Tiger Woods was at Augusta National briefly last week for the Champions Dinner two nights before the start of the Masters, and even though he wasn’t playing as he continues his recovery from back surgery, he managed to make some news.
It came the day after he went home to Jupiter, Fla.
“Tiger Woods was hitting drivers full speed today at Medalist GC,” Tim Rosaforte of the Golf Channel reported on Twitter.
Woods, who has not played since the Wyndham Championship last August, is taking his comeback slowly at the age of 40 and insists he will play sometime this year.
It wasn’t until a week before the Masters that he announced that he would not play in the first major of the year, which he has won four times, but he also seemed encouraged by his progress.
“I’m absolutely making progress, and I’m really happy with how far I’ve come, but I still have no timetable to return to competitive golf,” Woods wrote said on his website.
Woods, who has 79 PGA Tour victories including 14 major titles, has said he still believes he can break Sam Snead’s record of 82 in the former and Jack Nicklaus’ mark of 18 in the latter.
Nicklaus said again that he believes Woods can do it.
“Tiger and I both won young, and he may span 25 years himself,” Nicklaus said at the Masters. I don’t think he’s done. I think Tiger’s going to win more tournaments.”
Woods’ next target could be to play before or at the U.S. Open in June at Oakmont.
