Plenty of ups, some downs for Tiger Woods in his first round

Tiger Woods, in his first competitive round since his car accident 14 months ago, begins his chase for a sixth Green Jacket with a 1-under 71

There were fist pumps and savage lip outs, mightly swings and misjudged chip shots, times when Tiger Woods looked as good as ever and other times when he looked every bit like a man who hadn’t played a competitive tournament in 508 days.

Everything that happened on Thursday at Augusta National added up to a one-under round of 71 for the five-time champion, making a miraculous return to the Masters just 14 months after suffering a near-fatal car accident.

Woods had been gone from the tour since the Masters in November 2020, but he clearly wasn’t forgotten. The eyes of the massive gallery of patrons were firmly on him as he stepped up to the tee box at 11:04 am ET alongside Louis Oosthuizen and Joaquin Niemann. At the first hole, after leaving his drive out to the right, Woods showed he wasn’t feeling any nerves as he calmly rolled in a 10-foot putt to save par.

And this spectacular comeback, perhaps the most unlikely in a career of comebacks, was off and running. Woods parred his first four holes and looked to have his first birdie as his putt on the fifth rolled toward the hole. But it lipped out, the loud groan from the patrons reverberating around Augusta National. He made up for it on the par-three sixth hole with an approach to two feet. This time, he finished off the birdie attempt.

Woods, who 25 years ago was able to overpower this course, seemed reluctant to try to do so again. He was content to take out a fairway wood on the tee and keep the ball in play. He averaged 271 yards off the tee and hit seven of 14 fairways.  At the par-five 13th, he went with a 3-wood and hit a beautifully shaped, right-to-left tee shot that ended up safely in the fairway. From there he was able to hit the green and two-putt for birdie that got him to one-under for the round.

The highlight, though, came on the 16th, the scene of arguably the most memorable shot of his career. Leaving his approach on the par-three on the proper level but 29 feet away, he played the right-to-left breaking putt perfectly and watched as it went into the center of the cup. The patented fist pump that, a year ago, seemed like it would never be seen again on Augusta National was back.

Woods’ round wasn’t all positive, though. On the par-five eighth hole, he left his third shot short of the green before chipping nine feet past the cup, making his first bogey of the round. And on the 14th, after a big rip from the pine straw to over the green, he again ran his chip past the hole and missed the putt for par.

Tiger Woods in a solid position at The Masters after 18 holes

He admitted afterward that he didn’t feel right while warming up on the practice range but, once he got his hands around a club once again, he was back to where he belongs. “As my dad said, did you accomplish your task? Did you warm-up? I said, yes, now go play. And that’s exactly what I did,” he told CBS’ Michael Eaves in Butler Cabin after his round. “Let’s just go and get it done. You know where to put it. Execute each shot…For the day, to end up in the red, I’m right where I need to be.”

Woods showed no signs of the debilitating leg injury that kept him in a hospital bed for months last year. He swung freely and easily, his tempo the same as it always has been. His return completely removed all the other competitors to meer bystanders; few around Augusta National paid any attention to the fact that Cameron Smith and Scottie Scheffler, the two hottest players on the planet coming into the tournament, moved to the top of the leaderboard on Thursday.

The first round of the 86th Masters was about Woods and his return. It seemed unlikely just a few weeks ago, impossible when scenes of his mangled Genesis SUV flashed across television screens last February. But if he showed anything on Thursday, it’s this: never underestimate golf’s greatest champion.

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