Thursday was the first round of the long-anticipated 2022 Masters.
It was also Opening Day in Major League Baseball.
About two hours west of Augusta National Golf Club, where Tiger Woods is the headliner, the defending World Series champion Atlanta Braves hosted the Cincinnati Reds to kick off the baseball season.
“Each and every one of these Opening Days are special, and they just make you feel so young,” Votto told ESPN2. “Opening Days in Major League Baseball don’t disappoint. And I’m so grateful that I get to be a part of this year’s.”
Later in the game, after a second-inning strikeout, Votto said he wouldn’t be late on another fastball. He wasn’t late on his RBI single an inning later to give the Reds a 2-0 lead in a game they went on to win 6-3.
In the fourth inning, after greeting Atlanta’s Ozzie Albies at first base, Votto started talking golf and the Masters.
Joey Votto talks golf and baseball, and does play-by-play… of the Reds-Braves game he's playing first base in. ⚾️⛳️🎙️ pic.twitter.com/nnhHEr7eP2
Votto also did some play-by-play of a strikeout while standing at first base.
ESPN had previously put mics on MLB players for spring training games and Fox has done it for some MLB All-Star Games.
Dave Clark of the Cincinnati Enquirer contributed to this article.
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AUGUSTA, Ga. — Something was in the air, a murmur at first, a rush of sound far away from the first tee, growing louder by the second. Hundreds of heads turned. The galleries were as large as they could ever be at Augusta National, packed 20-25 people deep, waiting for one person, and that person, Tiger Woods, was on his way, magically enough, from the practice green to the tee box of the 2022 Masters.
Less than 14 months earlier, he crashed his SUV and thought he might lose his right leg or never walk again. Now, here he was, striding confidently, albeit with a persistent limp, in front of a massive Thursday morning audience to begin his first official round of golf since he last teed off at Augusta National Golf Club in the November 2020 Masters.
One of the most stunning sports stories ever told was unfolding before the hundreds gathered by the first tee. The 46-year-old Woods, who a year ago was in the midst of spending three consecutive months in a hospital bed, was on his way to a magnificent opening round, breaking par, finishing at one-under 71, tied for ninth when he ended.
There was only one conclusion to draw from this remarkable sports moment: Tiger is just so good at this and cares so much about it that he can do it, and do it very well, on a rebuilt right leg.
Tiger Woods plays from the fairway on the second hole during the first round of The Masters golf tournament. Rob Schumacher-USA TODAY Sports
“I felt good,” Woods said on ESPN after he finished. “The whole idea was to keep pushing but keep recovering, that’s the hard part, every night to recover. I figured once the adrenaline kicks in, I get fired up and I get into my little world, I should be able to handle business.”
And so it was. “I fought back (from several mistakes),” he said, “and for the day to end in the red (under par), I’m where I need to be.”
Dozens of other golfers were on the course as Tiger was, but in some ways, they barely existed.
“You can’t help but watch him, he’s an inspiration to us all,” said Cameron Smith, a co-leader at 4-under-par, playing right in front of Woods.
As the clouds that brought fierce thunderstorms and two inches of rain to town cleared, Woods teed off to thunderous applause. His first drive was not a prize winner. The sound was not pure but thin, and the result was mediocre, short and right of the bunker on the right side of the fairway. But just as he was going to do all day, Woods persevered. He hit his approach just short of the green and made a 10-foot putt to save par.
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He was on his way. He parred the first five holes before a scintillating shot into the par-three sixth hole, leaving him just two feet for birdie. He was 1 under, and on the leaderboard. How much greater could this story get?
But golf giveth and golf taketh away. On the par-5 eighth hole, Woods made an ugly bogey, needing four shots from 50 yards away from the hole to go back to even-par. “A loss of concentration a little bit there,” Tiger said.
He came back on the par-5 13th, when he reached the green in two, was putting for eagle and settled for an easy birdie. His good fortune didn’t last as a drive into the trees led to a missed green and a two-putt bogey on 14.
But then, pure Tiger magic occurred on No. 16, the iconic par-3 that has seen its share of Tiger heroics over the years. Woods’ tee shot dropped beautifully onto the green, 29 feet from the hole. Of course, Tiger made the putt to go back to one-under par, and that’s where he stayed.
