Tiger Woods, On One Good Leg, Struggles in First Round at the Masters

On Golf

There was nothing easy about the first round of Woods's 25th Masters Tournament on Thursday. He was in pain and limped, laboring up and down Augusta National's hills.

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By Bill Pennington

Photographs by Doug Mills

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Tiger Woods saw where his golf ball came to rest after his tee shot on the last hole Thursday and knew he was in big trouble.

What happened next would likely determine whether he had any chance to remain a contender at this year's Masters Tournament.

It was bad enough that Woods's ball was inches away from the edge of a deep bunker left of the fairway, demanding a very awkward stance for his next shot. The fact is that in every moment of Woods's daily life since his right leg was rebuilt with a steel rod and metal screws following his 2021 car crash, practically any uneven surface had become awkward.

But this instance carried with it higher than usual stakes. In one of the closing sequences of his Masters opening round, he would have to position his left leg on a grassy rise outside the bunker as he dug his reconstructed right leg into the sand several feet below the golf ball. The irregular posture had shoulders, arms and legs akimbo. All he had to do from there was shift his weight from leg to leg during a high-speed swing and make contact solidly enough to advance the ball more than 100 yards toward the uphill 18th green.

Nothing to it.

As Woods conceded afterward, if he let his unbalanced stance over the ball distract him he could have easily shanked his ball to the right and onto an adjacent hole. From there, he would have almost certainly made a double bogey, or worse. And to that point, Woods had not played well enough — one over par through 17 holes — to survive such an ugly number on his scorecard. He would be staring at elimination from the Masters after two rounds, something that has never happened to him as a professional golfer.

But since he's Tiger Woods, he had an escape plan, albeit a risky one. And since he's Tiger Woods, he did not choke under the pressure of the moment nor did he allow the infirmity of his right leg to affect the outcome. Woods somehow made crisp contact with an iron and the ball rose on a line drive toward a bunker just to the right of the 18th green.

Then came the hard part.

Just as he appeared ready to topple backward into the sand, Woods quickly yanked his good left leg back into the bunker and simultaneously took all weight off his damaged right leg, deftly lifting it above the sand as he hopped on his left leg four times.

Woods's play-by-play analysis of the sequence went like this: "Hop on the left leg, so it's fine. If I did it on the other one, not so fine."

Up near the green, Woods would blast from a routine lie in the bunker and need two putts to finish the hole but it was, in golf parlance, a good bogey. His round of 74 was disappointing but not ruinous after all. Afterward, Woods noted that rainy, windy weather had been forecast for Friday and Saturday, and with those troublesome conditions he thought he could get himself back into the tournament. Experience in changing weather always matters at Augusta, and Woods is playing in his 25th Masters.

"If I can just kind of hang in there, maybe kind of inch my way back, hopefully it will be positive towards the end," he said.

It would be an extraordinary comeback against very long odds — especially with so much of the field posting low scores on a sunny, pleasant Thursday — but Woods was willing to dream.

"I didn't hit my irons close enough to the hole today," he said, blaming those miscues for a subpar putting round (32 putts). He drove the ball reasonably well, hitting 10 of 14 fairways.

As has been the case for many years now, it is Woods's physical capability that remains the biggest variable — and the one with the most influence on his scores. Thursday, he was limping more and more on his right leg after about nine holes. He also winced often, which is not surprising for a 47-year-old golfer who has had multiple, intricate back surgeries along with several operations on his lower legs.

Through 13 holes, Woods was three over par and laboring up and down Augusta National Golf Club's precipitous hills, which regularly feature elevation changes of at least 30 feet. Sweat soaked his shirt and his expression was pained. But then on the par-5 15th hole, Woods sank a curling 25-foot, left-to-right putt for birdie. On the par-3 16th hole, the scene of so many spectacular Woods heroics that have led to five Masters victories, his iron approach stopped 10 feet from the hole and Woods made that putt as well to lower his score to one over par.

Anything seemed possible at that moment and the massive gallery that had followed him throughout his round grew boisterous. With a birdie on the 18th, an even par score was in the cards, which would have been a meaningful comeback. Then his drive from the 18th tee, which was heading for the center of the fairway, took an unlucky bounce to the left and cozied up next to a yawning bunker.

But hopping on one leg in a timely fashion, keeping his equilibrium in more ways than one, Woods survived to chase a sixth Masters victory for another day.

Doug Mills has worked as a photographer in the Washington bureau since 2002. He previously worked at The Associated Press, where he won two Pulitzer Prizes for his photography.

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