Grading Tiger Woods' Round 1 Performance at the 2019 Masters

Tiger Woods teed off at 11:04 a.m. ET on Thursday from Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia to begin his pursuit of a fifth Masters win.

Woods enters the Masters at No. 12 in the world rankings, and he has two top-10 finishes in the five events he's played this year. He finished the 2018 Masters at one over par, which left him tied for 32nd.

His quest for a fifth green jacket started on a high note, as he shot a two-under 70 with four birdies and two bogeys.

What does that mean for his hopes of winning? Mike McAllister of PGATour.com offered up some interesting notes:

"In Tiger's 21 Masters starts, he's been in the top 10 on the leaderboard after the first round just four times (1997, 1998, 2002 and 2010). He went on to win two of those times.

The last time he won, he was 33rd after the first round in 2005, but shot himself back into the tournament with rounds of 66 and 65, ultimately beating Chris DiMarco on the first hole of the playoff. That remains the last time any eventual Masters champ has not been inside the top 10 after the first round."

In other words, it's only Thursday and anything can happen.

For now, let's take a quick look at Woods' day and give a grade for his opening round performance:

Tiger Shoots a 70 on Thursday

Playing alongside Spain's Jon Rahm and China's Haotong Li, Woods started the day with a beautiful drive directly down the middle of the fairway on the first hole. After leaving a long birdie putt short, he settled for par.

From there, it didn't take long for Woods to produce his first highlight of the round.

A beautiful chip out of the right bunker on hole two left him with a birdie putt inside of five feet, and he converted to move to one under. It was the 34th birdie of his Masters' career on No. 2, according to McAllister.

Andrew Redington/Getty Images

Woods made par on the next two holes before his first misstep of the day came on the fifth hole.

His tee shot on the par-four, 495-yard hole landed in one of the fairway bunkers, forcing him to lay up onto the fairway. He set himself up with a makeable par putt with an excellent third shot, but it rimmed it out for his first bogey of the round.

He missed another short putt on the sixth hole, this time for birdie, and settled for three straight pars to head into the ninth hole at even.

It looked like he might close out the front nine on the wrong side of par when a sketchy tee shot landed in the trees, but he got a friendly roll into the rough and took full advantage. A fantastic second shot left him with a short birdie putt, and he sunk it to move back to one under at the turn.

Woods left himself with long birdie putts on the 10th and 11th holes and settled for par both times before missing the green on the short par-three 12th before saving par with a nice chip from the fringe.

He got to the green in two on the par-five, 510-yard 13th hole, leaving him with a 53-foot eagle putt. While he didn't sink that, he left himself with a short tap-in for birdie to move to two under and within one stroke of the lead at the time.

The 14th hole started with a disaster and ended in applause.

His shot off the tee hooked into the crowd and settled in among the trees. However, he was able to find a way out, and his second shot landed on the green 25 feet from the hole. He sunk the putt and moved into a three-way tie for the lead at three under.

Unfortunately, he failed to capitalize on that momentum on the 15th hole, which he has birdied 45 times in his Masters career, per McAllister. After missing the green with his second and third shots on the par-five, 530-yarder, he managed to get up and down to save par and remain at three under.

He tapped in for par on the 16th before bogeying the 17th hole after his tee shot landed in the rough; his second shot went in the bunker.

Woods closed out his day with a par on the 18th and went into the clubhouse one stroke off the lead. He failed to convert a few makeable birdie opportunities and uncorked a couple of ugly tee shots. He has to be happy with the end result, though, and he'll be right in the thick of things heading into Friday.

Round 1 Grade: B+