Woods' round not well-done, but at least it was medium

Tiger Woods' opening 70 was five shots off leader Chad Campbell's pace, but that's OK. Despite not playing his best on Thursday, Woods' track record shows that all he needs to win is a solid start.

By Mike McAllister, PGATOUR.COM Managing Editor

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Robert Mason, a retired pilot from Woodstock, Ga., was sitting behind the 18th green at Augusta National late Thursday afternoon. So was Tiger Woods' golf ball.

In fact, that ball was sitting in between Mason's leg and one of the legs on his official Masters folding chair, the end result of Tiger's 8-iron shot that flew 155 yards uphill, over the green and into the sitting area. As the other patrons in the area moved their chairs to provide room for Tiger to strike his next shot, Mason -- having attended the Masters for more than 30 years -- knew not to move until a rules official gave him the OK.

So as Tiger approached him, Mason greeted the game's finest golfer with typical Southern charm. "Hello, Tiger."

Replied Woods, while looking at the motionless Mason, "Well done, sir."

Unfortunately for Tiger, he couldn't really say the same about his own first round Thursday. On a day in which low scores were plentiful at Augusta, Woods could only manage a 2-under 70 after making bogey following that errant approach shot at the 18th.

But when it comes to first rounds at Augusta, it's probably wise not to worry where Woods sits on the leaderboard (tied for 20th) or the fact that he's five shots off the pace set by Chad Campbell's 65.

The positive aspect of Tiger's round -- his first at a major since that stirring victory on one good leg in the U.S. Open last June -- is that he tied his first-round low at Augusta and broke par for the first time since 2002 in the opening round here.

Actually, an even bigger positive is that this first round looked a lot like his other first rounds at Augusta: Shoot a decent score, hang around and prepare for a charge later in the tournament.

You see, Tiger doesn't do opening rounds in the 60s at Augusta. Never has in 15 appearances here. Yet it hasn't really hurt him too much.

"I won it four times, too," he said, gently reminding the media of his results here.

That's why Tiger didn't panic when he started to see all those red numbers fly across the leaderboard. That's why he didn't panic when he failed to birdie either of the par 5s on the front side, including the 575-yard second where he pushed his drive far right and had to pitch out. (That's not to say he wasn't disgusted when he missed his birdie putt after a nice third shot.)

And that's why he didn't panic when he finished his first 12 holes and found himself nine shots after the lead. But he did know that he needed to get something going -- which he did with birdies at the next three holes, including a long uphill putt on the par-4 14th that required an aggressive stroke.

Suddenly, the gnashing of teeth among the Tiger backers was replaced by cheers.

"I didn't make any birdies until 9, so it was nice to kind of turn where there was some kind of momentum going into the back nine," Woods said. "... Everyone was making birdies everywhere on that back nine, so I knew it could be had with good shots."

Tiger seems most comfortable at Augusta National when he's lurking in the shadows for the first two days. In his 14 previous starts, he's only held the lead once in either the first or second round (in 1997).

In his most recent Masters victory, Tiger was 33rd in the first round after a 74, but came back the next two days to shoot 66-65 to take the lead. He eventually won by beating Chris DiMarco with a birdie on the first playoff hole.

Knowing that Augusta National's greens were firm up and the pin placements will become more difficult as the week progresses, Woods is comfortable with his spot on the leaderboard.

"It's not like I haven't been in this position before," Woods said. "Just kind of hang in there and ... take care of the back nine."

Woods certainly took care of the back nine on Thursday, just as Robert Mason took care of Tiger's golf ball resting near his foot.