Woods settles for even par in Round 1 at Augusta

Fighting his swing from start to finish, Tiger Woods shot an even-par 72 on Thursday in the opening round of the 76th Masters Tournament at soggy Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Ga.

A four-time winner of the event, Woods hit only six of 14 fairways, and two errant drives resulted in unplayable lies and two penalty strokes.

“I squeezed a lot out of that round,” a composed Woods said afterward. “I didn’t hit it very good at all. Warmed up bad, too, and it continued on the golf course.”

Lee Westwood is the leader with a 67.

More than two inches of rain fell on the course earlier in the week, resulting in little roll and receptive greens. Tournament officials countered with a tough first-round setup.

“This golf course is playing too difficult to go super low on,” said Woods. “Some of these pins are really tough. No one is tearing it up.”

Tiger hit 12 of 18 greens and used 29 putts, essentially staying within striking distance with good scrambling. He said some old bad habits crept into his swing, and he went right to the practice range to work them out after speaking to the media.

Woods was a late-morning starter with Miguel Angel Jimenez of Spain and PGA Tour rookie Sang-Moon Bae of South Korea. Tiger has broken 70 in the first round just once in 18 appearances.

“I just hung in there and grinded my way around the golf course,” he said.

After a wild hook on the par-4 first hole, Woods managed to make par. However, another big hook at the par-5 second hole resulted in an unplayable lie, and Tiger did well to salvage par.

At the short, uphill, par-4 third, Woods made his first birdie of the tournament. He followed with three straight pars.

At the uphill, par-4 seventh, Tiger’s tee shot collected mud, and his approach shot found a front bunker. He was unable to get up and down and had to card bogey.

Woods rebounded with a birdie at the uphill, par-5 eighth, then parred the ninth hole to make the turn in 1-under 35.

At the sharp, dogleg-left, par-4 10th, Woods hit a nice drive, fired an even better second shot five feet right of the hole and sunk the birdie putt. Tiger then reeled off six consecutive pars, unable to tame the par-5 13th and 15th holes. At No. 13, his second shot rolled into the back bunker and he blasted long. At No. 15, he hit a poor drive and was forced to lay up short of the pond.

Another errant drive led to a bogey at the par-4 17th, where Woods hit his second shot into the front bunker. After a bad tee shot at the par-4 18th forced him to take an unplayable lie, Tiger was fortunate to escape with a bogey.

“I just fought my way around today,” he said. “I know how to play this golf course. I really stayed committed to what I was doing. Yes, I made some bad swings, but I can take something positive out of this.”

Woods is scheduled to tee off Friday in the second-to-last threesome at 1:42 p.m. ET with Jimenez and Bae. More rain is in the forecast, however, and could delay play.