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Tiger Pulls Off Vintage Recovery To Temporarily Tie Masters Lead

In search of his fifth green jacket, Tiger Woods shot an opening-round 2-under par 70 that was highlighted by a vintage birdie on the 14th hole that temporarily tied him for the lead on Thursday.

After a 1-under par front-nine 35 that featured a solid start followed by some missed short putts and culminated with a birdie on the 9th hole, Woods played Augusta National’s 10th hole as well as its famous Amen Corner — holes 11, 12 and 13 — in 1-under par to put him at 2-under par for the day with more scoring opportunities coming down the stretch.


However, a wayward drive at the par-4 14th hole seemed doomed to put a halt to that momentum. Left of the fairway and seemingly stymied by Georgia Pines, Woods pulled out a lofted club from 149 yards and went up and over the trees to find the surface 25 feet from the hole.

After getting a good read from playing partner Haotong Li, Woods curled in the delicate birdie putt to move to 3-under par, temporarily tying him for the lead.

Tiger would give one shot back coming in by making bogey on the par-4 17th hole, but his 2-under par 70 had him in good spirits after the round, likely because of what 2-under par 70s have done for him in the past.

“I’ve shot this number and won (three) coats, so hopefully I can do it again,” Woods said, referencing three of his four Masters titles came after shooting 2-under par in the first round.

This time, Woods enters Friday four shots back of Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka. Tiger tees off in the second round at 1:49 p.m.