After his opening round of 71 at the US Masters 2022, Tiger Woods came into the clubhouse at Augusta National on day two with a 74, leaving him T19 heading into the weekend. In an interview after the round, the 46-year-old talks about the difficulties of the round, the prospects for the weekend and the state of his body.
Tiger Woods fights his way back
“It was windy. It was swirling. Balls were oscillating on the greens,” Tiger Woods said of the fierce winds that made life difficult for the players at Augusta National. “We got a couple of bad gusts. I hit a couple of bad shots”, Woods explained the bogeys. Following the early setbacks, the goal was to leave the course with even par, the five-time Masters winner revealed after the round. This plan did not quite work out and Woods was annoyed about missed opportunities on the 15th and 16th holes.
“Other than that it was a good fight. I got back in the ball game. I’m four shots back at second. That’s the thing. But Scottie is running away with it right now,” Woods summed up, looking at the leaderboard of the 86th Masters Tournament. Tomorrow is going to be tough. It’s going to be windy. It’s going to be cool. It’s going to be the Masters that I think the Masters Committee has been looking forward to for a number of years. We haven’t had it like this.
The body like a car
Until his round starts on Saturday, the key for Tiger Woods is to regenerate. “I don’t feel as good as I would like to feel,” the reconvalescent recapped. “I expected to be sore and not feel my best for sure. He thanked his team in particular for always “fixing” him and compared his body to a NASCAR series car. “I’m good at breaking it. They’re good at fixing it.”
To even tee it up again at the 2022 US Masters, Woods also had to relearn the feel of golf. That’s why the practice rounds in Florida and at Augusta National were very important. “I was able to practice and get my touch, practice on my short game, hit a lot of putts, which was great,”explained Woods, who had not played competitively on PGA Tour “in forever” and so had also lost his eye for the breaks on the greens. “So it’s taken a little bit to get used to it, but I finally got my eye back.”
Chances of winning the US Masters 2022?
Now Woods heads into the weekend of the US Masters 2022 14 months after his serious car accident – an incredible achievement. And the superstar himself even believes he has a chance to win. “I’ve got a chance going into the weekend,” Tiger indicated. “You’ve seen guys do it with a chance going into the back nine.”
Even before the tournament, Woods had said he believed he could win his sixth event at Augusta. In any case, the Hall-of-Famer only wanted to compete if he could also compete for victories. Now Tiger Woods wants to put himself in just that position by Sunday. “If you are within five or six going into the back nine, anything can happen. I need to get myself there. That’s the key. I need to get myself there.”