AUGUSTA, Georgia – In each of the previous four years, Justin Thomas played training rounds at Augusta National Golf Club with two former Masters champions: Fred Couples and Tiger Woods.
Thomas said Couples, the 1992 Masters winner, blew it up on Tuesday morning.
“I didn’t feel like waking up in the cold this morning, so I made sure to give him some pain,” Thomas said. “I don’t know if he would have saved me if Tiger had been with me, but yes.”
Woods, a five-time Masters champion who won the event in 2019, is at home in Florida, recovering from the serious injuries he suffered in a car accident outside Los Angeles on Feb. 23.
Thomas said he visited Woods a couple of times last week and exchanged text messages with him Friday morning.
“He said he’s starting to settle in,” Thomas said. “He’s upset he’s not here playing training rounds with us, and we hate him too.”
Woods, 45, underwent several hours of emergency surgery to repair what doctors called “significant orthopedic injuries” to his lower leg and ankle. Doctors said Woods suffered torn open fractures (bones that broke into more than two pieces and with broken skin) in the upper and lower tibia and fibula of his right leg.
Woods is not expected to attend the Tuesday night champions dinner hosted by Dustin Johnson. Woods hosted the event in November 2020 at the Pandemic Delayed Masters.
The couple, 61, posted a photo on Twitter on Tuesday night in which he and another member of his team wore Tiger masks.
Thinking of my boy @tigerwoods during this week @themasters. I will miss you tonight at dinner. It’s not the same without you. pic.twitter.com/AigjVx2HIZ
– fredcouplesgolf (@fredcouplesgolf) April 6, 2021
Thomas did not say much about where Woods was in his recovery.
“I would say that for him it’s that he’s unfortunately gone through rehabilitation processes before,” Thomas said.
On January 19, Woods announced that he underwent a microdiscectomy to relieve nerve pain in his lower back. He previously did so three times: once in the spring of 2014 and twice in the fall of 2015. He had a spinal fusion in April 2017 that prevented him from doing a golf club for six months.
Woods returned from that surgery in 2018 and won the Tour Championship that year, followed by the Masters in 2019 and the Zozo Championship later that year.
Thomas said he told Woods, one of his closest friends, that he would do whatever it took to help him.
“That’s what I want to do for him, it’s just say,‘ Dude, I’ll do whatever you want. If you need me to help you with your kids, I can do it. If you want McDonald’s and you want me to wear it, man, I don’t care. I am here for you and I will help you as much as I can, ”Thomas said.