AUGUSTA, Ga. — Wearing black from head to toe, Tiger Woods stepped to the tee at the Masters for the first time in three years on Thursday morning. He promptly sent his drive left into the gallery.
Woods would recover nicely, sending his second shot rolling up to the green, but it was that type of morning. A birdie at the par-4 third hole was followed by a bogey at the par-3 No. 4 — at 16 over for his career, it’s been his Augusta nemesis — and then another at No. 5.
Woods drew the biggest galleries in the morning, and perhaps some of the most sophisticated in appreciating golf, too. When his delicate pitch shot finished about six feet from the third hole — a middling result — it drew a response of “that’s all right” from one fan and polite-but-restrained applause from the whole gallery. Not a roar, just a patter.
“Dilly, dilly,” said one fan in the gallery, appropriate to the mild applause.
However, when Woods sank his putt for his first birdie of the day, the crowd exploded with enthusiasm and yells of “Go, Tiger” and “Come on Tiger.”
At the long difficult par-three fourth hole, one of the most difficult distances in golf to estimate because of swirling winds, Woods shot seemed to blank the flag, but came up short in the front bunker. He shouldn’t feel too bad. Jack Nicklaus, and others, have been so badly fooled by the gusts in the pines that encircle the hole that many shot have landed 30 yards short of that bunker.
Woods missed a nine-foot par putt to bogey the hole and fall back to even par. As so often happens at the Masters, a player’s fate at one hole — either good or bad — is immediately replicated at the next hole. This is the course, and the event, for momentum shifts. Woods bogeyed the par-four fifth and relinquished any momentum he’d gained at the third.
Even the par 5s at Nos. 2 and 8 offered no relief: Woods, a combined 26 under par on Augusta’s longest holes for his career, could only find par on both. At the turn, Woods sat at 1 over par for the day. Another bogey followed at No. 11, when his tee shot went way right and his attempt at a recovery ended up in the gallery.
Marc Leishman, Woods’s Australian playing partner, fared much better. Three birdies over the first nine holes gave him an early lead over, among others, 55-year-old Vijay Singh, the 2000 Masters champion who was at 2 under through 12 holes. None of Woods’s Augusta playing partners has ever held a lead after playing a Masters round with the four-time winner. Leishman would become the first.
Tiger still struggling on back nine
Woods needs to get it going headed into hole Nos. 14 and 15, birdie-able par-4 and -5s. But Tiger is want for momentum after back-to-back bogeys on Nos. 11 and 12, then a sloppy par on the par-five 13th.
Australian Marc Leishman still sits in the lead at four-under after a birdie on No. 13.
Mickelson finds the trees
Phil Mickelson teed off in one of the last groups of the day. After he and playing partner Rory McIlroy birdied the first hole, Mickelson found adventure on the second, winding up in the trees and finishing with a bogey on the par-5 hole.
Day find the drink
Jason Day’s drive at the first hole went right into the trees and dropped down into the full beer cup of an Augusta “patron.” When Day arrived to find his ball, the fan was informed that he would have to give Day the ball — currently at the bottom of his beer — so he could identify it properly, then play it.
The fan did the only logical thing — at least in Georgia, in the morning, on a golf course. He chugged the beer as the gallery cheered. It was Day who finished the hole a little tipsy, making bogey. That was followed by bogeys at the fifth and sixth holes; Day started the day 3 over par after six holes.
Gary and Jack kick it off
Before 8 a.m. Thursday, the gallery around the first tee at Augusta National Golf Club was five, eight, even 10 deep. And when the two men emerged from the clubhouse — Jack Nicklaus in a red sweater, Gary Player in all black — they rose as if at church, pew after pew after pew.
Player, the South African legend who won three Masters, and Nicklaus, the all-time great who has six green jackets among his record 18 major titles, opened the 82nd Masters as honorary starters Thursday morning, each hitting a straight and true tee shot 15 minutes before the tournament began.
“It’s always a thrill to come out to the first tee,” Nicklaus said. “It’s always a thrill to be part of the golf tournament.”
Fred Ridley, Augusta National’s new chairman, introduced each man — “two of the greatest golfers who have ever lived,” he said — to an adoring crowd. The sign at the tee, which normally lists the players in each group, read “82 Gary Player” above “78 Jack Nicklaus,” indicating each man’s age.
Nicklaus’s ball didn’t quite reach Player’s halfway up the hill at the first.
“Don’t worry about me outhitting you now,” Player said at a news conference later. “You out-drove me for 50 damn years.”
This is the second year Nicklaus and Player performed the duty of opening the Masters since the death of Arnold Palmer. In 2016, the four-time Masters champion joined Nicklaus and Player one final time, though he simply sat in a chair, no longer able to hit the shot. Last year, some six months after Palmer’s death, the chair remained, draped with Palmer’s green jacket.
The tournament began soon after with the first of 29 threesomes — Austin Cook, Ted Potter Jr. and Wesley Bryan. Ryan Moore, in the second group of the day, birdied the first two holes to take the earliest of leads, although he later fell back. Woods, the four-time champion playing here for the first time since 2015, begins his quest at 10:42 a.m. in a group just ahead of defending champion Sergio Garcia, who tees off at 10:53 a.m.
