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South Korea’s Sungjae Im reached the top of the leaderboard on day one of the Masters with a five under 67. Rory McIlroy finished up on one over after being one shot under par until the 14th hole. A further dropped shot at the 16th saw him finish over par for the day.
Shane Lowry also carded a 73 to end up on the same total, while Seamus Power and find themselves one shot further down the leaderboard on two over.
Im made an eagle and five birdies to counter two bogeys, beating out the clubhouse leader from the early wave, Cameron Smith of Australia, by one shot.
World number one Scottie Scheffler, 2020 Masters champion Dustin Johnson, 2016 champ Danny Willett of England and Joaquin Niemann of Chile tied for third with rounds of three-under 69. Patrick Cantlay, Jason Kokrak and Canada’s Corey Conners were tied for seventh after shooting two-under 70.
Woods’ 71 was good for a tie for 10th, a feat unto itself as he played in his first official event since he was injured in a single-car accident on February 23rd, 2021. After rehabbing a right leg that required multiple surgeries, Woods made his return to the sport 15 years to the day after his first major victory, a 12-stroke victory at the 1997 Masters.
His highlight came at the par-three sixth, right after he lipped out a 15-foot birdie try on the previous green. Hitting a six iron, he stuck his tee shot two feet away from the pin and tapped in for his first birdie of the day.
“People have no idea how hard it’s been,” Woods said. “My team does. They’ve worked with me every single day. I’ve said this before, we haven’t taken a day off since I got out of the bed after those three months. So it’s commitment to getting back and commitment to getting back to a level that I feel that I can still do it. I did something positive today.”
Next up for Woods before his Friday afternoon tee time: “Lots of ice baths. Just basically freezing myself to death.”
Im, the Masters runner-up in 2020, birdied his first three holes and added a fourth at number seven. After missing par putts at both 10 and 11, he completed Amen Corner by reaching the 13th green in two shots and making his 12-footer for eagle.
Im added a birdie at the 15th and nearly holed out from a greenside bunker for birdie at 18. His shot hit the cup and stayed out by mere inches.
Smith, who won The Players Championship last month and moved to number six in the world golf rankings, signed an unusual card: double bogey sixess on the first and last holes with eight birdies in between. Smith reached six-under with a string of three birdies at 14-16 and nearly went to the clubhouse with a three-shot lead on the field.
But after a wayward tee shot at number 18, his second shot hit a tree branch and only traveled 80 yards. He reached the green in three and three-putted.
Smith said he stayed patient after his tough opening hole.
“I love this place. I know it presents plenty of birdies,” Smith said. “I just really had to get in a groove.”
Playing with Woods, Niemann holed out from 105 yards for an eagle two at the ninth. His shot spun back over a ridge and directly at the pin. That briefly put him alone in the lead at three-under, and he recorded one bogey and one birdie the rest of the way.
Scheffler, in his first tournament since moving to number one in the world, made consecutive birdies at eight and nine before sinking a 19-foot birdie at the par-three 12th to join the co-leaders at three-under. He reached four-under with another birdie at the par-three 17th but missed the green at 18 and couldn’t get up and down for par.
Johnson made all four of his birdies over the first 10 holes before a bogey at number 17 and a difficult up-and-down par save at 18.
Defending champion Hideki Matsuyama of Japan opened with an even-par 72.
Collated first round scores in The Masters, Augusta National GC, Augusta, Georgia, United States of America
(USA unless stated, Par 72):
67 Sung Jae Im (Kor)
68 Cameron Smith (Aus)
69 Dustin Johnson, Joaquin Niemann (Chi), Scottie Scheffler, Danny Willett (Eng)
70 Patrick Cantlay, Corey Conners (Can), Jason Kokrak
71 Daniel Berger, Tony Finau, Matthew Fitzpatrick (Eng), Harry Higgs, Kevin Na, Webb Simpson, Harold Varner III, Tiger Woods, Will Zalatoris
72 Abraham Ancer (Mex), Cameron Champ, Sergio Garcia (Spa), Lucas Glover, Talor Gooch, Tyrrell Hatton (Eng), Garrick Higgo (Rsa), Viktor Hovland (Nor), Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn), Keita Nakajima (Jpn), Charl Schwartzel (Rsa), Lee Westwood (Eng)
73 Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa), Russell Henley, Tom Hoge, Mackenzie Hughes (Can), Min-Woo Lee (Aus), Marc Leishman (Aus), Shane Lowry (Irl), Robert MacIntyre (Sco), Rory McIlroy (NIrl), Collin Morikawa, Erik van Rooyen (Rsa), Bubba Watson
74 Austin Greaser, Brian Harman, Padraig Harrington (Irl), Lucas Herbert (Aus), Max Homa, Billy Horschel, Zach Johnson, Kyoung-Hoon Lee (Kor), Seamus Power (Irl), Jon Rahm (Spa), Patrick Reed, Xander Schauffele, Adam Scott (Aus), J. J. Spaun, Jordan Spieth, Sepp Straka (Aut), Mike Weir (Can)
75 Sam Burns, Fred Couples, Cameron Davis (Aus), Tommy Fleetwood (Eng), Takumi Kanaya (Jpn), Kevin Kisner, Brooks Koepka, Guido Migliozzi (Ita), Ryan Palmer, Gary Woodland
76 Stewart Cink, Bryson DeChambeau, Si Woo Kim (Kor), Bernhard Langer (Ger), Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa), Justin Rose (Eng), Justin Thomas
77 Luke List, Larry Mize, Jose Maria Olazabal (Spa), Hudson Swafford, Cameron Young
78 Francesco Molinari (Ita), Vijay Singh (Fij)
79 Stewart Hagestad, Thomas Pieters (Bel)
81 Aaron Jarvis (Cay), James Piot, Laird Shepherd (Eng), Matthew Wolff
82 Sandy Lyle (Sco)