AUGUSTA, GEORGIA | The Augusta spring revival, an annual affair that arrives with the azalea blossoms and April thunderstorms, was struggling to shake off its Thursday morning slumber until just after 11 a.m.
The low clouds and mist left over from the previous day’s deluge were slow to surrender to the promise of a brighter day, leaving Tiger Woods one more thing to do.
Arrive at the first tee of a Masters most never thought he could play and deliver the light.
As if on cue, as the patrons cleared a path from the putting green to the first tee, an abundance of green-jacketed members gathered beneath the big tree behind the clubhouse and diners on the veranda left their seats to lean over the upstairs rail, the low sky began to lift.
A sudden silence surrounded Woods – wearing a shirt the color of a raspberry popsicle – as he stood over his first competitive tee shot since the November Masters 17 months ago. Woods missed the first fairway to the right, short of the gaping bunker but inside the pine tree forest, and if the cheers sounded a little like hosannas, well, maybe they did.
If we wanted Thursday, Woods needed it.
From the moment doctors assured him that he would keep his wreck-mangled right leg, Woods had a goal of playing tournament golf again, and Augusta National is where the bull’s-eye landed.
One day isn’t four tournament days, but it’s a start that was good for the soul and a 1-under-par 71 that was good for the scoreboard.
The deeper into the day Woods and his immense gallery went, the bluer the sky became. By the time he finished, just three shots off the lead at the moment he signed his card — eventually it would be four strokes behind Sungjae Im — it was like a different Thursday.
Even Woods, who seems capable of locking himself inside a soundproof bubble on the course, felt the buzz. It was for him and it was about him.
The patrons’ mud-stained shoes. The tip-toe straining to catch a glimpse of the rebuilt 46-year-old because there were too many people watching actually to see the shots he hit. The spontaneous applause as Woods made his way from one part of the course to another, at tees, at greens, at almost anywhere he went.
“The place was electric,” Woods said.
When Woods stuffed his downhill tee shot close at the par-3 sixth, setting up his first birdie, the first true roar of this Masters rumbled up the hill.
Moments later – 11:43 a.m., to be precise – Woods’ name was added to the bottom of the big white leaderboard behind the seventh green, showing him 1 under. He responded with a brilliant par save from short of the devilish seventh green, nearly holing his pitch shot.
Woods was irked by a sloppy bogey at the par-5 eighth, where he took four shots from inside 50 yards. But on an increasingly breezy day that asked for grinding, Woods obliged. For all of the lightning-strike highlights through his career, what he may have done the best is grab a lunch pail and do the dirty work.
This is hard for him, probably harder than we can imagine. At times, he stops to adjust the compression sleeve he wears below his trousers on his right leg.
Walking isn’t easy. Woods doesn’t so much limp as he walks with a gentle hitch in his step. He probably always will.
Getting to his ball in the 13th fairway, which is sloped like a racetrack turn, Woods appeared to labor.“I can swing a golf club,” Woods said. “The walking’s not easy, and it’s difficult.”
“People have no idea how hard it’s been,” Woods said, standing in the sun-splashed afternoon.
Woods could have surrendered more than 14 months ago and accepted the different life he would lead after his accident. Instead, he attacked his rehabilitation because without at least trying, he could never have another day like he had Thursday.
He never could have a Thursday night, when the ice baths were finished and soreness was manageable, that he could go to sleep in contention at another Masters.
It wasn’t just his leg that Woods almost lost. He almost lost the opportunity to do this again.
“People have no idea how hard it’s been,” Woods said, standing in the sun-splashed afternoon.
The people closest to him know.
“If you would have seen how my leg looked to where it’s at now, the pictures, some of the guys know. They’ve seen the pictures, and they’ve come over to the house and they’ve seen it. To see where I’ve been, to get from there to here, it was no easy task,” Woods said.
Asked Tuesday whether he believes he can win this Masters, Woods answered with a simple, “I do.”
Asked after his first round whether what he did Thursday felt like a victory in itself, Woods said, “Yes.”
For him and all of the believers who had their faith renewed at this April revival.