48-year-old Tiger Woods and five-time winner of The Masters will play 23 holes on Friday April 12 for the first time since 2019 after play was suspended during the opening round due to darkness.
Tiger Woods will put his body through its toughest physical test in many years when he faces a marathon Friday at another weather-affected edition of The Masters.
Woods was given a late-early draw for the first two rounds at the Augusta National, where a two-and-a-half-hour delay due to adverse weather saw him not tee off with Jason Day and Max Homa until 3.54pm local time (8.54pm BST).
The later start meant that Woods was only able to complete 13 holes before play was suspended due to darkness, leaving the 15-time major champion having to play 23 on Friday as he looks to make a record-breaking 24th consecutive cut at The Masters.
Tiger Woods was forced to chip out left-handed on the second hole at Augusta National during the first round of The Masters.
This will be first time Woods has played more than 18 holes on the same day in tournament competition since November 2019, when he played 29 holes during a lengthy Sunday ahead of completing a record-equalling 82nd PGA Tour title the following day.
There were encouraging signs from his efforts through 13 holes on Thursday, however, with the five-time winner of The Masters heading into day two on one under and six off the lead.
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“It was one of the most tricky days that I’ve ever been a part of,” Woods told reporters. “The wind was all over the place. It was hard to get a beat not only on what direction it was going, but the intensity, and it kept switching. It was a very difficult day.”
As for the challenge that awaits him of 23 holes in a day, Woods said:
“We’re going to warm up and just kind of head down there and start our round. It will be pretty much almost like between 20 and 30 minutes in between rounds, so it’ll be a natural flow from the finish of the first round and continuation of the second.”
He added: “The body is okay. We’ve got some work to do yet tonight.”
There is no threat of thunderstorms for any of the next three days, with temperatures considerably warmer than Woods experienced when he was forced to withdraw mid-round from last year’s tournament.
Since finishing tied-38th in his title defence at The Masters in November 2020, Woods has made just seven competitive appearances and only completed 72 holes three times during that period.
Injury has severely limited how frequently he has been able to compete in recent years, with Woods withdrawing ahead of his final round at the 2022 PGA Championship and again ahead of the final day last year at Augusta.
Woods also pulled out mid-tournament from the Genesis Invitational in February, with the former world No 1 admitting ahead of this week that his game and his body ‘wasn’t ready’ to tee it up elsewhere on the PGA Tour ahead of The Masters.
