When Dust Settles, Paulson Leads at 68

The new, mellow Tiger Woods made his 2000 Masters debut Thursday at breezy Augusta National, which probably would have been blown clear into South Carolina if it weren’t so firmly anchored in the red Georgia clay.

The new, mellow Tiger--well, everybody is saying there is nothing that bothers him. Not even the double bogey he made at No. 10 or the triple bogey at No. 12.

In fact, when Woods met with reporters after his first-round 75, many of the questions were about how he coolly managed to keep from blowing his stack while losing five shots in a three-hole span.

It was a perfectly reasonable line of questioning, except for one thing. It was inaccurate.

Excuse me, but didn’t anybody else see Tiger get angry and swing his club like a baseball bat after he’d missed the green at No. 11?

Were everybody else’s eyes closed when Tiger tossed his eight-iron at his bag right after he’d knocked his ball off the bank at No. 12 and dribbled it back into the water?

Please keep in mind that there’s nothing wrong with what Tiger did. How would you expect the best player in the world to act when bad things happen to him out there? Blow kisses to the crowd? Bow?

No, the good thing about Woods these days is that he is being true to his feelings. He makes a bad shot, he reacts. It’s not as though he is hurting anybody. And it’s probably not healthy to keep all that stuff bottled up inside.

It is the duty of the tournament favorite to set the pace, and this is a task Woods is asked to perform, oh, only every week. But since this is the Masters and just about everyone this side of Bobby Jones’ cabin expects Woods to win his second green jacket, it could amount to a little bit of pressure.

If so, Woods doesn’t seem to feel it. The problems he had in the first round were the same ones the rest of the players faced. Namely, wind that had a hard time deciding which direction it wanted to blow.

Woods said that when he checked the wind on the fourth tee, he threw clumps of grass into the air three times, the swirling wind blowing the grass in a different direction each time. At that point, you just pick one and hope for the best.

At the par-three 12th, Woods had great hopes that his ball would land safely on that kidney-shaped green with the pin on the left side. It didn’t. He said a gust of wind blocked it. The ball hit the grassy bank and rolled into the dyed green water of Rae’s Creek.

With his third shot, Woods’ chip squirted 15 feet past the hole. From that distance, Woods putted three feet too far, and he missed from there for a triple bogey.

At that point, at five over par, his options were clear. He could continue going the wrong way and disappear faster than a roll of cash in the merchandise tent. Or he could keep plugging away and try to get his score as close to par as possible.

He finished with two birdies, signed for his three-over 75 and sounded satisfied with being only seven shots off the lead after one round. Now if that’s maturity, then Woods has it, all right. It’s not as if he is accustomed to shooting 75s either, even though he did shoot one in the last round of last year’s Masters, when he tied for 18th.

And the last time Woods made a triple bogey was in November at Valderrama in Spain, during the American Express Championship.

Bogeys appeared in all sizes Thursday at Augusta National, where the wind might have been the biggest problem, but not the only one. There also were the usual problems--yawning bunkers, water hazards and greens more suitable for landing airplanes than golf balls.

So if you really think about it, that 75 wasn’t bad. And neither was a club toss or two.

It was tough out there, Woods said. When he reached the 12th green, he might even have uttered a blue word or two. Woods admitted nothing. After all, he said, this isn’t the NBA. And in this game, it’s not even halftime yet.