• The Masters

Tiger never considered Masters withdrawal

ESPN will be providing live commentary during all four days of the Masters from Augusta National - along with all the news, views and opinion when it gets underway on Thursday.

Tiger Woods said he never considered pulling out of The Masters after being found guilty of an illegal drop at Augusta National.

Woods found water at the 15th during his second round, prompting the drop, but later admitted in an interview that he had positioned his ball "two yards further back" in an attempt to take yardage off his shot.

It was strongly suggested that Woods should be disqualified for an intentional rule break, but he eventually received a two-stroke penalty. The American recovered from the blow to position himself within four strokes of the leaders ahead of the final round.

However, there are several influential voices - Nick Faldo among them - who insist Woods should have shown respect to the game by withdrawing from the competition. Woods disagrees.

Asked if he thought of withdrawing, Woods said: "No. Under the rules of golf I am abiding by the rules. They made the determination that nothing had happened on Friday and after what I said, things changed.

"I got a text from my agent saying, 'Call me'. It's never a good thing when that happens. They called me in, I got a two-shot penalty, time to play. I made a mistake, I took an improper drop and I got the penalty."

Woods tripped himself up by confessing that he intentionally took the two extra yards, exposing him to "trial by TV". Reflecting on that interview, the world No. 1 explained that he was focusing purely on his round.

"I wasn't even really thinking. I was still a little ticked at what happened, and I was just trying to figure, okay, I need to take some yardage off this shot.

"That's all I was thinking about was trying to make sure I took some yardage off of it, and evidently, it was pretty obvious, I didn't drop in the right spot."

Brandt Snedeker and Angel Cabrera lead heading into the final round on seven-under, but Woods (three-under) sounded an ominous warning, saying: "I'm right there in the ballgame. I'm four back with a great shot to win this championship."

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