For much of the late morning and early afternoon Thursday, Woods was even-par. He had his moments, but most of all, while he wasn’t in the lead, he was on the leaderboard. He offered few smiles; this clearly was a grind. His tee shots were not as long as those of his playing partners. He missed some fairways and greens. But he fought. Did he ever fight, and when his 10-foot par putt fell into the cup for a closing par save on No. 18, he sighed deeply. He had done it, and he was done for the day.
He was asked what was next for him. He answered like a middle-aged man who had just walked 18 holes up and down hills on a leg full of pins and screws and plates.
AUGUSTA, Ga. — The Masters has always had a limited field, but in 1957 it instituted a 36-hole cut with the low 40 players and ties moving on.
In 1962, the cut was changed to low 44 and ties. In 1966, the cut was amended to include anyone within 10 shots of the lead at the midway point.
From 2013 to 2019, the cut included the top 50 players and ties, plus anyone within 10 strokes of the leader.
The most recent cut rule change came in 2020 and is still in effect for 2022, with the low 50 players and ties qualifying for the final 36 holes.
Competitors who miss the cut are welcome to stick around Augusta National and watch the weekend action, but most professionals choose to move on.
That is unless they happen to be the defending champion, who is required to help the winner slip into his green jacket at the conclusion of play.
Who has made the most cuts at the Masters?
Gary Player and Fred Couples share the record for most cuts made in a row – 23.
Player’s streak went from 1959 to 1982 (he sat out 1973 because of a medical issue), while Couples compiled his mark from 1983-2007.
Jack Nicklaus missed the cut in 1967 after winning in both 1965 and 1966. That earned him the lead headline the next day in The Augusta Chronicle with “Golden Bear muffs cutoff by a stroke.” Rounds of 72 and 79 derailed his attempt at a third consecutive win.
“There’ll be another day,” said Nicklaus, who became the first defending champ to miss the cut. “The world isn’t going to change that much just because this happened to me.”
Highest and lowest Masters cut scores
The lowest cut score of 143 (1 under par) sent players to the weekend rounds at the Masters in 2020. The highest cut score of 154 (10 over par) was good enough in 1982. The average cut score at the Masters is 148.43.
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Harry Higgs has one competitive round under his belt and claims to have found the answer to Augusta National.
“There is no secret out here,” Higgs said. “There’s one place to miss, and one place to hit. It just falls on you to execute it.”
The Dallas native posted 1-under 71 on Thursday and is vying to continue the recent trend of first-time participants making a weekend splash.
Since 2019, seven competitors have broken par in every round of their debut, while Sungjae Im (2020) and Will Zalatoris (2021) finished as runner-up.
“I don’t think it really takes more than three or four rounds around this place beforehand,” Higgs said. “Most of the young guys, I don’t think they really pay attention to the moment. They get lost in what they’re trying to do. They trust their ability.”
Prior to 2019, only 14 first-timers had ever posted four sub-par rounds in the history of the Masters Tournament, dating to 1934.
So, why the recent splurge?
Higgs’ hypothesis is simple:
“A lot of guys just want to show off. They want to prove to themselves and everybody else that they’re capable of winning these things.”
Flags on top of the Masters scoreboard blow in the wind during the first round of the 2022 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club. (Photo: Adam Cairns/The Augusta Chronicle)
In 1984, Larry Mize accomplished the feat in his Masters housewarming, and gave two reasons why the current crop is experiencing early success.
“First-time players are good, obviously, that’s the number one thing,” Mize said. “Also, the length some of these kids is a big asset around here. When you’re hitting short irons into greens, that’s the whole thing about this golf course: put the ball in the right spots on the greens.”
Mize noted that before his first competitive round, he had only played Augusta National twice. Today, however, notable collegiate programs are often invited for annual outings.
For Scottie Scheffler, who clipped par in each round of his debut in 2020, his teams at the University of Texas were invited to play each season.
“I know Georgia, Georgia Tech bring the kids over here to play it,” Mize said. “That could definitely play a role.”
Still, no first-timer has left Augusta in green since Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979. For Higgs, he doesn’t view inexperience as a liability.
The SMU product played practice rounds at Augusta National in December, March, and then spent Sunday and Monday picking the brain of Dustin Johnson.
“D.J. was a wealth of knowledge,” Higgs said. “Kudos to him. The best piece of advice is that this golf course is really hard. Four holes play under par year after year, and those are the par 5s. There’s nothing wrong with making pars.”
Higgs donned an Amen Corner belt on Thursday, and was asked if he plans to wear the item all week.
