David Barrett | |
Golf with David
April 10th, 2008
Long-time golf journalist David Barrett is covering the Masters for us this week.
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GolfObserver editors
Tiger Watch
Is this any way to start a bid for a Grand Slam?
Not really, but it will have to do. An old adage applied to Tiger Woods' first-round 72 at the Masters on Thursday: You can't win the tournament in the first round, but you can lose it. Woods didn't lose it, but that's about all you can say about his quiet start to a much-anticipated event.
Woods came in as the very definition of prohibitive favorite. Having won six of his last seven starts worldwide, he was being fitted for a fifth green jacket before he even teed it up. Heck, forget the Masters, the focus was on the Grand Slam.
But Woods wasn't in his superhero mode on Thursday. I would say he looked decidedly human, though there was a machine-like quality to a round that started with 12 straight pars and ended up with 15 in all.
Oh, there were a couple of superhero moments, but the first one was short-lived. Woods tried to get something going early when he unleashed a driver on the 350-yard third hole and hit a good one to within 20 yards of the green. But the opportunity went out the window when he knocked his pitch shot 25 feet past the hole. Late in the round, there was an eagle on the par-five 15th, where he chipped in from just behind the green.
It was a particularly well-timed blow, as he had just bogeyed Nos. 13 and 14 to go 2-over. Not that it would have been impossible to come back from an opening 74--that's what he shot in 2005 and he went on to win the tournament. But a 72 is a lot better.
In fact, it could be argued that Woods now has the toughest part out of the way. Shockingly, he has never broken 70 in 14 first rounds at Augusta National. In his last six first rounds, he has not broken par. It's one of those inexplicable happenstances. Tiger himself probably doesn't know the reason for it, or he would have figured it out by now.
Photo: © Timothy A. Clary/AFP |
| Tiger Woods couldn't make anything happen for most of Thursday. |
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But Woods wasn't exactly acting like he was overly concerned after the round. The man who has been known to go beat balls on the range when he's leading the tournament said he planned only to hit a few putts and didn't feel like he needed to work on anything in particular.
"I hit the ball really well. I hit a lot of good putts that just didn't go in," he said. "I've just got to stay patient out there and hopefully it'll turn."
That might have been a bit of positive self-talk. In fact, those putts that didn't go in were all fairly lengthy. It was a round where Woods didn't get the ball close to the hole, leaving himself only one birdie putt under 15 feet (missing an eight-footer on the second hole). On the other hand, he had a couple of second shots to par fives come out not as well as he thought they would when he hit them. He called his 4-iron to the 13th one of his best swings of the day, but the ball bounced over the green and left him a difficult pitch, which he scuffed, leading to a bogey.
His driving was very good until a couple of bad swings late in the round, a hook into the trees on 14 leading to a bogey and a block into the trees on 17 leading to a thread-the-needle second shot and an up-and-down par.
Of course, Woods' usual modus operandi when he wins majors is to get ahead early and stay there. He famously has led or shared the lead through three rounds in all 13 of his major victories. Eventually he's got to post a come-from-behind major win, right? And anyway, he's got two more rounds before the 54-hole mark and only four strokes to make up on the leaders, so he could end up in front by then after all.
To do so, he will probably have to get out of U.S. Open mode and start making a few birdies. It doesn't appear that grinding is going to win this Masters. Of course, we know that Woods can do it either way. But will he get it done? The odds are now longer than even money, but it's way too early to count him out.
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