‘I’m right where I need to be’: Tiger Woods thrilled after remarkable return to Augusta National in Masters first round

AUGUSTA, Ga. – For the first time in 508 days at Augusta National, and for that matter, in any official event, Tiger Woods thrust his fist into the air, his patented celebration coming an instant after his ball had traveled 30 feet before disappearing for a birdie on the 16^th hole.

The ear-splitting roar that whistled through the Georgia Pines was reminiscent of those heard when he won his fifth green jacket in 2019. The 2 thrust him into red numbers and two pars later, Woods signed for a 1-under-par 71 that placed him in a familiar place – on the first page of the leaderboard in Thursday’s first round of the 86^th Masters.

Twenty-five years after his historical Masters victory in 1997 and 14 months after a single-car, high-speed crash shattered his right leg, ankle and foot and nearly led to amputation, Woods was feeling like a winner once again.

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Knowing what the 15-time major winner has been through – nearly losing his life, bed-ridden for three months, painful rehabilitation, straining to get his game back in order – just getting to the first tee, and through his first 18 holes since the 2020 November Masters, will make one feel that way.

“If you would have seen how my leg looked to where it’s at now, the pictures, some of the guys know,” Woods said. “To get from there to here, it was no easy task. People have no idea how hard it’s been. My team does. They’ve worked with me every single day. I’ve said this before, we haven’t taken a day off since I got out of the bed after those three months.

“Granted, some days are easier than others. Some days we push it pretty hard, and other days we don’t. But always doing something. So it’s commitment to getting back and commitment to getting back to a level that I feel that I can still do it.

“I did something positive today.”

Did he ever.

The day, however, didn’t start that way.

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“It was awful,” Woods described his warmup session. But he called on his father’s sage words. “I went back to what my dad always said. Did you accomplish your task in the warmup? It’s a warm up. Did you warm up? Yes, I did. Now go play.

“That’s exactly what I did; I went and played.”

After more than three inches of rain the past two days soaked Augusta National, Woods, 46, took to the soggy course wearing a hot pink, mock neck shirt and black slacks and relied on a stellar short game that has been one of his trademarks.

Woods hit only 10 greens in regulation but saved pars with putts from 5-10 feet on 1, 9, 10, 11 and 18. His birdies came from one foot on the par-3 sixth, with two putts on the par-5 13^th and the 30-footer on the 16^th.

After the round, however, Woods spoke to bogeys he made on the par-5 eighth and the par-4 14^th. Woods, of all people, the man of intense focus, got distorted.

A large gallery follows Tiger Woods during his first round of the 2022 Masters Tournament. (Photo: Rob Schumacher-USA TODAY Sports)

He needed four shots from 50 yards to complete a bogey on the par-5 eighth when he thought after his first two shots he was going to pounce for a birdie. On the par-4 14^th, his chip from behind the green was much too hard and he missed for par.

“Lack of concentration on the first one,” he said of his chip from 50 yards that came up 15 yards short of the eighth green.

“Second one, lack of commitment,” he said of his chip from 15 yards that raced 10 feet by the hole.

“Then I blocked the putt,” he said. “So just three bad shots in a row.”

But there were plenty of good shots to make up for it after only playing twice in 17 months, both in the PNC Championship alongside his son, Charlie.

“To play this golf course and to do what I did today, 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,” he said. “And I was able to make a few putts and end up in the red like I am now.

“I’m only three back. We’ve got a long way to go.

“I’m right where I need to be.”

And if the forecast holds and cooler, drier and windier conditions arrive, the course is going to get a lot more difficult. Which is fine with Woods, who is confident his experience will give him an advantage over his peers on the grounds of Augusta National. And the tougher the task, Woods has proven, the higher the mountain to climb, the better he gets.

“I am as sore as I expected to feel, but like I was telling the team all week, come game time, it will be a different deal. My adrenaline will kick in,” Woods said. “I’ll get into my own little world, and I’ll get after it. It’s about the training that we’ve done to have the stamina to go.

“I’m going to be sore, yes. That’s just the way it is. But the training cycles that we’ve had make sure that I have the stamina to keep going. This is only one round. We’ve got three more to go. There’s a long way to go, a lot of shots to be played.”