Tiger Woods plays 18 holes at Augusta; is Masters next?

Tiger Woods played Tuesday at Augusta National Golf Club. Will he play the Masters next week?

Mark Steinberg, Woods' agent, confirmed to USA TODAY Sports that Woods flew up to Augusta, Ga., early Tuesday and played 18 holes on the course where he has won four green jackets.

"He continues to work on the game and will advise in coming days what plan is," Steinberg wrote in an email.

According to The Augusta Chronicle , Woods' Gulfstream G5 arrived at Augusta Regional Airport in the early morning hours. The paper reported the plane departed late afternoon.

Woods, a four-time Masters champion, has not played on the PGA Tour since withdrawing from the Farmers Insurance Open on Feb. 5 at Torrey Pines. Six days later he announced he was taking a leave of absence from the Tour to work on his game, stating he wouldn't return until he felt he could compete with the world's best players.

He has played just 47 holes on the Tour this season.

Speculation of Woods' return has swirled for weeks. He did not play in the Honda Classic or the Arnold Palmer Invitational, where he has won a record eight times -- two of his regular stops before heading to Georgia.

Woods withdrew from the Farmers on the 12th hole in the first round with back stiffness. The week prior he missed the cut in the Waste Management Phoenix Open, where he shot a career-high 82 in the second round.

Woods, who won five titles in 2013 but didn't record a top-10 finish in nine starts worldwide in 2014, has been working out in his gym at home in Jupiter, Fla., and at the Medalist Golf Club in Hobe Sound with swing consultant Chris Como. Woods, who has three missed cuts, two withdrawals and a finish of 69th in his last six Tour starts, has been working on all aspects of his game but especially on his short game, which alarmingly became a collection of chunks and skulls starting in December at the Hero World Challenge.

Woods holds the record of 683 weeks as the No. 1 player in the world but has fallen to No. 104, the first time he's been outside of the top 100 since the week before he won his first Tour title in 1996.

He has not won since the 2013 World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational.

Woods, a winner of 14 major championships and 79 Tour titles, last won the Masters in 2005. He missed last year's Masters because of back surgery March 31. It was the first time he missed the first major of the year since he first played in 1995, when he tied for 41st as the low amateur.

He hasn't won a major since the 2008 U.S. Open.