Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy joined forces during a practice round at Augusta National on Monday ahead of The Masters – and unsurprisingly the two biggest stars in golf attracted thousands of spectators.
Woods and McIlroy went out off the 10th tee under overcast skies alongside former Masters champion Fred Couples and South Korea’s Tom Kim.
The group were cheered at every turn, with perhaps the loudest when they opted to partake in a Masters practice-round tradition and tried in unison to purposefully skip their balls across the pond at the par-three 16th.
Woods, a 15-time major champion, won the last of his five Masters titles in 2019 when the American completed a remarkable comeback from injuries and highly-publicised personal issues. Since a serious car crash in February 2021, the 47-year-old has played a severely limited schedule, appearing mainly in the major tournaments and made his comeback at the 2022 Masters where he made the cut.
McIlroy, meanwhile, is one of the leading forces in world golf, and the world No 2 is once again among the favourites to secure the Green Jacket this week.
The Northern Irishman, 33, is seeking to become just the sixth player in history to complete the Grand Slam of all four majors and last year finished runner-up behind champion Scottie Scheffler. In 14 visits to Augusta National, McIlroy has placed in the top five a further three times and inside the top 10 in half of his Masters.
McIlroy will hope to emulate Sergio Garcia by winning the Hero Dubai Desert Classic and Masters in the same season, the Spaniard completing the double in 2017. McIlroy won his third Desert Classic in January by one shot ahead of Patrick Reed.
Source : TheNationalNews
