Tiger Woods Struggles, Shoots 1-Over in 2018 Masters 1st Round

Tiger Woods was stuck in neutral throughout the first round of the 2018 Masters Tournament en route to a one-over 73 on Thursday at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia.

The four-time Masters champion finished the day with four bogeys and three birdies. He walked off the course in a tie for 24th place and five strokes behind early leaders Charley Hoffman and Henrik Stenson with the afternoon wave of play ongoing at Augusta.

Woods is playing the season's opening major for the first time since 2015 after consistent back problems threatened to end his career. He last captured a green jacket in 2005 and has been stuck on 14 major titles since his triumph at the 2008 U.S. Open.

The 42-year-old fan favorite made too many mistakes on a course that severely punishes those errors.

Tiger actually got off to a solid start, though. He parred each of the first two holes, narrowly missing a birdie attempt on the second, and then rolled in a birdie at No. 3 to reach red numbers.

The Masters highlighted the mid-range make with his putter:

Woods' play dropped off from there, however, as he played the next nine holes in four-over par.

He posted back-to-back bogeys immediately after the birdie. In both instances he found a bunker, off the tee on the fourth and with his approach shot at the fifth, and couldn't get up and down. The short game that was much improved in recent events couldn't save him in Round 1 of the Masters.

The California native had consecutive bogeys once again on Nos. 11 and 12. The latter came after finding the water off the tee, as CBS Sports showcased:

His other issue was an inability to take advantage of the par fives.

Tiger dominated those holes in his prime—they almost felt like automatic birdies that he was only playing to see if he could make eagle at times. That wasn't the case Thursday.

Not only did he par all four of those opportunities to gain strokes on his competition, but he was often scrambling just to avoid dropping more shots. An ineffective driving day, which included multiple wayward tee shots to the right, limited his looks to attack the green.

ESPN's Mike Greenberg commented on Woods' inability to control his shots:

He did make a late rally, pouring in birdies at the 14th and 16th, but it wasn't enough to completely erase the earlier miscues.

Looking ahead, while it was far from an ideal start for Woods, his late surge at least kept him within shouting distance of the leaders. Bob Weeks of TSN pointed out the golf legend has experience coming from behind to win at Augusta:

He must find a way to start hitting more fairways starting Friday, especially on the par fives. The mediocre first day means he's likely going to need at least one super-low round in order to win the tournament. That's impossible without more chances to hit irons from the short grass.