Typical Tiger, slow out of the Masters gate

Florida Times-Union sports columnist Gene Frenette is at the Masters this week and will offer a regular blog from Augusta National for jacksonville.com This is his entry for Thursday April 10.


If you were expecting the best golfer in the world to open the Masters by drawing thunderous applause with his spectacular shot-making, then you're not familiar with Tiger Woods' first-round history at Augusta National.
Woods, a four-time Masters champion, finished with an even-par 72 Thursday and in a 19th-place tie, but that's a familiar spot for the perennial favorite at this venue. In 13 previous appearances at Augusta National, Woods was a cumulative nine-over-par in the first round, but still wound up winning the event three times (1997, 2001, '05) despite posting his worst score in the opening round.
So shooting even par on a day when the average score was 74.18 isn't that big of a deal. In fact, Woods' 72 easily puts him in striking distance to make a move on co-leaders Justin Rose and Trevor Immelman (both shot 68) and the 16 other players who posted scores in the red numbers.
Like most competitors in the 94-player field, Woods found scoring conditions less than ideal because the sun-baked greens became firmer as the day wore on. In the few instances where he had very makeable birdie putts, he either barely missed (No. 2, 9, 10, 12 and 16) or misread from a short distance (a 10-footer at No. 11).
As it was, Woods still had a respectable 28 putts on the treachorous greens, which tied for 15th. As he said afterwards: "I played a lot better than what my score indicates. I hit putts really well and just nothing kind of went."
If those makeable birdie putts start falling, expect Woods to be in a familiar position at the Masters come the weekend: either at or near the top of the leaderboard.

Check out the Times-Union's Masters coverage in Friday's paper, including my column on the difficulty of trying to follow Tiger Woods around Augusta National with its massive galleries. T-U golf writer Garry Smits also will provide a recap of the first round, plus Masters notes and a sidebar story on defending tournament champion Zach Johnson.