AUGUSTA, Ga. – Tiger Woods was feeling so good about his early position at the Masters that he misremembered his own tournament history.
Despite a few wobbles down the stretch, Woods carded a 2-under 70 Thursday at Augusta National. Considering his unusual record of late in the year’s first major, this should be considered progress – it’s just the fifth time since 2002 that he’s broken par in the first round.
And so Woods had every reason to puff out his chest. He was just a shot off the clubhouse lead. He’d made a few key saves to keep his round going. He was part of the logjam at 70.
So he boasted: “I’ve shot this number and won four coats, so hopefully I can do it again.”
That’s not quite true, of course. In 2005, he opened with 74, charged up the board with back-to-back rounds of 66-65, and then prevailed in a playoff with Chris DiMarco. It’s the last time that the eventual Masters champion wasn’t in the top 10 after the first round (T-33).
But his overall point remains: This was a promising start as he searches for a fifth green jacket. He mostly kept the ball in play, hit a few exquisite iron shots and took advantage of a couple par 5s on a day when Augusta National’s swirling winds kept the scoring average a shade over par.
“It’s not a bad start,” he said. “We still have a long way to go.”
But at least now Woods isn’t playing catch-up, at least not to a great degree. His past 16 months have been nothing short of remarkable, but if there’s one thing that has kept him from winning multiple times, it’s been his slow starts. Last season he ranked 62nd in Round 1 scoring average. This season he failed to break 70 in any of his four stroke-play starts. When he took the Tour Championship last September, it was the product of a hot start – he won wire to wire.
Even in this tournament he has a history of easing into the week. His chaotic return post-scandal in 2010? It remains the only time in his Masters career that he’s opened with a round in the 60s.
But from the outset, Woods looked impressive in this first round Thursday. He went out in 1 under despite three misses inside 10 feet. He hit a perfect drive on 13 and two-putted for birdie, then hit a miraculous approach shot on 14, where he hoisted a 9-iron over the trees and then rammed home a 25-footer.
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Woods could have taken the outright lead by himself with a birdie on the reachable par-5 15th, but he nuked a 242-yard 4-iron over the green and wound up next to a buried root.
“The next shot was probably the hardest I had all day,” he said.
With no choice but to play for safety – if he caught the root and bladed the pitch, his ball would have raced into the water – he purposely chunked his 40-yard pitch shot and made par. An errant drive on 17 led to a bogey, but his opening 70 left him optimistic for the next three rounds.
“I felt like I played well and did all the things I needed to do today to post a good number,” he said. “I drove it well, hit some good iron shots, speed was good on the greens. ... I feel very good.”
And why shouldn’t he?
Woods hasn’t started this well at the Masters in years.