participated in four days of PGA Tour competition. He had back surgery in 2017; that was before the car accident in 2021. Zalatoris was forced to withdraw from the Masters last year due to the same back injury.
When asked after the round if Woods had any advice for players suffering from injuries, Zalatoris responded, “You know, it’s kind of more of just hey, how you feeling? Do you sense this? Do you sense that? The game of patience is very challenging. It was obvious that he had experienced far more than I had.
With the same surgeons, sort of the same team, I guess it was just a conversation about how you felt after this length of time. What is your feeling after this length of time?
“I spent some time on the range with him in October during his charity event, but I wasn’t able to hit anything more than, I suppose, somewhere in the irons. I briefly discussed my golf swing with him. I was still experiencing some residuals at the time, but I felt completely well after about seven months.
“As I mentioned earlier, it’s just a matter of comprehending the procedure and realizing that, even though a physician recommends 12 weeks, we’re attempting to compete and win at the greatest level; in theory, it’s longer.”
