Tiger Woods will be competing to defend his 2019 Masters championship this week and still gets emotional thinking back on last year’s accomplishment.
In a press conference on Tuesday, Woods says he still gets “chills” when he reflects on the day he recorded his one-stroke Masters victory. The green jacket was the fifth won by Woods in his career and his 15th major championship overall.
“I’m still just getting chills thinking about it,” Woods said. “Then I walked off the back of the green, to see Charlie [his son] there, just opened up to our arms, it meant a lot to me and still does. It just reminded me so much of me and my dad [Earl in 1997], and to come full circle like that, it still gives me… you know, a little teary.”
The 2020 Masters, which was postponed to November due to the COVID-19 pandemic, will be Woods’s first competition since a +4 finish in the Zozo Championship from Oct. 22-25. Woods has played a total of six competitions since events were resumed in June.
Woods, 44, acknowledged that the environment played a role in his 2019 Masters victory and will miss the energy of the crowds. Fans will not be allowed for the 2020 competition amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“[The fans] helped me win,” Woods said. “The support that I had, the energy that was around the property, it was electric that day… It’s going to be stark in what we see, our sights into the greens, the energy that you hear from different roars, from different parts of the golf course.”
Woods will begin his Masters title defense on the 10th hole at Augusta National on Wednesday, Nov. 11 at 7:55 a.m. EST.
