Tiger Woods: Scores, Analysis and Twitter Reaction to Round 1 Performance

Tiger Woods struggled to save par on the first two holes, and Twitter buzzed about how he already lost the Masters.

But Woods, minus the club slamming on the second-hole tee box, kept his composure throughout Thursday and carved a respectable 72 despite a back-to-back bogey finish.

"That was about as good as I got right there," Woods said on an ESPN interview after the round. "I could have shot maybe one, maybe two shots, better."

Woods, who has averaged 72.12 in his Masters first round historically, didn't press or take huge risks. His two birdies on par 4s were ordinary. His one birdie on par 5s didn't stand out.

But Woods' sand saves, or lack thereof, became alarming, since two of his three green-side bunker shots led to bogeys—and the third one might as well been a bogey after reaching a par 5 in two.

Woods added that his "old patterns" from his swing crept in, leading to three snap hooks on No. 1, 2 and 18—two of those leading to penalty drops.

"I hit some of the worst shots I've ever hit today," said Woods, who trailed by three after his round, on ESPN. "And it's all right. I just hung in there, grinded my way around the golf course, and stayed very patient."

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"Tiger Woods must feel like he robbed a bank and got away w it to be 1 under thru 4 holes after his first two tee shots #crazy" — @MarkCannizzaro

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Woods, who played two-over par in the last seven, went even par through Amen Corner, made one birdie on the par 5s and hit a respectable 12 greens in regulation.

His birdies on No. 3 and 8 came within 8 feet, but none of his other approaches came close. His approach shots on No. 13 and 16 could have been perfect if he hit them five paces short, too.

But nothing reminiscent of the dominating, former No. 1 golfer came out Thursday.

After his bogey on 17 that dropped him to one-under par, tweets supporting Woods ran abundant, but Twitter remained relatively quiet overall because Woods just played a conservative, even-par round.

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"I hope Tigers gets a birdie on the 18th to get him to 2 under. I badly want Tiger Woods to win. That would be another historic moment." — @UYsiJOSH

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Instead, Woods did his best Henrik Stenson (who led the Masters, but posted a quadruple bogey eight on 18) and made a difficult up-and-down bogey.

@rmatuczinski said, "Tiger Woods knows what he is doing dont worry."

@mitchvomhof said, "Tiger Woods played one of the worst rounds of even-par golf I've ever seen today. Something's wrong - we've been saying that a lot lately." 

But overall, most remained optimistic that Woods will win a green jacket. 

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"I typed I the best golfer in the world, auto correct gave me tiger woods" — @aaki__s

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Woods will tee off Friday at 1:42 p.m. with Miguel Angel Jimenez and Sang-Moon Bae. Jimenez shot a three-under-par 69, while Bae finished three-over par with a 75. 

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