TIGER WOODS, 14 months removed from a car crash that left him with devastating leg injuries, fired a one-under par 71 on Thursday to put himself in the mix at the Masters.
The 46-year-old superstar, who has fallen to 973rd in the world rankings, wrestled a sub-par round out of Augusta National, where he’s seeking the most remarkable comeback in a career marked as much by his gritty determination to overcome injury as by his sublime skills.
“I fought back to get in the red for the day,” Woods said. “I’m where I wanted to be.”
Woods walked off the course three shots off the clubhouse lead held by Australian Cameron Smith, whose four-under par 68 was all the more remarkable considering it was bookended by double bogeys at the first and 18th holes.
Woods was playing his first top-flight competitive round since the pandemic delayed Masters in November of 2020.
Woods had indicated as recently as February that he was unlikely to be ready to tee it up in the first major of the year, and said all week that his biggest challenge would be negotiating the hilly, 7,510-yard Augusta National course on his surgically repaired right leg.
He said prior to the tournament that he dealt with pain every day, but in the immediate aftermath of the round he downplayed his physical limitations.
“I felt good,” he said. “The whole idea was to keep pushing and keep recovering. I’ve been doing that.
“I figured once adrenaline kicks in and I get fired up and get into my little world, everything should be fine.”
Tiger reaches red numbers in the 86th Masters. #themasters pic.twitter.com/yhaEU4i32T
— The Masters (@TheMasters) April 7, 2022
Woods, whose decision to tee it up electrified the golf world, cut a vibrant figure in a hot pink shirt and black trousers — all the better for the thousands of Augusta patrons keen to get a glimpse of him to track their hero.
A 30-minute delay to the start because of pre-dawn thunderstorms only intensified the anticipation for Woods’s appearance on the first tee, where he was greeted with rapturous applause.
Woods wasn’t delighted with his opening drive, which came up short of the right fairway bunker. His approach trickled off the green but he drained a 10-foot par saving putt.
It was just the first par save on a day when Woods hit eight of 14 fairways in regulation and just nine of 18 greens.
He watched a 15-foot birdie putt lip out at the fifth before sticking his tee shot at the par-three sixth two feet from the pin for his first birdie of the day.
After a bogey at the par-five eighth, Woods two putted from 24 feet for a birdie at 13, only to give the shot back at the next.
England’s Danny Willett, the 2016 Masters champion, Chile’s Joaquin Niemann and Scheffler were in the clubhouse on three-under.
Defending champion Hideki Matsuyama of Japan — trying to join Nicklaus, Nick Faldo and Woods as the only players to win back-to-back Masters titles — carded a 72.
He curled in a 29-foot birdie putt at the 16th, and drained another par-saving 10-footer at the last.
Shane Lowry finished the opening round on one over par, after carding 73. It was an up and down day for the Offaly man as he chipped in an eagle on the 13th and then ran up a double-bogey seven on the 15th.
He also came agonisingly close to a hole in one on the fourth, but it hit the flag and bounced off onto the edge of the green.
“It slam dunked in the hole and didn’t leave one mark, so it hit the metal and bounced back out,” he said.
So close!
— Sky Sports (@SkySports) April 7, 2022
Shane Lowry hits the pin on the 4th 😩pic.twitter.com/bxMtdr9C9p
“I’m a bit disappointed to be honest. I missed the fairway on the first and other than that I was pretty much down the middle. I put myself in position to have a good score and my approach play was pretty awful to be honest.
“But it is what it is. I got myself back into the round around Amen Corner and threw it away on 15. I’m disappointed by I will pick myself up.”
Padraig Harrington enjoyed a sensational start when he holed from almost 70 feet on the part-3 sixth. He went through the front nine in 35 strokes but bogeyed three shots in the back nine to finish on a two-over 74.
Rory McIlroy is currently tied for 19th, on even par after the opening seven holes, while Seamus Power is further back on one over after 12.
-Additional reporting by PA
