After his first round at The Masters on Thursday, Tiger Woods said that he was in “constant” agony.
The 47-year-old, making his 25th appearance at Augusta National, shot a two-over 74 while displaying different instances of writhing.
The five-time Masters champion fell nine strokes short of his Norwegian playing partner Viktor Hovland, who entered the clubhouse tied for first place following an exhilarating seven-under opening round.
Woods admitted on Tuesday that he wasn’t sure if this week will mark his final participation in the competition. Since suffering severe leg injuries in a horrific vehicle accident in 2021, the fifteen-time major champion’s competitive outings have been irregular.
Woods made the cut during a stunning comeback at the 2022 Masters, shocking many, but his physical difficulties navigating the mountainous Augusta terrain were clear, made worse by surgery that had implanted a rod and pins in his right leg.
One year later, following a difficult escape shot from a bunker at the 18th hole, he finished his opening round by hopping on his left leg. After his round, Woods was questioned about the state of his leg, and he was open.
He told reporters, “Sore.”
The left leg hop is acceptable. Not so fine if I did it on the other one, he continued.
Woods got off to a slow start, making three bogeys in his opening seven holes, but he recovered with a birdie at the eighth.
The audience, which had been watching Woods all day, nearly roared as he made a superb approach shot but came up just short of an eagle.
He was back to three over after his fourth bogey at the 11th hole, but Woods appeared to be putting together one more flourish after making back-to-back birdies at the 15th and 16th holes. But Woods’ final bogey added insult to injury after he narrowly missed a birdie putt to get to even par at the last hole.
In his past 24 visits at Augusta, Woods has only missed the cut once. Should he reach it to the weekend, he will tie Gary Player and Fred Couples for the most straight cuts at a major.
But, a number of competitors are off to excellent starts, so Woods will probably need a solid second round to pull it off.
“I thought my driving was good. Woods claimed, “I simply didn’t do the work I need to do to get the ball near. This was the perfect opportunity to get the round under par, but I failed to do so. Today, most of the boys are getting low. The time to do it was today. I’m hoping that by tomorrow, I’ll be a little more sharper and more capable of edging my way through it.
“With the weather turning bad, this tournament’s finish will be exciting. In the long run, ideally, if I can just kind of hang in there, maybe kind of inch my way back.
