Will Tiger Woods play Masters after latest withdrawal?

Tiger Woods withdrew from the Genesis Invitational on Friday afternoon. It was yet another withdrawal for the 15-time major champion who has had a difficult time completing tournaments since his return from a life-threatening car accident in 2021. How will this withdrawal affect his chances of playing in the Masters?

Will Tiger Woods play in the Masters after his latest withdrawal?

Fortunately for Woods, this withdrawal reportedly had more to do with an illness than it did with an injury. The post below courtesy of Dan Rapaport on social media contains what Woods' longtime friend Robert McNamara had to say about the withdrawal.

This is reassuring because whenever Tiger withdraws, one immediately thinks about all of the injuries he has had over the years to his back and legs. Thankfully, it appears he did not badly injure himself yet again.

Despite that, it is frustrating that Woods had to withdraw from yet another tournament. Below are his results in the tournaments since he has been back from the accident, per Rapaport.

This does not tell the whole story as two of those withdrawals were in the 2022 PGA Championship and the 2023 Masters after he made the cut. So he has proven that he can still compete at the highest level, but he has just struggled to remain healthy enough to finish out tournaments.

It remains unclear what this latest setback will mean for Woods' chance at playing in the Masters in April. One would think that whatever illness he is dealing with should be gone by then, but we will have to see if any other issues flare up.

We could still see Tiger next month in either the Arnold Palmer Invitational or the Players Championship if he is healthy and ready to compete. It would be really beneficial if he is able to get in at least one more tournament before Augusta so he has at least a few more competitive reps under his belt.

However, if Woods is not feeling 100% next month then he may choose to rest up and wait until the Masters to return to competition.

This latest withdrawal from Tiger is disappointing, but at least tinged with hope because it was not due to injury. Tiger showed some positive signs in his play this week before having to withdraw, so let's hope he heals up and is ready to build upon them whenever he plays next.