“I have another Augusta belt, and then a Trinity Forest belt,” he said. “We’ll see.”
AUGUSTA, Ga. – After signing for 4-under 68, Cameron Smith was asked by ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt if he wanted to start with recapping the beginning, middle or end of his round.
“The middle is perfect,” Smith said.
Was it ever. Smith made eight birdies in a span of 12 holes beginning at Augusta National Golf Club’s fifth hole to grab the early lead at the 86th Masters. Only a pair of double bogeys at the start and end of his round marred an otherwise flawless day, which was still good enough for a one-stroke lead over a trio of golfers among the early finishers.
Smith found trouble at the opening hole when his tee shot caught the right fairway bunker, hit the lip with his second and airmailed the green with his third. He didn’t make a birdie until the fifth hole when he pulled his second left of the green. But Smith’s short game is “filthy good,” said fellow Aussie Lucas Herbert, and all Smith did was chip in from off the green to jump start his round.
“His short game is ridiculous and it’s been ridiculous for 15 years,” Herbert said. “He’d be under a tree, trying to carry a bunker to a short-sided pin and I remember him trying to hit the lip in the middle of a tournament. I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ He was just so good inside 100 yards. It makes him very easy to dislike.”
The chip in opened the flood gates for Smith and there wasn’t much for him to complain about until he finished with another double bogey.
Cameron Smith lines up his putt on No. 18 during the first round of the 2022 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club. (Photo: Adam Cairns-Augusta Chronicle/USA TODAY Sports)
Of his play between the bookend doubles, Smith said, “The stuff in between was pretty good.”
Smith stuffed his tee shot near the hole at 6 for birdie, the first of three deuces on the card with birdies also at Nos. 12 and 16. As further proof that his irons were dialed in, Smith converted a pair of birdie putts inside 10 feet at Nos. 8 and 9. He added a short birdie out at 14, the first of three straight, hoisting a cut wedge he called his favorite shot that landed past the hole and dance to a stop within 5 feet.
“I like to see them spin,” he said.
Smith was cruising along at 6 under for the day and 8 under since the fourth when he sprayed his tee shot at 18 to the right into the pine straw, and was forced to punch out. His third shot ended up some 50 feet short of the hole. His par putt raced by and he missed the comebacker. Smith described it as a frustrating finish, but noted he had already moved on.
“The less you guys bring it up, the less I will think about it,” he said.
But it was another impressive performance nonetheless for Smith, who won the Players Championship three weeks ago, and has shown a flair for Augusta National, recording two top-10s and a runner-up finish in five previous appearances. The World No. 6 was a stroke better than World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, Chile’s Joaquin Niemann, and former Masters champion Danny Willett. Thirteen months after being injured in a gruesome car crash, Tiger Woods returned to shoot 1-under 71. Smith played one group ahead of Woods and found himself stopping to watch the five-time Masters champion play like the thousands of patrons who tracked his every step.
“You can’t not watch him,” Smith said. “He’s unreal.”
Three-time Masters champion Gary Player said more or less the same of Smith’s play of late.
“This guy can really putt. There’s so much said about long hitting. Long hitting is an asset, but it’s not a necessity. What wins golf tournaments is the mind and putting, and this guy, he’s cocky, he’s confident, which you’ve got to be, and he’s one hell of a putter,” Player said, while also commenting on Smith’s trademark mullet and how it would go over with the green coats should he be victorious on Sunday. “I’d love to see how he’s accepted with that long hair in the clubhouse. They might tell him to have a haircut.”
He played some really good golf in the first round of the Masters, his first tournament since his car accident early in 2021 in Los Angeles.
He also dropped a good F-bomb after his shot from the trees on the par-4 ninth hole rolled off the front of the green. When Tiger was at his best he was often heard swearing on the course after bad shots.
Some people don’t like that stuff but I am not some people – I love seeing and hearing Tiger Woods cursing after tough shots.
It means he’s really back!
Check this out. By now you should know there’s going to be a bad word in this video so if you don’t like that sort of thing then run for the hills!
"Ah, f*ck off."
Tiger Woods wasn’t too happy with the result of this shot 😂
Lots of F bombs today for a guy playing even par on one of the toughest courses in the world who oh by the way hasn’t played a competitive round of golf in two years. Tiger is back. 🐐🐅
AUGUSTA, Ga. – Three men hit a tee shot and then embraced on the first tee.
