Tiger Woods keen to play in Masters despite sore loss in his latest comeback

The 50-year-old made his long-awaited return to golf after his latest back surgery on Tuesday night as he played for his team, Jupiter Links Golf Club, in the TGL final in Florida.

After the excitement of him being back swinging a club in a competitive environment, albeit at an indoor event, it turned into a disappointing night for Woods as Jupiter Links lost 9-2 to Los Angeles Golf Club after just ten holes.

The win meant that Los Angeles, represented by English duo Tommy Fleetwood and Justin Rose as well as American Sahith Theegala, won the title for a second time.

The question that everyone wanted to be answered afterwards was whether or not Woods will now be competing in the Masters, having made his last outing in a ‘real’ tournament in The Open at Royal Troon in 2024.

‘I’m going to be there either way’

“As I said, I’ve been trying,” he told reporters. “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 (his new nine-hole design at The Patch, which is Augusta’s municipal course) that's going up there, as well as the Champions Dinner.”

The 15-time major winner was asked when he thought he would make a decision about an event that will see Rory McIlroy defend the title after he joined Woods and four others by becoming a career grand slam winner 12 months ago.

“I don’t know, we’ll see how it goes,” he said. “I’ll be practicing, playing at home this week and keep trying to make progress.”

Woos had disc replacement surgery in October, which was believed to be the seventh time his back had undergone the surgeon’s knife.

He turned up the SoFi Centre in Palm Beach Gardens on Tuesday afternoon to get himself warmed up for the match against Los Angeles as Jupiter Links attempted to hit back after losing last week’s opener in the two-match final.

‘Feels fine physically’

“Feels fine physically,” insisted Woods afterwards. “It was just interesting the shots because usually you have more of a rhythm when you're actually playing a normal round of golf, hitting shots. Here it feels like I'm getting iced a bit at times.

“It's just a different rhythm. It's like when you play Ryder Cup or Presidents Cups and you play in foursomes. Some matches you just don't hit a putt for like 10-11 holes and all of a sudden you've got to make a three-footer. That's kind of what it feels like here.

“I had a couple drives I had to hit and then a couple putts. For me, it was different because I haven't really done this. I've been watching these guys do it. They make it look easy. I haven't done it in a while. It was a lot of fun, though, to be a part of it.”

He clocked 175mph with a couple of his ball speeds and insisted: “Yeah, there's definitely more (in the tank). 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 (laughing).

“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.”