No one really knew what to expect from Tiger Woods on what began as a dreary, overcast, drizzling Thursday morning at Augusta National Golf Club.
The honorary starters for this 86th playing of The Masters — Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Tom Watson took care of their prescribed business but the air was packed with anticipation and buzz — this would be the return of Tiger Woods — a return no one expected this soon except for maybe El Tigre his ownself. Yeah, Tiger loves the impossible.
“Humpty Dumpty is glued and hopefully good enough,” Woods declared on Wednesday. It became evident early in his round that the glue was strong enough to turn back the clock for at least one very difficult day on this hilly collection of holes that can reach difficulty levels most cannot fathom.
It wasn’t the best of warmups for Woods, after all, he’s on a pitch count. Can’t hit many practice shots. By the time he made his way to the first tee for his 11:04 tee time, people were packed in everywhere, up and down the fairway, simply everywhere. They’d waited 17 months to get a glimpse.
It wasn’t exactly vintage Tiger from ball-striking standpoint — but that was to be expected — had to have more rust than a jalopy sitting in a farm field. His first tee shot missed right, his second was short of the green — he got his third from 100 feet to 10 and sank the putt. Tiger knows how to manufacture a score.
His first four holes were an exercise in strategy. Get it around, stay underneath the hole — do no harm. His first nice swing came on his second at the very difficult fifth, a laser-guided gem that landed close to the hole and left him inside 14 feet for birdie. The putt looked good all the way and he made that big step toward it — lip-out.
His best shot of the front nine then came at the par three sixth, where many were three-putting. A laser-guided tee shot left him just two feet for his first birdie. Yes, HE WAS IN RED NUMBERS!
He stayed that way and it looked like another birdie was in the works at the eighth where he hit his best drive of the morning. Went 280, most important — fairway. His second wound up a bit short and just right of the green. Fifty yard pitch — easy birdie right? Nope. Terrible wedge, didn’t make the green, poor chip that went nine feet past the hole — missed the par putt. Bogey on a not-that-difficult par five — mortal sin in the Book Of Tiger.
“Lack of concentration on the first one. Second one, lack of commitment,” Tiger would later say, reminding us that he’s not playing to make the cut, he intends to contend.
A toe-hook driver on the ninth produced an audible grimace. Uh oh, was the back acting up? Tiger produced a gem escape shot from 114 out, a draw that found the green, then spun off the front. Tiger dropped his first F-bomb of the day. Of course he’d save par and an even par 36 going out was well, as Gary Koch once said — “better than most.”
But Woods isn’t “most.”
Three straight pars and his strategic plotting continued. He produced a nice drive at 13, where birdie is virtually mandatory. From 213 out with one of those Augusta hanging lies, he sailed yet another nice iron shot to 24 feet. Two-putt birdie and he was BACK IN RED NUMBERS.
Tiger lost another drive left at 14, did his escape artist routine — swung so hard it recoiled and he found the back fringe. The wind was whipping by then, he had five feet of fringe between him and the green. He tried to get creative, chip/putting it with a four-iron. It got away from him and rolled eight feet from the hole. Another rare miss and he was back to even. His second back-nine birdie came at the 16th where he holed a big right-to-left breaker and showed his first fist pump of the day. BACK IN RED NUMBERS.
After a par at 17, he produced his final miracle of the day — a day where it was miraculous that he was walking this track at all. His worst tee shot of the day clattered in the left trees and fell just 193 yards off the tee. He had 270 left, uphill, into the wind. This one had bogey written all over it. But this was Tiger Woods, after all. He hit his second to one of his wedge distances then danced his third around the hole. He finished the way he started — he made something out of nothing — hole the putt for four and signed for 71.
In the process, he beat guys like Jon Rahm, Collin Morikawa, Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele, Brooks Koepka and he cut his good buddy Justin Thomas by five shots.
“To finish in the red today after as long a layoff as I’ve had and not being in competitive golf— to play this golf course and to do what I did today, to make—to hit the shots in the right spots—I know where to hit it to a lot of these pins, and I miss in the correct spots and give myself good angles. I did that all day, and I was able to make a few putts and end up in the red like I am now.”
An understatement of sorts from Woods. As he pointed out, none of us know how bad it was. “A few guys have seen the pictures,” Woods said, of his mangled right leg. “People have no idea how hard it’s been. I did something positive today.”
Perhaps some did because the patrons put out an energy that Tiger fed off of. “The place was electric,” Tiger acknowledged.
Tiger knows what’s ahead. He knows he has a long way to go.
“The course is going to change dramatically,” Woods predicted, knowing it will get firmer and faster each day with big-time winds coming up on Friday afternoon when he goes out.
Truth be known, to get where he is today, Woods hasn’t taken a day off since his rehab work started.
He’s got more work to do.
More miracles?
This is, after all, Tiger Woods.
