(Bloomberg) -- Tiger Woods said he'll probably tee-off at the Masters golf tournament in Augusta, Georgia, on Thursday, following a 14-month recovery from a near-fatal car crash that almost cost him his leg.
“Right now, I feel like I am going to play,” Woods said at a press conference.
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Walking the course is his biggest obstacle, he added.
“I don't show up to an event unless I think I can win it,” he said. “I don't have to worry about ball striking or the game of golf, it's the hills out here.”
For weeks, speculation has ebbed and flowed whether the five-time champion would make one of the more improbable returns to elite-level golf. Little more than a year ago, he was in a hospital after wrecking his car and almost had to have a leg amputated.
In the run-up to the tournament -- one of the premier events on any international calendar -- Woods kept TV networks, sponsors, odds-makers and his legions of fans guessing. He arrived at Augusta National on Sunday, warmed up on the practice range, and tweeted to his 6.6 million followers that it would be “game-time decision” as to whether he'd compete.
The hype surrounding his possible return has been almost as crazed as when he was racking up 15 major championships and becoming the first athlete of any sport to earn a billion dollars.
Before the press conference, Caesars Sportsbook had Woods at 50-1 odds of winning the Green Jacket.
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