Tiger Woods shot a 2-under 70 in the opening round of the Masters on Thursday as he seeks his 15th major and fifth Masters title.
Woods’ struggles on the first five holes may help him this weekend. He struggled off the tee and with his wedges, finding the rough and the back of the greens.
On the first, second, and third holes, Woods had to make clutch putts for par. These were putts Woods has bogeyed in recent years when some of his rounds at the majors have been derailed.
But on Thursday, Woods got to see not only how the ball comes out of the new grass and rough at Augusta on the fairways and behind the greens, but also got some early confidence by making clutch and tricky putts to save pars on many holes. These are shots and putts every Masters champion will be faced with over the weekend, so Woods will be better prepared for those moments.
He is four shots behind the co-leaders and again struggled on the par-5s, parring the second and the 15th hole. These are holes, in addition to the par-4 third hole, that Woods needs to birdie like he did when he was winning the Tiger Slam if he has any chance of winning this weekend.
Woods made his first birdie at the par-3 sixth hole. He then birdied the 8th hole and the par-5 13th, and was playing a bogey-free round until he bogeyed the 14th hole to frustratingly give away all the momentum he had gotten with his birdie on the previous hole.
When Woods birdied the par-5 13th, it looked liked the Woods of old was back, but then he failed to capitalize on the par-5 15th, parring the hole, which, to him, is essentially a birdie.
Woods usually starts slow at the Masters and by no means did he lose the tournament on the first day, which can often happen. His putting was clutch when it had to be, but the wedges and irons that have not been letting him down this season in his three PGA Tour victories were shaky.
When asked if he was burdened by the pressure of not having won a major since 2008, Woods said it was frustrating that he has not won a major in that long but said it was not impacting his game.
One thing to note–Woods said his “biggest challenge” on Thursday was “just the speed of the greens.”
“They weren’t quite there,” he said. “They looked it, but just weren’t quite putting it.”
Woods has had trouble reading the greens at major tournaments in recent years, especially after the greens have changed due to rain. With storms expected to hit Augusta, a sign of whether Woods is back will be how he adjusts to the speeds of the greens on Friday–and the weekend. Many players will fall back to Woods, but there are also a lot of quality players in front of him, which means Woods cannot rely on the field coming back to him and, like Mickelson, become more aggressive if he is to win his 15th major and fifth Green Jacket.
Should Woods win Augusta, many believe the floodgates will again open and he will quickly tie and ultimately surpass Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 majors.
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