Tiger Woods savours magical Masters comeback and sets sights on Open

The look on Tiger Woods’s face as he walked off the 18th green told you all you need to know about what he’s been through in the last 14 months.

Woods had just shot his second consecutive round of 78, which is the worst score he’s ever made in the 24 years he’s been playing here, and done it on a day that seemed tailor-made for going low. The round left him 13 over par for the tournament, and 22 shots off Scottie Scheffler’s lead, in 47th place. And despite it all, he was grinning like he’d just won the tournament. He clearly wasn’t exaggerating when he said he wasn’t sure whether his injuries would ever allow him to play competitive golf again.

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“It was an unbelievable feeling,” Woods said when he was back in Butler Cabin. “I wasn’t exactly playing my best out there, but just to have the support out there and the appreciation from all the fans, I don’t think words can really describe it, given where I was a little over a year ago, and what my prospects were at that time. To end up here, and to be able to play in all four rounds, even a month ago I didn’t know if I could pull this off. “ Woods described his comeback as one of the greatest achievements of his career. “Without a doubt.”

Woods’s perspective on the game is understandably different these days. His priorities seem to have been reshaped by his near-death experience in that car crash outside Los Angeles, by his first hours in the hospital afterwards, when there was a genuine possibility that they were going to have to amputate his right leg, and by the countless hours of gruelling rehabilitation he has done. “I’m just thankful, I keep saying it, but I am. I really am. I truly