Masters 2012: Tiger Woods' Shaky Start Won't Hurt His Chances of Winning

It could have been a worse first round for Tiger Woods.

The odds-on favorite to take home the green jacket on Sunday was far from the top of the leaderboard by the time the sun set on Thursday night, shooting an even par 72 in the first round.

On the front nine, Tiger started off with two pars—much better than the start his prime competition, Rory McIlroy, got off to with a six on the first hole, especially considering he hooked his drives on both holes. He birdied the third before three consecutive pars. He registered his first bogey on the par-4 seventh, birdied the eighth and parred the ninth to finish with a one-under 35.

On the back nine, he got off to a better start and was cruising until the final two holes. He birded the par-four first and then shot six straight pars before bogeying nine and 10 to finish with a 37.

In 17 previous appearances at Augusta, he's broken 70 only once, so a 72 most likely looks good to Tiger right now.

Tiger is obviously not someone who's going to be rattled by a rocky start. He's done this plenty of times and he's won at Augusta four times. He knows the leaderboard will fluctuate continuously over the next three days.

The expectations that he had to face heading into this tournament were steep and perhaps even a bit unrealistic considering that just two weeks ago he won his first PGA event in 30 months. But in a way, maybe this scenario was perfect. He wasn't spectacular, but he wasn't bad. He was average, par for the course.

Of course he could still win, but maybe some of the pressure is gone. Maybe Lee Westwood, Louis Oosthuizen and some of the others atop the leaderboard can have some of it for a change.

Plus, in his last win at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Tiger didn't start steamrolling the competition until the second day anyway. At the end of the first round, he was three under, but a seven-under 65 in the second round was what truly put him ahead—and kept him ahead—of the pack.

Friday's second round at Augusta will be much more important for Tiger than his average first round. That is when he'll show the rest of his field what he is really capable of.