68: Tiger Starts With First Ever Bogey-Free Masters Opening Round

The defending champion and five-time Masters winner managed a first Thursday: a bogey-free opener. Normally a slow starter, Woods has positioned himself in historic position. From GolfDigest.com’s Brian Wacker notes on Tiger’s 2020 Masters 68:

Thursday marked the ninth time that Woods has broken par in the first round of the tournament. On the previous eight occasions, he finished no worse than a tie for eighth. Four of those times, he went on to win, including last year, when he opened with a 70 on his way to a 13-under total and one-stroke victory.

ESPN.com’s Bob Harig shares this from the patron-free grounds of Augusta National.

But Thursday brought him back to familiar ground, and perhaps he willed himself to a good score without the supporters who typically carry him. Sure, his buddy Peyton Manning was there. So was NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and MLB commissioner Rob Manfred. As Augusta National members, they were among the few allowed to attend.

Woods went the entire round without a bogey, a first for him on opening day at the Masters and the first time in any major round since the 2009 PGA Championship -- a span of 105 rounds.

Great to see the Commissioners working hard. Oh, and also quite a span since Tiger’s last bogey-free major round.

Michael Bamberger offered an array of observations from the strange November day. Including this:

As a reporter or a special-guest visitor or an off-duty tournament worker, you could get right up to the action. There might have been a hundred people, or far less, following Woods and his playing partners, Shane Lowry, the British Open champion, and Andy Ogletree, the U.S. Amateur champion. Among the few, the lucky, the walking: Andy’s mother; a doctor on call; Suzy Whaley, the president of the PGA of America. Also Rob McNamara, Tiger’s aide-de-camp, and Erica Herman, Tiger’s girlfriend. Without the usual throng following Woods, it had all the intensity of a country-club member-guest playoff.

It was quiet. You could hear a police siren on Washington Road across the course, something you normally cannot. You could hear Tiger’s groan-grunt when he hit a poor pitch-shot third on the par-5 8th. You could hear Augusta National’s famed Sub Air system working overtime on every hole. It had no chance of getting this course dry, not after the bath the course took in the morning. A soft Augusta National always makes the day seem more ordinary.