The big change Tiger Woods simply has to make if he ever wants to compete at The Masters again

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Tiger Woods and The Masters tournament have been synonymous with one another since he won his first green jacket at Augusta National in 1997.

The love story between Woods – the man many label as the greatest of all-time – and The Masters began 28 years ago when he dominated the field at Augusta National.

The now 49-year-old won his first Masters title, and indeed his maiden major, after finishing up at 18-under par to win by 12 strokes.

The only time that scoring record has been broken was when Dustin Johnson finished at 20-under for the week at Augusta in 2020, although the tournament was held in November that year due to the impact of Covid-19.

He went on to win four more green jackets, in 2001, 2002, 2005 and 2019. Only Jack Nicklaus has won more.

Tiger’s Masters win in 2019 was, and still is, one of the greatest sporting achievements in the history of the game after coming back from incredibly complicated back fusion surgery.

Woods’ caddie Joe LaCava has spoken about how special the Masters win was in 2019.

The 82-time PGA Tour winner claiming his 15th major title six years ago was completely out of the blue at the time.

So is there any chance at all that he could do it again? If anyone can, Woods can, but in order for it to be at all possible, he has to make one very big change.

The change Tiger Woods must make if he wants to compete at The Masters again

It’s time for Tiger to get serious, if he is to ever feel the pressure of being in contention on Sunday at The Masters.

In previous years, Woods has played minimal events heading into Augusta National – usually just at Riviera.

In 2024, he only played at The Genesis – a tournament he withdrew from through injury – before The Masters.

That was the same in 2023 while in 2022, his first tournament of the season came at Augusta National.

He is one of the greatest golfers to have ever played the game, if not the greatest. So there is no way that he would be naive enough to think he can waltz into Augusta and properly compete to win without having at least 10-12 competitive rounds under his belt.

It’s no coincidence that when he won The Masters in 2019, he had played five PGA Tour events leading up to the week at Augusta.

We all know that Woods’ game is perfectly suited to Augusta, what with his exceptional iron play, wonderful touch around the greens and immensely impressive putting while under pressure.

He has all of the basics needed to contend again at The Masters, but as long as he is physically fit, the one big change he must make is playing more golf tournaments on the PGA Tour in the build-up to the first major of the year.

Tiger Woods’ incredible record at The Masters

Woods possesses an almost unrivalled record at Augusta National.

Here are his career results to date at The Masters:

To have missed only one cut in 26 starts at The Masters is an unbelievable record from Woods.

Having five green jackets to his name isn’t bad either!

The scary thing is that if he hadn’t suffered so badly with injuries over the past 15 years or so, it wouldn’t have been unthinkable for him to reach double-digit wins at Augusta.

If Woods is ever to have a chance of even competing again though, he has to head into The Masters with more reps under his belt, so to speak.