"Not so fine” - Tiger Woods admits playing through ‘constant’ pain at Masters

Modified Apr 07, 2023 10:39 GMT

The Masters - Round One — Tiger Woods during first round of 2023 Masters

Tiger Woods returned to the golf course after a couple of months. The golf veteran had a rough first day at the 2023 Masters, as he finished at 2-over 74 on Thursday.

Tiger revealed that he was in “constant” pain during the first round of The Masters 2023. His right leg is still a concern as he was looking a bit uneasy. He survived a terrible accident two years back and recovery hasn't been easy for him since then.

The 15-time major champion didn't play much professional golf due to injury concerns and recently talked about his plans stating that he was only going to play in major events moving forward.

On the question of pain, Tiger Woods replied that it was "constant":

"Well, it's on my left leg, I'm good, you know, but hop on the left leg is fine. If I did on the other one, not so fun."

Tiger has a solid record at Augusta National and has only missed the cut once in his 24 appearances at the event. The five-time Masters champion was critical of his first-round game, though he admitted he was a bit slow initially.

He told reporters,

"I didn't have very good speed early. I had two three-putts, and consequently, in a couple over par. But I needed my irons close enough today, you know. I didn't give myself very good looks. Needed a better job of that going forward. Hopefully, (I'll) get myself back in this tournament."

Woods was paired alongside Viktor Hovland and Xander Schauffele but both had contrasting results compared to Woods on Day 1 at Augusta. While Schauffele did well to finish T-6 at 4-under, Hovland shot a first round of seven under to secure the lead alongside Jon Rahm and Brooks Koepka.