Tiger Woods wraps up first Masters appearance since 2020, thanks patrons for support
Tiger Woods finished up the fourth and final round at the Masters on Sunday.
He finished toward the bottom of the leaderboard but went through all 72 holes against high-level competition for the first time since he suffered devastating leg injuries in a February 2021 car crash.
Woods received a standing ovation from the Augusta National crowd as he walked up to the 18th green.
"It was an unbelievable feeling to just have the patrons and the support out there," he told CBS' Amanda Renner after his final round. "I wasn’t exactly playing my best out there but just to have the support out there and just the appreciation from all the fans … I don’t think words can really describe that given where I was a little over a year ago and what my prospects were at that time, to end up here and being able to play all four rounds … even a month ago I didn’t know if I could pull this off. I think it was a positive. I got some work to do and looking forward to it."
He finished 13-over par for the tournament – just ahead of Adam Scott, Max Homa, Mackenzie Hughes and Tyrrell Hatton.
It probably wasn’t the exact end to the tournament as he wanted. Woods came into the tournament thinking he could win it all and in his first two rounds he was keeping it close.
In the third round Saturday, he shot his highest 18-hole total with a 79 and matched it on Sunday.
"As many putts as I had, you’d think I’d have figured it out somewhere along the line, but it just didn’t happen," Woods said after his round Saturday.
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The two 78s he put together in the third and fourth round. It was one more than his first trip to Augusta as an amateur back in 1995 when he shot a 77.
"Each and every day is a challenge," he said Saturday. "Each and every day presents its own different challenges for all of us. I wake up and start the fight all over again."
Woods was about 14 months removed from nearly losing his leg in the Los Angeles car crash. Renner asked Woods about his motivation to play through all the pain and injuries.
"It’s hard. I have those days where I just don’t want to do anything. It just hurts. As I’ve alluded to earlier, I’ve had a great team around me that are super positive and motivated me and have helped me around," Woods said.
"Those days are tough. The days I feel good, those are easy days. But there have been more and more tough days than easy days. I just got to work through it. Just like golf, in order to get better you just gotta go out there and put in the time. I have. The hard parts are the recovery sessions. Pop in those ice baths a number of times a day. Those do really suck but it works. Just to have the support around me, I couldn’t have done it without them. "
Woods has five Masters green jackets to his name.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.