Lawrence Donegan joined Thursday's Off the Ball to look back at Tiger Woods carding an opening round of 73 at The Masters.
Woods returned to Augusta for the first time since 2015 to finish five strokes behind the current leaders.
“It was a typical Tiger round these days,” Donegan told Off The Ball.
“But he’s always played like that a little bit. He’s been tighter in his good days but he’s not played himself out of it and that’s the main thing.
“There’s a stat that everyone’s been talking about today: the last 12 Masters winners have always been in the top 10 after the first day. If Tiger’s going to win it, he’s going to have to bring an end to that streak.
“It depends on what education system you’re working in. In America they’ll probably give him an A-.
“He only hit half the fairways and he putted pretty well, but it was a pretty average round.
“If he wins on Sunday, if he comes close, if he’s in contention – everybody’s head is going to explode, it’ll be amazing.”
Woods continued his trend of starting slowly off the tee as his struggles with hitting draws persisted.
“Post-scandal, he’s been playing with this sort of cutty-fade thing,” Donegan added.
“To win at Augusta you really need to be able to handle the high draw. And there were a couple of holes today where he had control of that shot.
“He’s always got the left to right shot but if he can control a right to left [shot], that is something to watch out for.
“If he can tighten that a little bit, through until Sunday, then that’s something to really hang your hat on.
“He’s come back and his short game looks fantastic. All the signs are there. If he hits a couple more fairways; his short game; and his competitive instincts; his course knowledge – I wouldn’t be writing him off.
“There are good signs for optimism, I would say.”
Written by James Hopper
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