Tiger sanctuary: Woods has special bond with Augusta National

From his greatest triumphs to his darkest hours, Tiger Woods has been able to count on Augusta National as a sanctuary where he can focus on golf before supportive spectators.

So it's no wonder the 46-year-old US superstar, a 15-time major winner and five-time Masters champion, could be looking to make a stunning comeback under the Georgia pines next week from severe leg injuries suffered in a February 2021 car crash.

"You never give up. That's a given. You always fight," Woods said after his 2019 Masters victory. "Just giving up's never in the equation."

An 18-hole practice round by Woods on Tuesday at Augusta National to test his fitness to walk the hilly layout captured the attention and imagination of the world.

Woods had given no timetable for when he might play competitively again after saying he was lucky to have survived the California auto accident in February 2021 that hospitalized him for weeks and left him unable to walk for months.

"I'm not going to play a full schedule ever again," Woods said last December. "I'm going to have to pick-and-choose what events, and even then my body might not cooperate with that.

"It's going to take a lot of work to get to where I feel like I can compete at these guys and be at a high level."

But his walk around Augusta National hinted that if Woods wasn't confident in the level of his game, he wouldn't test himself only days before the Masters.

"There's no other tournament in the world like this, and to come back to a place that I've had so many great memories at and so many great times in my life, it's always special," Woods says of Augusta National.

Woods won his first major title at Augusta National in 1997, becoming the Black major champion and at 21 the youngest to don a green