Tiger Woods roars into contention after his first round at the Masters

Four-time Masters champion Tiger Woods is just one shot off the lead at Augusta National after opening with a two-under 70 on Thursday.

For a brief moment on Thursday afternoon at Augusta National, a familiar name found himself atop the leaderboard at the Masters.

Tiger Woods opened his Masters tournament with a first round of two-under 70, finishing a shot out of the lead near the end of the day. The four-time champion tied for the lead at three-under after a birdie at the 14th but fell back with a bogey on 17.

Woods made his first birdie of the tournament at the par-five second hole, getting up-and-down from a greenside bunker. On the rest of the front-nine, though, his putter started to let him down. He dropped a shot at the newly-lengthened fifth hole after driving into a fairway bunker then having a seven-foot par putt lip out. He missed another four-footer for birdie at the sixth and a nine-foot putt at the eighth.

At the 9th, however, he finally got a break. His drive at the par-four went through the pine straw and into the second cut of rough, leaving him just 114 yards to the hole. He hit his approach to five feet and converted the birdie opportunity to get back under-par making the turn.

Woods two-putted for birdie at the par-five 13th to get to two-under, then holed a 25-footer for birdie at the next hole to join the group leading the tournament. At the par-five 15th, usually a good chance for a birdie, he flew his approach shot well over the green and left his chip short but managed to get up-and-down to save par. He dropped out of the lead at the 17th after having to pitch out from the right-hand trees, missing a nine-foot putt to save par.

South African Justin Harding, making his Masters debut this week, has a share of the lead at three-under with 2013 champion Adam Scott and Woods’ playing partner Jon Rahm. Woods is part of a group tied for fourth, along with Rickie Fowler, Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson.

Woods came into this Masters with much more optimism than he had a year ago. Last year he was just hoping to get back onto the PGA Tour after enduring four back surgeries. This year, though, after winning the Tour Championship in September, he’s not only grateful just to be here but believes he stands a good chance of winning.

“I feel like I can win. I’ve proven that I can do it,” Woods said during his pre-tournament press conference on Tuesday. “I just feel like I’ve improved a lot over the past 12-14 months, but more than anything I’ve proven to myself that I can play at this level again.”

Woods finished 32nd in the Masters last year, and coming into this week had only played the tournament twice since 2013. He last won the Green Jacket in 2005.

Woods begins his second round on Friday at 1:49 p.m. EST with Rahm and Haotong Li.