Despite the false hope generated by an April Fool's joke, Tiger Woods will not be at Augusta National next week competing for a sixth Masters title as he recovers from his latest surgery. But that doesn't mean his presence won't still be felt at the storied golf course.
"I hope he gets back to where he can play," ESPN golf analyst Curtis Strange said Monday on a pre-tournament conference call. "We don't even know if he can play ever again.
"It's going badly. But especially here, where he can come back and be comfortable and just be around. The people can't get enough of him. We can't get enough of him. It would be sad that he wouldn't come back here and play in the future, but what the future holds, we have no idea."
Woods last won at Augusta in 2019 with an improbable final-round charge for his fifth green jacket.
But after having surgery last month to repair a ruptured Achilles tendon, Woods is sitting out this year's Masters as he focuses on rest and rehab.
Will Tiger Woods ever play again?
Perhaps a bigger issue than returning to Augusta is whether Woods will ever tee it up again on the PGA Tour.
"Now we're getting to the point that this next rehab is going to be brutally difficult for him," ESPN's Andy North said on Monday's call. "He doesn't have to prove anything to anybody. He's done everything he needed to do. If he were to announce in the next month or two that, you know what, I'm never playing competitive golf again. I think that would be great, and no one would have an issue with that."
Woods, 49, hasn't played an official tour event since last year's British Open. He underwent back surgery in September and played using a cart at the PNC Championship in December alongside son Charlie.
"I think that the competitor in him – you know, you always think you can rehab. You always think you can come back. You always believe that you can do this," North said. "But I don't have any magic answers there. I would think that he's going to try to play some events after this rehab. Is it going to be a Tiger Woods that can compete? Deep in my heart, I don't think so."
