Tiger Woods on Thursday described his first competitive round of golf in 508 days as painful and positive after pushing himself to an opening-round one-under 71 at the Masters and into the battle for a record-equaling sixth Green Jacket.
Fourteen months after a career-threatening traffic accident there is still a long painful road ahead for the 46-year-old if he is to match Jack Nicklaus’ victories at the Masters.
To do that he will need to negotiate three more punishing rounds on Augusta National’s undulating layout, as well as hours of ice baths and physiotherapy, but that is the price he must pay to play on a mangled right leg that doctors had considered amputating.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“If you would have seen how my leg looked to where it’s at now, the pictures — some of the guys know,” said Woods, after a round that while painful, left a smile on his face and put him just four back of leader Im Sung-jae. “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. People have no idea how hard it’s been.”
During a spectacular career that includes 15 major titles, Woods has made it look all too easy on the golf course.
For much of Thursday, it often appeared hard work with the former world No. 1 occasionally limping and grimacing his way through the round, but there were also moments when Woods turned back the clock.
On the par-three 16th he rolled in a monster 29 foot birdie putt, and celebrated with a trademark fist pump that brought a mighty roar from the adoring crowd and echoed through the Georgia pines.
“Some days are easier than others,” Woods said. “Some days we push it pretty hard, and other days we don’t, but always doing something. It’s commitment to getting back to a level that I feel that I can still do it. I did something positive today. I was able to finish up in the red. I’m right where I need to be.”
The day’s work did not end for Woods when he handed in his scorecard, it was only just getting started, as Woods’ team prepared to rebuild him for the second round.
“Lots of treatments,” Woods said. “Lots of ice baths. Just basically freezing myself to death. That’s just part of the deal, and getting all the swelling out as best as we possibly can, and getting it mobile and warmed up, activated and explosive for the next day. I’m going to be sore, that’s just the way it is.”
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
The Minnesota Timberwolves, with so many promising performances spoiled by late mistakes fresh in their memory bank, sure timed this strong finish well. Jaden McDaniels scored a career playoff-high 30 points and spearheaded Minnesota’s stifling defense on an ailing Luka Doncic, and the Timberwolves beat the Los Angeles Lakers 116-104 to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference first-round series in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Friday night. “Jaden never looks tired. He looks like he could play 48 minutes,” said teammate Anthony Edwards, who had 29 points, eight rebounds and eight assists. Julius Randle added 22 points for the Wolves, who outscored
Inter’s defense of their Italian Serie A title was hit with a setback on Sunday as they lost 1-0 at home to AS Roma, while Scott McTominay netted a brace as SSC Napoli beat Torino 2-0 to go top of the table. No fixtures were played on Friday or Saturday because of the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome, meaning the full round of Serie A matches took place on Sunday and yesterday. Matias Soule’s first-half strike for Roma knocked Inter off top spot earlier in the day before new Napoli opened up a three-point buffer with victory in Sunday’s
Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa yesterday set a women’s only world record of 2 hours, 15 minutes, 50 seconds as she won the London Marathon, while Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe put a star-studded men’s field to the sword. For 28-year-old Assefa it was ample compensation for finishing runner-up in London and the Paris Olympics last year — especially as bitter Dutch rival, the Ethiopia-born Sifan Hassan, finished third. Assefa dropped Kenya’s Joyciline Jepkosgei as the race, played out in blazing sunshine and with thousands lining the route, entered its business end. She came home almost three minutes clear of the Kenyan. Hassan, who beat her in