How close is Tiger to a Masters comeback?

Will Tiger Woods tee it up at The Masters this week? With still no official confirmation on whether Woods intends to return to competitive action at Augusta National, Butch Harmon assesses whether we’ll see the 15-time major champion make his latest major comeback…

I know Tiger Woods and he just isn't going to play The Masters for the sake of playing. If he doesn't feel he can compete at a high level, even to the point in his mind where he could compete to have a chance to win, I'm not sure he would tee it up just to shoot 79, 79.

When the news broke on Tuesday that he had been playing golf with his son and Justin Thomas at Augusta National, I think that was a trial to see if he could even possibly walk 18 holes. It's an extremely hilly course, a tough course to walk, and I think the number one test was whether he feels that he's capable of walking 72 holes - which is what he'll have to be capable of this week.

If this was July at The Open at St Andrews, a flat golf course, I would say he would play, but I'm really not sure if you're going to see him play the tournament rounds. I think we all hope that he will be playing, but we probably won't know - to be honest with you - until Thursday whether he is actually going to go.

I think right now, at 46 years old, he's testing himself to see if he's capable of competing and he's not just going to tee it up for ceremony at this point of his life. If he doesn't feel that he can compete at a high level, then I don't think we'll see him this week.

Ten years from now that might be different, when he gets into his mid-50s and would be competing just for the sake of being a former champion, but I don't think he is at that part of his life now.

We all want Woods to play and we all