AUGUSTA, GEORGIA | The buzz around Augusta National Thursday would do a swarm of bees proud.
He was back.
Not Tiger, though he did well opening with a 2-under-par 70, which matches his second-lowest starting score ever in the Masters.

The Masters garden gnome had returned.
The 2019 version, a Santa-faced dude dressed like a patron in khaki shorts, a green golf shirt and holding a refreshing beverage in a Masters cup, had been restocked on the shelves of the merchandise building at some point Thursday after quickly selling out by Tuesday.
At least that was the word in the pine straw as this Masters came to life on a warm day that smelled a little like pluff mud and offered a springtime sheen of sweat to anyone navigating Augusta National’s hills and valleys.
The 2018 version of the gnome, wearing a white caddie jumpsuit, instantly became an eBay sensation. Apparently the ’19 model is just as popular according to the internet, where patrons were hoping to turn a quick profit Thursday afternoon.
It didn’t detract from the golf, which is what this whole thing is about. Thursdays at the Masters traditionally have an air of nervous anticipation about them and this opening day was no different.
While the mud from early-week thunderstorms was firming up in the pathways around Augusta National, players took their first tentative steps in the year’s first major championship, holding hands with the old cliché that you can’t win a tournament on Thursday but you can lose it then.
Thursday at Augusta National was as soft as an afternoon nap, a day built for birdies. As the afternoon wore on, the leaderboard filled with familiar names.
The clutch of players around the top of the leaderboard reinforced the notion that this Masters is just getting started while Jordan Spieth, never worse than 11th in five starts here, practically played himself out of the tournament by shooting 40 on his opening nine.
Sure, Tiger shot that in 1997 and went on to set the tournament scoring record but he was a rocket taking flight while Spieth looks like he’s wrestling with a Rubik’s Cube at times now. The optimist believes this is just a phase, a rough patch, as they say across the pond, but it’s reaching the worrisome stage.
When Spieth fell victim to the false front on the ninth green then subsequently stubbed his third shot and watched the ball roll back to his feet, a British voice in the gallery whispered, “Oh my goodness, is he joking?”
Spieth isn’t joking much these days.
By Sunday – long after the gnomes are sold out again – we may look back and marvel at how Rory McIlroy, the pre-tournament favorite, made six bogeys in his first round and managed to win. That’s a big ask, however, after an opening 73 that felt at times like a tire deflating.
“You never like to see six bogeys on the card,” McIlroy said. “That’s a few too many.”
Like five or six too many.
Thursday at Augusta National was as soft as an afternoon nap, a day built for birdies. As the afternoon wore on, the leaderboard filled with familiar names.
There is Brooks Koepka again, a man who reaches for major championship trophies the way kids reach for chicken fingers. He’s had a quiet season so far but Koepka owns the distinction of being the only player ever to tee it up in the Masters having won three major championships since his previous start at Augusta National.
This time a year ago, Koepka couldn’t close the cap on a shampoo bottle due to a bad wrist. He’s just fine now, though.
Dustin Johnson. Ian Poulter. Bryson DeChambeau. Even Phil Mickelson joined in the fun Thursday.
Then there is Tiger, whose opening 70 could have been better and could have been worse. Woods had the rare circumstance of being forced to lay up with a chip shot from behind the 15th green.
His second shot ran over the green and finished against a root. Rather than risk blading his third shot across the green and into the water, he laid up with a chip – that doesn’t happen every day – and made a quirky par.
Woods has won four Masters, and in three of the four he shot 70 in the first round.
Is that foreshadowing? Coincidence? Or just the number he signed for Thursday?
Maybe the gnome knows.