On One Good Leg, Tiger Woods Struggles to Shoot 74

 The first round of Woods' 25th Masters Tournament on Thursday was not easy. He struggled up and down the hills of Augusta National with a limp and pain.

After making his tee shot on the final hole on Thursday, Tiger Woods saw where his golf ball stopped and knew he was in big trouble.

His chances of remaining a contender at this year's Masters Tournament would likely be determined by what transpired next.

The fact that Woods' ball was just a few inches from the edge of a deep bunker to the left of the fairway necessitated a very awkward stance for his next shot was bad enough. Since Woods' right leg was rebuilt with a steel rod and metal screws in 2021 after he was in a car accident, almost any uneven surface had become awkward for him.

However, the stakes in this instance were higher than usual. He would have to position his left leg on a grassy rise outside the bunker in one of the final sequences of his Masters opening round while he dug his reconstructed right leg into the sand several feet below the golf ball. With arms, legs, and shoulders outstretched, the posture was off. To advance the ball more than 100 yards toward the uphill 18th green, all he had to do from there was shift his weight from leg to leg during a fast swing and make solid contact.

Woods received a lot of attention from fans as usual.

Nothing to it.

Afterward, Woods conceded that he could have easily shanked his ball to the right and onto a hole adjacent if he let his unbalanced stance over the ball distract him. He almost certainly would have scored a double bogey or worse from there. And up until that point, Woods had not played well enough to survive such an ugly number on his scorecard, going one over par through 17 holes. After two rounds, he would be in danger of being eliminated from the Masters, something that has never happened to him as a professional golfer.

However, being Tiger Woods, he had a risky escape strategy. And because he is Tiger Woods, he did not choke under the stress of the situation, nor did he let the weakness in his right leg affect the outcome. Woods some way or another connected with an iron and the ball rose on a line head toward a dugout just to one side of the eighteenth green.

The difficult part came next.

Woods was nine shots behind the leaders at two over par.

Woods swiftly yanked his healthy left leg back into the bunker and simultaneously removed all weight from his damaged right leg, deftly lifting it above the sand as he hopped on his left leg four times. This occurred just as he appeared to be about to fall into the sand.

The following is Woods' play-by-play analysis of the sequence: You can safely hop on the left leg. Not so fine if I did it on the other one.

In golf parlance, it was a good bogey because Woods would blast from a routine lie in the bunker up near the green and need two putts to finish the hole. His round of 74 was frustrating yet not ruinous all things considered. Afterward, Woods mentioned that rain and wind were predicted for Friday and Saturday, and he believed he could return to the tournament in those challenging conditions. At Augusta, experience with shifting weather is always important, and Woods is competing in his 25th Masters.

He stated, "Hopefully it will be positive toward the end if I can just kind of hang in there, maybe kind of inch my way back."

"I didn't hit my irons sufficiently close to the opening today," Woods said, faulting those miscues for a shoddy putting round.

Woods was willing to dream, even though it would be an extraordinary comeback against very long odds, especially given that a lot of the field posted low scores on a sunny, pleasant Thursday.

He said, "I didn't hit my irons close enough to the hole today," and attributed his poor putting performance (32 putts) to those errors. He was able to drive the ball fairly well and hit 10 of 14 fairways.

As has been the situation for a long time now, Woods' actual capacity stays the greatest variable — and the one with the most impact on his scores. After about nine holes on Thursday, he was limping more and more on his right leg. He also winced frequently, which is not surprising for a 47-year-old golfer who has had several operations on his lower legs and multiple, complicated back surgeries.

Woods struggled up and down the steep hills of Augusta National Golf Club, which frequently have elevation changes of at least 30 feet, and was three over par through the 13 holes. His shirt was drenched in sweat, and his expression was hurt. However at that point on the standard 5 fifteenth opening, Woods sank a twisting 25-foot, left-to-right putt for birdie. His iron approach stopped 10 feet from the hole on the par-3 16th hole, the scene of so many spectacular Woods heroics that led to five Masters victories. Woods made that putt as well to lower his score to one over par.

Woods is on the 13th fairway. He was three over standard after the hol

At that point, everything seemed possible, and the large crowd that had accompanied him on his tour became more raucous. A significant comeback would have been possible had the 18th hole been birdied for an even par score. After that, his drive from the 18th tee, which was supposed to hit the center of the fairway, landed in a ghastly left-to-right bunker.

However, Woods was able to survive and continue his pursuit of a sixth Masters victory for another day by hopping on one leg promptly and maintaining his equilibrium in multiple ways.

Woods hoped that the varying weather on Friday would enable him to re-enter the tournament.