The official website of The Masters appears to have confirmed that Tiger Woods will play in mid-April with the 48-year-old golf icon appearing to be ready to skip competitions in March to prepare.
The 15-time major winner has been listed among the field of competitors for next month's Masters - despite Woods not officially confirming his participation himself. The move to skip competition in March to prepare for The Masters would go against Woods' proposed plans for 2024.
Woods had hoped to play in one tournament every month in 2024 after returning to professional golf following a 2021 car crash in California that seriously injured one of his legs. "Once a month seems reasonable," Woods proclaimed to the Golf channel. "It gives me a couple of weeks to recover and a week to tune up. Maybe I can get into the rhythm."
Woods has also suffered from illness in the early months of 2024, being forced to withdraw from The Genesis Invitational in February due to flu.
The golf icon also skipped The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass. Regardless, PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan remains optimistic about Woods' professional future.
"I think you all know Tiger well enough to know that he wants to earn his way into every competition. That's his makeup," Monahan said. "But I think as you go forward, as you evolve as an organization, you think about how do you serve and satisfy a rabid fan base?
"Those discussions, more broadly, would likely be held at the policy board meeting. And I'm sure we would have that discussion. But he'd be the hardest one to convince."
Woods is also involving himself in potential partnership talks between the PGA Tour and PIF, who fund the breakaway tour LIV Golf. According to the Independent, Woods joined PGA Tour player directors for a meeting with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund in the Bahamas.
PGA Tour Commissioner Monahan informed players of the ongoings of the meeting in a letter. "During the session, Yasir (Al-Rumayyan, head of the PIF) had the chance to introduce himself to our Player Directors and talk through the vision, priorities and motivations for investing in professional golf,” Monahan wrote.
"As we continue these discussions with the PIF, we will keep you updated as much as possible, but please understand we need to maintain our position of not conducting negotiations in public. To that end, we will provide no further comments to the media at this time.”
