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Tiger Woods just pranked the golf world, and noted sports journalist Jason Whitlock fell for it on April Fool's Day. The legendary golfer is recovering from Achilles surgery sustained a couple of weeks ago, initially putting his Masters status in doubt.
He was removed from the field, but an April 1 update suggested he was back after a miraculous recovery. The golfer shared an update to his official social media channels, saying he was thrilled to be able to get on the course at Augusta National.
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To which Whitlock replied via his X:
Golf fans, many of whom quickly noticed that it was April Fool's Day and that Woods was joking, piled onto Whitlock for failing to recognize the same and falling for the prank.
"I don't know who is dumber... You or Stephen A," one said.
"LMAO....... You do know what today is don't you?" another asked.
"Somehow... you're a bigger dumba*s than I already thought," one chimed in.
"You make your living on pretending to be brain damaged lol," another added.
"You’re as dumb as you look. Ya pinecone," one stated.
"Jason, you are impressively stupid," another said.
One fan did consider the idea that Whitlock might've also been trolling himself.
"Maybe Jason is playing chess while everyone else is playing Checkers," the fan said.
Either way, online users did not hold back when it came to Whitlock. The sometimes controversial FS1 host had over 100 replies to his response to Woods, the vast majority of them being brutal to Whitlock.
Is Tiger Woods playing the Masters after all?
Just recently, Tiger Woods' name was removed from the Masters field, making official what had been known since he ruptured his Achilles: he would not be playing this year.
His consecutively made cuts streak would be temporarily paused, and after Woods pranked fans with the aforementioned fictitious update on April 1, he later came clean stating he had not recovered.
Woods later clarified via another X post:
"P.S. April Fools my Achilles is still a mess :)"
Tiger Woods may not play this year at all, let alone just a few weeks after undergoing surgery. He had trouble walking the course for 18 holes multiple days in a row when he was at full strength last year, so doing so after surgery would be improbable at the very least. Woods, despite his elaborate prank, is not playing the 2025 Masters.
