AUGUSTA, Ga. – Tiger Woods’ first round at the Masters was a steady and rather quiet curiosity. He made four birdies and two bogeys for…
AUGUSTA, Ga. – Tiger Woods’ first round at the Masters was a steady and rather quiet curiosity. He made four birdies and two bogeys for a solid if not spectacular 70, the same score he shot in the opening round the first three times he won this tournament.
The roars that he heard on the course by and large were not for him, but that did not matter. When he made a three-foot putt to save par on the 18th hole, he knew that he was right where he wanted to be — at the time, one stroke off the lead. Woods has never led in the first round of the 21 previous Masters he has played, which is downright strange, but it also serves as a valuable lesson: there is no real point in leading right now.
“A good, solid day,” Woods called it, and that it was. There were no gasp-inducing mistakes, no thrown clubs, almost nothing to worry about.
“I felt like I played well and I 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.”
His driver, so troublesome for so many months over the past few years, worked like a dream much of the day. He didn’t hit every fairway — only nine of 14 — but he was never in terrible trouble in the pines.
His putter was another story.
