RON SEIBEL: No spark, no disaster for Tiger Woods

So, indeed, I was drawn into the Tiger Woods hype.

He had been playing well so far this year. Not winning, perhaps, but contending.

I thought the course at Augusta National would play to his favor. Should we have accounted more for the pressure that a major brings? Probably.

Simply put, Woods did not have good starts Thursday or Friday. He went 1 over on the first nine Thursday, then he went 3 over in the first five holes Friday, with a double-bogey on the fifth.

Amen Corner didn’t treat him well either. He bogeyed 11 on Thursday, then he bogeyed the par-3 12th on both Thursday and Friday.

The tally heading into the weekend? Four-over-par 148, 13 shots off the lead. Barring something wacky, he won’t receive another green jacket once this year’s tournament closes out.

That’s the bad news. The good? He made the cut. And that double-bogey Friday on No. 5 was his only hole in the first two rounds in which he scored double-bogey or worse.

By no means did Woods play bad golf during the first two rounds. He didn’t have any scores that were terribly ugly, other than that one double-bogey, and he was starting to pick up par-5 birdies on the second nine Friday.

It was decent golf. Maybe not good, by Tiger Woods standards, and definitely not great. But decent.

For getting back to a major for the first time in a few years, it’s probably what we should have expected. A Sunday charge would have been sweet, for sure, but at least his game was presentable.

There was pressure. ESPN saw a 40 percent bump in its first-round viewership, posting its highest first-round overnight rating since 2015, the last time Woods played at Augusta National.

Give Woods credit, too, for avoiding anything approaching an absolute wipeout.

That’s the fate another player of Woods’ caliber, Sergio Garcia, encountered this week. Garcia’s first-round 81 included a double-bogey on No. 7 and, incredibly, a 13 on the par-5 15th in which several approach shots appeared to be played pin-high, only to roll off the green into the water.

Garcia’s 15-over 159 was the highest score through two rounds among professional players.

Is Garcia’s professional career toast? Of course not. He just had a bad weekend.

And that’s why Woods’ career, barring another serious injury, isn’t toast yet, either. He might not win like he used to, but he proved through two rounds that he can still play a respectable game.

We’ll see a few more good Sunday charges out of Woods before his career is over. That charge just won’t happen this weekend.

Contact sports editor Ron Seibel at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @ronseibel.