[ Masters preview: At Augusta National this year, an anticipation unlike any other ]
How to watch
This week isn’t just about Woods. Many of the world’s best players enter the week in strong form. Add in the Woods intrigue, and you’ll want to know how to watch starting Thursday morning, a tricky proposition, since this is the tightly controlled Masters. Still, there are a few options. (All times are Eastern.)
- ESPN has live TV coverage from 3 until 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday and on WatchESPN. As of around 11:30 a.m. Eastern, the network was showing Woods’s shots on a delayed basis.
- CBS takes over on TV from 3 to 7 p.m. Saturday and from 2 to 7 p.m. (or the conclusion of play) Sunday. Its online coverage can be found at CBS AllAccess. The network will have a preview show (“On the Range”) 8:30-10:30 a.m. Thursday and Friday; 11 a.m.-1 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday on CBS Sports Network and CBSSports.com.
- CBSSports.com will also have live streams of featured groups, as well as coverage from Amen Corner (holes 11, 12, 13) and holes 15 and 16. Featured group coverage starts at roughly 10 a.m. Thursday; Amen Corner coverage begins at 10:45 a.m. and holes 15 and 16 coverage begins at 11:45. Consult the full live stream schedule here.
- The Golf Channel has “Morning Drive” on TV and online from 6 to 8 a.m. Thursday and Friday, and “Live from the Masters” on TV and online beginning at 8 a.m.
- AT&T/DIRECTV has coverage of featured groups, Amen Corner and the 15th and 16th holes starting at 3 p.m. each day (at 2 p.m. Sunday) on Channels 703, 704 and 705. There’s a 4K package from Amen Corner on Channel 105 and the 15th and 16th holes on Channel 106 starting at 10 a.m. on Thursday and Friday; at noon Saturday and Sunday for Amen Corner and 12:30 for the 15th and 16th holes. You also can stream the coverage.
- Masters.com offers much of the same live coverage, too.
Tee times
The full list of tee times for Thursday and Friday is here, along with breakdowns of the top groups.
Woods, one of the betting favorites to win his fifth Masters, will be followed on the tee at 10:53 by Sergio Garcia, the 2017 champion, and his group of Justin Thomas and 20-year-old amateur and Clemson sophomore Doc Redman.
Phil Mickelson, Rickie Fowler and Matt Kuchar will tee off at 1:27 p.m. A trio of international stars in Adam Scott, Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm will tee off at 1:38 p.m. Jordan Spieth’s group will tee off at 1:49 p.m. World No. 1 Dustin Johnson is in the day’s final group, teeing off at 2 p.m.; he’ll play with Justin Rose and Rafael Cabrera-Bello.
The weather report
Temperatures climbed to the 60s on a sunny Thursday afternoon, and it will remain sunny and should be even warmer Friday, though the winds will pick up a bit. Saturday’s third round could get a little dicey with rain and even more wind in the forecast, especially in the morning. Whether it will be enough to halt play remains to be seen, but it very well could. The wet weather should help soften Augusta’s notoriously tricky greens.
The skies will clear a bit for Sunday’s final round, though it will be cool with highs in the mid-60s.
Favorites
The Post’s Barry Svrluga identifies five players who could win this weekend, including Rory McIlroy, Phil Mickelson, Jordan Spieth, Bubba Watson, and yes, Woods. Who could win but won’t? Jason Day heads that list. Read the rest of Svrluga’s breakdown here. The Post’s Neil Greenberg, meantime, gives the highest win probabilities to Johnson, Justin Thomas and Garcia. His explanation is here. Josh Planos analyzes which six holes may decide Woods’s fate.
You might want to wait until the end of the first round to make your choice. As Kyle Porter of CBS Sports points out, the last 12 Masters winners have been in the top 10 after the first 18 holes. The last one outside the top 10? Woods, who was tied for 30th after the first round in 2005 before storming back to win his fourth and most recent Green Jacket.
Dilly Dilly
Although a report earlier this week indicated that Masters officials were threatening to expel fans who yelled anything from a list of banned phrases, like “Dilly Dilly” or (we hope) “get in the hole,” but a Yahoo investigation reveals that there is no list. Which means that those phrases, and perennial favorites like “mashed potatoes” and “Baba Booey” still might randomly echo across Augusta.
“Yelling ‘Get in the hole’ from the tee box of a par five might get a hole punched in your badge — two punches and you’re gone — or it might get you heaved out of the course with no warning. Same with a group chant,” the report states.
A fist pump is a better way to celebrate
Tony Finau scored a hole-in-one during Wednesday’s Par-3 contest and celebrated so darn hard that he dislocated his left ankle. And popped it into place. Read all about it and how Jack Nicklaus’s grandson scored a hole-in-one that reduced his proud grandpa to tears.
According to the Golf Channel’s Todd Lewis, Finau had an MRI exam on his ankle Thursday morning and it revealed no significant damage, so he’s gutting it out and playing.
The champions dinner was tasty
Spanish golfer Sergio Garcia was the winner of last year’s tournament, which meant that he selected the menu for the champions dinner.
He went with a pretty delicious sounding menu that included Arroz Caldono de Bogavante (described as traditional Spanish lobster rice):
Boren and Bonesteel contributed to this report from Washington.
More Masters coverage from The Post:
Svrluga: When Tiger and Phil play a practice round, it’s anything but meaningless
For 10 bucks, you can eat like a king at the Masters
Augusta National to host a women’s amateur event in 2019
Tiger and Phil teamed up for nine holes of golf. (They won.)
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