AUGUSTA, Ga. — Tiger Woods looked like he might squeeze out something special Thursday afternoon at sweaty Augusta National. His scorecard read one over, a great improvement from the middle of his round, as he roasted another tee ball into the 18th fairway. His agent, Marc Steinberg, must have felt the importance of this single shot. He sat in the clubhouse and barked at the bounding ball to slow down. It did, just not quickly enough. Woods’ ball eventually stopped on the edge of the fairway bunker, leaving a not-so-great stance for a guy who can sometimes barely stand.
Woods addressed the ball with his heels hanging over the lip. He torqued his hips a bit, testing the feel of a hook swing. He sat on the decision for a minute or two, then dug the front of his right shoe into the sand and addressed the ball. Then he dug his toes in some more and addressed it again. Woods tried a ropey swing and pirouetted onto his left leg in the bunker, hopping on his left leg and holding his right one in the air.
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He wanted to get that ball into the left greenside bunker but it ended in the right one instead. It led to a finishing bogey — his fifth of the day — and a first-round 74, his worst start at the Masters since 2005. So, how about that awkward dance, Tiger…
“It’s on my left leg, I’m good,” Woods said. “Hop on the left leg is fine. If I did it on the other one, not so fine.”
Ho hum, I guess. This kind of tricky movement, we’re coming to learn, is just the new normal. Thursday was the 14th competitive round since Woods returned from his car accident. But it may have been a fair sign of what is to come. Woods thinks about that leg and where he plants it every second of every day.
Woods has been battling his body more than he hoped to be recently. He says his golf is in a better place than it was last year, but his body aches more now than it did then. He’s put some miles on it this spring, logging four rounds at the Genesis Invitational. His recovery afterward wasn’t as smooth as he’d hoped. So here he is, laboring a bit more than he expected. Than we expected. But that’s what he’s always done. And probably what he’ll continue to do.
Woods didn’t blame his body for the two-over round, a telling sign that he can parse between where his legs let him down and where his hands let him down. At times Thursday, the hands didn’t look great. The fluffed wedge on 3 that he caught too high on the face: bogey. The shorted flop shot on 11 that ended up in a trap: bogey. His two three-putts in three holes on the front nine: bogeys, plural. Three birdies helped keep his hopes alive.
What Woods has done to his body is just hook himself to a really short leash. He has no freedom to roam like he used to. Every step is purposeful. He nearly crashed into a couple patrons outside the clubhouse Thursday morning on a direct path to the putting green. Unsurprisingly, they thought it was pretty cool — “Oh man, Tiger has that tunnel vision,” they said. In reality, it could have been pretty dicey.
There’s no hitting balls after a bad round anymore. The last time he opened with a 74 or worse at the Masters was 2005. He could hit balls forever back then, a spry 29-year-old. We all remember that Masters, too. Woods grinded back, holed out one of the greatest chips of his life and beat Chris DiMarco in a playoff. Here in 2023, Woods bounced off the property, keeping his time with the press short and sweating like he’d been in a sauna. Warm weather is supposed to be good for him and his tender body. Thursday was the day to show what he’s really got.
“Most of the guys are going low today,” Woods said after. “This was the day to do it. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll be a little bit better, a little bit sharper, and kind of inch my way through it.”
It’s telling that Woods wasn’t resigned to any fate just yet. He’s had slow starts to Masters before. It’s just that the leader of the tournament played from his own group Thursday. He saw it up close, as Viktor Hovland beat him by nine. Jon Rahm and Brooks Koepka did, too. Because of those thoroughbreds and the many others ahead of him, there may be no winning this tournament for Woods. We probably knew that all along. But there is a second round, and ominous weather forecasted for the weekend. Woods is already thinking about it.
“If I can just kind of hang in there, maybe kind of inch my way back, hopefully, it will be positive towards the end.”