Tiger Woods had a solid but not spectacular day at the Masters during round one on Thursday at Augusta National Golf Club, shooting a two-under 70 to be four strokes behind leader Marc Leishman as the tournament heads into its second day.
David Lynn finished two shots back, while Rickie Fowler was four shots behind after shooting a four-under on Thursday, while Jim Furyk got off to a fast start and is just three shots back, tied with Zach Johnson and Fred Couples as well as Dustin Johnson. The day's weather was so-so but the course played well and Woods left a few shots on the course and could be in the top 10 had he not put in a bogey late.
Augusta National is one of the top golf clubs in the nation and with Tiger Woods back at number one in the world again, the Masters appear to be more popular than ever and the ticket prices for the event have reflected that, as some on the resale market are going for thousands of dollars.
According to ESPN.com, tickets and badges for the first major of the PGA Tour season were going for up to $7,000 on the resale market and even practice round tickets were priced very high, going for over $1,000 after being just $50 at face value. The re-emergence of Woods and his strong play entering the tournament have pushed prices up and it is a similar situation that happened back in 1997 when Woods was also at the top of his game.
The tournament has a number of big name players this year, including Woods, Rory McIlroy, Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els and Bubba Watson, who won the tournament last year. Woods has won three times ahead of the Masters this season and he is looking for his first win at Augusta since 2005 and his first major since 2008 when he won the US Open in a playoff. Woods has been stuck on 14 majors since then and this could be his best chance to get another since the PGA Championship a few years ago.
Woods won the Arnold Palmer Invitational two weeks ago to get back to the number one ranking and he previously won the Farmers Insurance Open and the WGC-Cadillac Championship. He has won six times in his past 20 starts, including the past two in a row. Woods will tee off in the morning with Luke Donald and Scott Piercy and McIlroy will be going on later in the day as he tries to improve on his career best 15th place finish from 2011.