Speculation about a possible Tiger Woods return to the PGA Tour at the 2022 Masters has run rampant in recent months after the 15-time major champion has been seen in the public eye swinging a golf club, getting inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame and even playing in an event with his son Charlie.
The last indication about his status comes from Augusta National Golf Club itself, which shows that the 46-year-old is indeed still in the mix to play at the year’s first major in two weeks time.
Woods remains listed among the 86 current invitees to the 86th edition of the major championship on the event’s official website just 16 days away from the start of the event. His qualification is, of course, the result of being a past champion at the Masters, a tournament he’s actually won five times.
Perhaps even more notable, there is a separate list of past champions that have already been deemed to be non-competitors in this year’s event. Woods is not listed among them.
Woods has remained rather vague about the possibility of playing in the Masters after suffering serious leg injuries in a car accident in Feb. 2021. When interviewed during the Genesis Invitational in late February of this year, he promised that he would attend the event’s annual Champions’ Dinner on Tuesday, but neglected to give a definitive answer on whether he would be teeing up with the rest of this year’s field on Thursday of that week.
Woods has a long and accomplished history at the Masters with titles in 2001, 2002, 2005 and 2019. Most notably, he notched his first major championship win at Augusts National way back in 1997, less than a year after turning pro.
The Masters is set to begin on Thursday, April 7 leaving Woods with just a little more than two weeks to make a final decision about his status.
