Tiger Woods Proves Masters Finish Is No Fluke in Round 1 of Players Championship

We've been waiting for Tiger Woods to reassert his dominance atop the golf world for quite some time now, really since his fall from grace for those counting at home. 

With four wins, including a group one at the Tavistock Cup, this season and a tie for fourth place at Augusta in the 2013 Masters, Woods came into the opening round of the 2013 Players Championship with something to prove. 

He did just that on Thursday afternoon. 

Woods proved that both his 2013 Masters performance and his strong start to the 2013 season were no fluke, birdieing six holes on Thursday en route to a five-under performance and a spot near the top of the Day 1 leaderboard at TPC Sawgrass. 

Here's a look at Woods' Day 1 scorecard:

Hole	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
Par	4	5	3	4	4	4	4	3	5	4	5	4	3	4	4	5	3	4
Score	4	(4)	3	4	4	4	4	3	(4)	(3)	(4)	(3)	3	4	4	(4)	3	[5]

*Birdies in parenthesis (), while bogeys are in brackets [].

Woods was one of the best golfers on the course on Thursday, Roberto Castro's course-record 63 not withstanding. Wood got off to a good start and continued his strong play all the way until No. 18, where he dropped a stroke there to move back to five-under par. 

Tiger got things going with a birdie on hole No. 2. 

He didn't drop his score again until the par-five ninth, when he started a four-holes birdie streak that didn't end until hole No. 13. Woods got hot in the middle of the round and continued his push on No. 16—his final birdie of the afternoon. 

The round has to be considered a win by Tiger and everyone that is in his corner, specifically because he's only won the tournament once (2001) in 15 career appearances. Only the Northern Trust Open has been harder for Tiger where he is winless in his PGA career. 

Woods didn't play like a golfer who had only one won tournament at TPC Sawgrass in his career on Thursday. 

In fact, he played like the strong, consistent golfer we've seen all season (h/t Justin Ray of ESPN):

Tiger's biggest improvement on Thursday might have been his driving accuracy. He connected on 71.43 percent of his tee box shots. For the season, Woods has only been hovering around 65 percent, reflecting his Masters percentage.

Hitting fairways and avoiding mistakes at TPC Sawgrass is key, specifically because the course is so unforgiving when mistakes are made. Pete Dye made sure of it when he designed the course in the 1980s and it's a playing surface that has stood the test of time as one of the most difficult on the PGA Tour. 

You are just as likely to lead Round 1 as you are to drop below the cut on Day 2. 

For Woods, however, making out like a bandit in Round 1 is a huge coup. The events of the Masters led us to believe that he was ready to reclaim his place as the most dominant golfer on the planet, and this performance—at a course he hasn't finished in the top-10 at since 2009—is a great start to keeping our faith in that department. 

Tiger will continue his second round on Friday with Brandt Snedeker and Matt Kuchar in the morning, and he'll have a quick turnaround to continue his Round 1 success. 

As the season has worn on and we've seen more of Tiger at marquee events, the conclusion is simple: Tiger is back in rare form and is starting to pick up the kind of confidence and talent it takes to win tournaments every week. 

At this point, the Players Championship is really just icing on the cake. Woods continues to back his strong start with more impressive rounds at tournaments he has typically struggled at in the past, and he'll no-doubt be the golfer to watch yet again on the final three days of competition in Florida. 

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