Tiger Woods has a rough start at the Masters 2023
"I was in pain all the time!" Woods described when asked by the media to visit after the first round of the 87th Masters. At 47 years old and having suffered many injuries, walking on steep courses like Augusta National is a challenge for me. former number one in the world, because his legs were weak after a near-fatal traffic accident in February 2021.
"I can still play many styles, but the current difficulty is walking. I have three years left to qualify for the senior branch to be able to ride the tram. Between now and then, I definitely won't be able to play. use it," added the five-time Masters champion.
In the opening round yesterday, Woods went from hole 1 as usual for all Masters players. At the 495-yard par4 5th hole, he walked awkwardly, and then just tried to find the least steep place to go.
Also on hole 5, Woods scored a bogey after the ball hit the left rim of the target with a putt nearly a meter away. It was the second bogey from the start. The next six holes, the former world number one added two bogeys and just one birdie, at +3 at hole 11. After the 12-14 par sequence, Woods had two adjacent birdies and then par-bogey two holes respectively. last.
The whole match, Woods played well, hitting 10 of the 14 fairways, but went to the standard green (GIR) only 13 holes. According to Golf Digest, the next matches Woods needs to improve the GIR because this is an important step to earn a negative score at Augusta National, in addition to more effective hole closing. Yesterday, Woods hit a putter performance that was nearly one club lower than the average.
"Court conditions today had a lot of opportunities to score negative. A lot of hands got there, but I didn't because most of the irons don't get close to the target. The putt wasn't good either, early scoring. two bogeys due to two losing three puts on the green," Woods said of the opening day's form, and also admitted to having to be sharper at these two stages in the next matches to expect high results.
Woods currently monopolizes or shares 36 categories in the professional record at the Masters. "Super Tiger" has worn the Green Jacket for the champion five times, most recently in 2019. However, the first victory, in 1997, was the most resounding, when he touched seven and broke 20 professional records, in 10 entries so far no one has passed.
The American superstar once came back to win the Masters for the fourth time, in 2005. That year, Woods also hit 74 strokes in the first round and seven strokes from the top of the table. However, combining the following three rounds, he scored -14 to join Chris DiMarco in T1 (-12) after four standard rounds. When closing the result with an extra hole, Woods beat DiMarco in the first round, with a birdie on the 18th hole from a putt 4.5 meters away.
Last year, after more than 14 months of convalescing due to a traffic accident, Woods chose Masters as the rematch event. He finished 47th with a score of +13.
After the first round of this period, Woods, with a score of +2, stood at T54 and the top of the group was at -7, belonging to Viktor Hovland, Jon Rahm and Brooks Koepka. In the end, there were 36 players with negative scores. The organizers will cut the elimination at the end of round 2, according to the principle of taking the top or T50. The starting list of Masters 2023 has 88 players but is currently 86 people when Will Zalatoris withdrew due to injury and Kevin Na withdrew due to health reasons.
