Woods wraps Masters first round 1-over

Tiger Woods shot an opening-round 73 on Thursday at Augusta National in pursuit of his fifth Masters victory.

“I definitely didn’t score as well as I could,” Woods told ESPN shortly after wrapping up his opening 18. “I hit the ball a little better than my score indicates. I need to play the par-5s a little bit better. As of right now, I’m only five back. This is a very bunched leaderboard. I think that by the end of the week it’s going to be pretty crowded.”

The round Thursday was the fifth for Woods in 79 career rounds on the course in which he failed to birdie a par-5.

Woods had a chance to get to even par for the day with a long birdie chance on the 18th but settled for a tap-in for par and finished 1-over.

“It’s quick at the start and then it flattens out, I just thought it was going to be quick and downgrain all the way through,” Woods said of his putt on 18.

For Woods, Thursday was his first round in the event in 1,089 days, and he walked of the course lamenting a few missed opportunities.

“Some opportunities to make some birdies and didn’t do it,” Woods said.

With four bogeys in the first round, including on back-to-back on the 11th and 12th when his driver accuracy failed him, Woods was able to birdie 14 and 16 to get to 1-over.

Woods was back at golf’s first major of the year for the first time since 2015. That was also the last time Woods made the cut in a major, failing in two other attempts.

Woods entered the event with consecutive top-five finishes for the first time since 2013.

–Field Level Media