Tiger Woods listed on Masters interview schedule

On Friday, Augusta National released the pre-tournament interview schedule for next week’s Masters Tournament. Tiger Woods is listed among those scheduled to speak, giving the clearest indication yet that Woods plans to play in this year’s Masters.

Woods has not played a PGA TOUR event or spoken publicly since withdrawing from his Genesis Invitational in February due to the flu. After saying late last year that he hoped to compete once per month in 2024, he elected not to play either the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, which he has won eight times, or THE PLAYERS Championship, the PGA TOUR’s flagship event that he has won twice, in March. He did play a single round at the Seminole Pro-Member.

Woods’ health and ability to walk the multiple miles in a round of golf can change rapidly, but the signs are pointing to another Masters appearance. Flight-tracking sites on social media showed Woods’ jet flying to Augusta’s airport last week for a presumed pre-tournament practice session. Now Woods is scheduled to speak to the media Tuesday at 11 a.m. ET. Woods has not spoken publicly since The Genesis Invitational.

Woods last completed an official PGA TOUR event at the 2023 Genesis Invitational. Though he made the cut in last year’s Masters to tie the tournament record for consecutive cuts made, he had to withdraw before the tournament’s conclusion because of plantar fasciitis. He had a subtalar fusion shortly after, sidelining him until the Hero World Challenge in December.

The full pre-tournament press conference schedule for the Masters is listed below (all times ET):

Monday, April 8:

• 2 p.m.: Brian Harman
• 2:30 p.m.: Jasper Stubbs and Santiago De La Fuente
• 3 p.m.: Hideki Matsuyama
• 3:30 p.m.: Xander Schauffele

Tuesday, April 9:

• 9:30 a.m.: Viktor Hovland
• 10 a.m.: Jon Rahm
• 11 a.m.: Tiger Woods
• 12:30 p.m.: Rory McIlroy
• 1 p.m.: Ludvig Åberg
• 1:30 p.m.: Wyndham Clark
• 2:30 p.m.: Jordan Spieth
• 3 p.m.: Scottie Scheffler
• 3:30 p.m.: Brooks Koepka

Wednesday, April 10:

• 11 a.m.: Fred Ridley

Thursday, April 11:

• 8 a.m.: Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Tom Watson

It’s a stacked lineup of the game’s best, but Woods is the highlight, as he often is at Augusta.

Few things are more synonymous than Woods and Augusta National, and the Masters has had a way of framing every era of Woods’ dominant career. His runaway 12-shot victory in 1997 cemented Woods’ arrival as a generational star. His win in 2001 marked his second consecutive at Augusta National. It capped the “Tiger Slam,” as Woods held all four major championship titles concurrently, one of the most impressive achievements in modern sports history. Woods won the Masters again in 2005, which started a streak of seven straight top-six finishes at the event. He won 31 times on the PGA TOUR in those seven years. Woods’ remarkable victory at the 2019 Masters was a late-career revelation that embodied the superstar’s ethos, once again achieving the unthinkable after numerous injuries cast doubt on whether Woods could climb to the top of the mountain again.

He’s in a similar place as the calendar flips to Masters week. Woods pulled out of The Genesis Invitational after his tee shot on the seventh hole of his second round. Woods has said walking is not the issue and his surgically repaired right ankle is pain-free. That hasn’t left his whole body without pain, though. It’s just moved to different places.

“Other parts of my body have to take the brunt of it,” Woods said at Riviera. “Just like my back is fused so other parts of my body have taken the brunt of that. I have two different body parts that are now fused. Yeah, other parts of the body have to adapt.''

Woods will be adapting to his new reality at Augusta National. He has not accumulated the competitive reps he craves as he turns his attention toward the Masters. However, Sports Illustrated’s Bob Harig reported that Woods was at Augusta National for a scouting trip and played the course with Chairman Fred Ridley and Justin Thomas last week.

If there were a place Woods might not need competitive reps, it would be Augusta. Woods has made the cut in 24 of 25 starts, with 14 top 10s.

The golf world will watch Woods’ return closely, hoping the 15-time major champion can rekindle magic at Augusta National again.