|
 Woods' manager Mark Steinberg told Reuters that Woods had played 18
holes at the iconic Masters venue as he continued to assess whether
his game would be "tournament-ready" for the first major of the
year.
However, Steinberg did not say whether Woods was any closer to
reaching a decision about competing this year at the Masters, where
he is a four-times champion.
Woods, whose ranking has plummeted to a mind-boggling 104th, has
struggled badly for form and fitness this season, and has played
only twice on the 2014-15 PGA Tour.
He posted the highest score of his professional career, an
11-over-par 82, to miss the cut at the Phoenix Open in January, and
withdrew from the Farmers Insurance Open early last month after 11
holes because of tightness in his back.
Woods, who claimed the most recent of his 14 major titles at the
2008 U.S. Open, said he would not return to the PGA Tour until his
game was "tournament-ready" and many pundits believe he is suffering
from the chipping 'yips'.
"I enter a tournament to compete at the highest level, and when I
think I'm ready, I'll be back," Woods wrote on his website. "I hope
to be ready for the Masters."
If Woods does indeed have the yips, an involuntary movement of the
muscles, Augusta National would be one of the most challenging
venues for him to make a PGA Tour comeback because of its slick,
heavily contoured greens.
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One thing in Woods' favor is his huge comfort factor at Augusta
National where in 2010 he tied for fourth at the Masters after not
playing competitive golf for five months.
He took an indefinite break from the game in late 2009, as his
private life spectacularly unraveled, to try to repair his marriage
amid revelations about his extra-marital affairs.
"He knows his way around the Augusta," Northern Irish world number
Rory McIlroy said earlier this month. "If he feels ready to play and
he does play then he knows what to do when there."
(Reporting by Mark Lamport-Stokes in Rancho Mirage, California;
Editing by Frank Pingue)
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