Former American golfer Mark O'Meara believes that his good friend and ex-world number one Tiger Woods, who has struggled badly for form and fitness this season, would compete in next week's US Masters.
Woods, whose ranking has plummeted to a mind-boggling 104th, has played only twice on the PGA Tour this season and his manager Mark Steinberg revealed earlier this week that the 39-year-old American had played 18 holes at Augusta as he continued to assess whether his game would be tournament-ready for the first Major of the year.
O'Meara, who was speaking at a media viewing of Woods' first US-designed golf course at BlueJack National, said that deep down he believes that the former world number one would play, Sport24 reported.
O'Meara, who won 16 times on the PGA Tour during his career, is hoping that Woods plays but he also understands that his friend is doing what he needs to do for himself. He claimed that everybody struggles in the game of golf and no-one is immune to struggling.
The former Masters winner pointed out that for a long time Woods didn't have to struggle and nobody dominated a sport like the former world number one did.
The 1998 Masters and 1998 British Open champion said that 14-times major winner Woods always gets extra motivation when he is written off. He said that Woods certainly dominated golf for quite a while but then a couple of years ago when he didn't believe that the ex-world number one was swinging the club that well he won five tournaments in a season and was named 'Player of the Year'.
O'Meara claimed that Woods is the kind of athlete and individual that when people start to doubt him that is a good motivating factor for him to turn it around.