Tiger Woods Shot A 1-Under 71 In His First Round At The Masters Since His Car Crash

Tiger Woods wasn’t supposed to be at the 2022 Masters, given it was taking place less than 14 months after a horrific car crash left him hospitalized and needing significant surgery on his right leg. However, on Thursday, the 5-time green jacket winner strolled to the first tee at Augusta National and proceeded to look an awful lot like the man who has the second most major championships of all time.

Woods would start his day with five consecutive pars, showing off a quality swing and some strong nerves on the greens to get up and down and keep a clean card through a difficult opening stretch.

It was the par-3 sixth that produced the shot of the day from Woods, as he took dead aim at the pin with a 6-iron, flighting down a little cut that found the back tier and skipped to a stop inside three feet from the cup, yielding his first birdie of the day.

He would give that birdie back at the par-5 eighth thanks to some poor short game, as there was some apparent rust with his wedges around the green that still needs to be knocked off, but kept grinding from there to make a number of solid pars. From a full swing perspective, his miss all day was left off the tee, as he was clearly having some issues clearing out his right side and ended up pivoting around himself, tugging a few tee shots into the left trees. That happened on the ninth, when we got a vintage Tiger moment when his ball zipped off the front of the green and we got a hot mic f-bomb from the Big Cat.

Throughout the day, his escape artistry was on full display, with the most notable effort being on 14 where he unleashed a vintage Tiger lash from the pine straw, hoisting a ball up and over the trees and just over the back of the green.

Woods would make bogey there after being unable to get up and down, but would get it back shortly. A pair of left swings again on 15 forced him into just a par on the par-5, as he went even par across the four 5s at Augusta, a rarity for a player who typically punishes those holes. However, after that Woods arrived at a hole where he has created some of his most indelible masterpieces, the par-3 16th, where he found the proper tier for the back left hole location and poured in a birdie putt to send the Augusta patrons into a frenzy.

A stress-free par on 17 brought him to the 18th where the snappy left miss popped up once again off the tee, as he missed miles left and was actually on the 10th hole more than 300 yards from the green — but had an angle to get a long layup. Woods advanced it to just inside 80 yards and skipped a wedge to inside 10 feet, paying it off with yet another grindy par putt to post a 1-under 71.

It was as impressive a round of golf as you’ll see, as there were some dodgy swings and occasional winces, but for the most part he looked like one of the world’s best golfers again. Considering where he was a year ago, that’s an unbelievable turnaround and, sitting just three shots back, Woods proved that he wasn’t lying when he said he felt like his game was in a place where he could win a sixth green jacket.