Putter powers Tiger to familiar 70 at Masters

AUGUSTA, Georgia (AFP) –

Tiger Woods of the US plays during the first round of the 77th Masters golf tournament at Augusta National Golf Club on April 11, 2013 in Augusta, Georgia.

Tiger Woods, who last won a major title in 2008, shot a two-under par 70 on Thursday in the first round of the Masters, the same opening score as in three of his four Augusta National wins.

World number one Woods, a 14-time major winner chasing the all-time record of 18 major titles won by Jack Nicklaus, stood four strokes off the pace but well in the hunt for a possible fifth green jacket.

“It’s a good start,” Woods said. “Some years some guys shot 65 starting out here, but right now I’m only four back and I’m right there.

“We’ve got a long way to go. You just go out there and play shot for shot.”

Woods needed only 30 putts to solve the undulating greens of the famed course.

“I played solid and got a good round out of it,” Woods said. “I putted well. I left myself pretty good little par saves and made them. I didn’t leave myself so many bad putts.”

But Woods had expected the fast putting surfaces that he faced to be even faster than he found them, lamenting that he left putts short in some cases as a result.

“Overall I think the biggest challenge today was just the speed of the greens. They just weren’t quite there,” he said. “They looked it, but just weren’t quite putting it.”

With a heavy thunderstorm expected to last all night and into Friday morning to soften Augusta National’s greens, Friday penultimate-group starter Woods warned “the golf course is going to be very different tomorrow.”

Woods opened with five pars before making birdies at the par-3 sixth and par-5 eighth. He added a birdie at the par-5 13th but gave it back with a bogey on the next hole before closing with four pars.

Woods said it was important to score well on a day when conditions were perfect for it.

“Absolutely,” he said. “It was benign. Especially starting out. The wind picked up in the middle part of the round. Got a little bit swirly there at Amen Corner, as usual.”

Woods said he is standing nearer the ball on his iron shots, a function of changes in his grip in working with swing coach Sean Foley to keep his swing strong but reduce punishment on his surgically repaired knees.

“It’s a function of the grip change,” Woods said. “My grip was real weak for a number of years there and it promotes standing farther away. The grip gets stronger so it moves it in.”