AUGUSTA, Ga. -- A funny thing happened to Tiger Woods on his way to an even-par round of 72 in the first round of the 63rd Masters at Augusta National Golf Club.
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| Tiger Woods looks for his ball among the azaleas on his way to a triple-bogey on No. 8. |
OK, so it wasn't so funny to Woods. But every amateur hack who has ever struggled to make par identifies with what occurred to the world's second-ranked player Thursday on No. 8, a 550-yard par 5.
It snowed. That's right. Woods, the 1997 champion here, took a snowman. A 3-over-par 8 that overshadowed a roller-coaster round which also featured six birdies and three bogeys.
"This is how you lose tournaments," Woods said to the gallery midway through his scramble at the eighth.
Woods was already providing a showing worthy of an e-ticket when he arrived at No. 8. Three birdies and two bogeys were posted on his scorecard as he hit the tee at 1-under, only a couple of shots out of the lead. The real adventure, however, was about to begin.
"The blunder came on the tee shot," Woods said of a drive that he pulled left into the trees. "I then tried to hit a 4-iron between two trees. I had some pine (brush) right by my ball, which I couldn't move. That kind of affected what I wanted to do."
Any sort of housekeeping around Woods' ball might have caused movement, which would have brought the rules officials in for a little penalty discussion. So a tough second shot was made even more difficult by the uncertainty caused by the debris lying around his Titleist. As he tried to thread the ball through the pines, the shot hit a few limbs and fell aimlessly into a clump of azalea bushes.
"I had to take an unplayable lie out of the flowers and take it back to the spot with the pine (brush), but this time I could get a better shot (because of being able to place it)," he said.
Woods punched it to the fairway, but the wind came up on his approach and he blew it over the green. He chipped on and two-putted for the triple, moving from 1-under to 2-over and off the leaderboard.
"Not a great hole," he said.
In the past, Woods' quest for perfection would have taken over and the anger might have affected the rest of his round. But a sense of maturity seems to be evolving within, and three consecutive birdies early on the back nine -- Nos. 12, 13 and 14 -- righted what appeared to be a quickly sinking ship. A late bogey at the 17th dropped him back to even, but he only trails the leaders by three shots.
"In the past when I would be 2-over, I would try to be aggressive, get it back right away," he said. "Now I say to myself, 'Be patient.' I have a lot of holes left. At that point, I had to remind myself there were another 64 holes to go."
Armed with a calmer demeanor, Woods walked to the clubhouse, did several more interviews and grabbed a bite to eat. A few years ago, the disaster would have torn him up mentally and the mood would have been darker than the threatening skies that ended up delaying play with rain.
The kindler, gentler Woods insisted the events of the day were, in his mind, over and done with. He now would start the second round in great position.
"I just had to hang in there and be patient," he said. "I just made a couple of mistakes. I'm playing really well and just trying to stay patient. I'm in the same kind of shape I was in '97, even two shots better. And that turned out pretty good."