But when those three men happen to be Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Tom Watson and the setting is Augusta National Golf Club and the start of the 86thedition of the Masters, it is a moment washed in nostalgia.
Nicklaus, the 18-time major winner and winner of six Green Jackets here, wearing a yellow sweater and hat, was the eighth person to become an honorary starter, a tradition at the Masters dating to 1963.
“I personally just felt lucky to be out there. Period,” said the 82-year-old Nicklaus, who bowed out of the Par 3 Contest this year.
Player, 86, in his trademark black, joined him two years later and posted to social media his training regimen with an eye on outdriving Nicklaus.
“I get quite choked when I get on that tee in the morning,” Player said. “I’m not embarrassed to say that.”
Watson, 72, looking resplendent in a light purple quarter-zip jacket, became the 11th honorary starter, one year after Lee Elder’s one-year stint.
With 15 top-10 Masters finishes and a legacy that will last a lifetime, Tom Watson joins the Honorary Starters. #theMasterspic.twitter.com/AXMu9McRop
“When Chairman Ridley called my office and said, ‘We’d like to speak with Tom at 10 in the morning on Monday,’ I was kind of expecting maybe that he might ask me to be an Honorary Starter, but I was overjoyed and actually humbled because the way I look at these old goats right here, I can’t carry their shoes. I don’t kind of belong in the same realm as these two players here,” Watson recalled. “I said, ‘I’m more than happy to do it.’ Then he followed up very quickly and he said, ‘Tom, you can do it for as long as you’d like,’ which I – wow. That meant a great deal to me. The good Lord willing the creek don’t rise.”
Overnight rain slowed to a steady mist but pushed tee times back half an hour. The first sign that the Hall of Fame trio would soon be approaching occurred eight minutes before their scheduled 8:15 tee time as patrons applauded Barbara Nicklaus’s as if Queen Elizabeth II had arrived on the tee. Player and Nicklaus stood under umbrellas with the Masters logo while Watson didn’t seem to mind the rain drops. He said he had attended the ceremonial start to the season’s first men’s major many times since he first played in the tournament as an amateur in 1970.
When Player stepped to the tee to get the festivities started, Watson cracked, “Aren’t you going to do a pushup?”
“I did them while you were asleep this morning,” Player crowed.
Laughter ensued. “I was up at 4 o’clock this morning,” Watson replied.
Masters Honorary Starter Tom Watson tees off from the first hole during the first round of the 2022 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club. (Photo: Adam Cairns-Augusta Chronicle/USA TODAY Sports)
Player smacked his drive and showed he can still kick his leg high in the air. Then Nicklaus waddled to the tee. “If I can do this without falling over,” he said. “Yes, success!”
“That a boy,” Watson said as Nicklaus’s drive flew off to the right. He waved and smiled widely and gave way to Watson, a two-time Masters champion (1977, 1981).
“Now on the tee for the first time, it is my privilege to introduce our newest honorary starter,” said Augusta National Golf Club Chairman Fred Ridley.
The 72-year-old Watson stepped to the tee, but first he had a request. “May I say something?” he asked as if anyone would ever think of stopping him.
“I would like to say how honored I am to be with Gary and Jack. I’ve watched this ceremony many times in the past with Arnie, Gene Sarazen, Byron Nelson and to be a part of this thing I’m truly humbled,” he said.
More applause. Watson readied to hit and paused.
“How far did you hit it, Gary?” he teased.
“I could hear it land,” Player said. “Not very far.”
And when Watson connected, he received the largest round of applause.
“I was definitely the shortest,” Nicklaus would later say. “Gary was close to Tom. Gary and Tom were pretty close probably.”
Competitive to the very end, Watson couldn’t resist piping in. “Oh, I got him by 50,” he said.
But where the drives flew was immaterial. Before they left the tee box, these three fierce competitors and legends at their craft grabbed hold of each other as if in a football huddle and embraced.
As one photographer who captured the image put it, there was nothing posed about it. “That was genuine,” he said.
For the rest of us, it was a patron giving fatherly advice to his son who may have said it best, “Take a mental picture.”
The field for the 2022 Masters Tournament is now 90 after Paul Casey withdrew before the start of his first round.
Casey, ranked No. 25 in the Official World Golf Ranking, was scheduled to tee off at 10:53 a.m. ET alongside Bryson DeChambeau and Cameron Smith. A release sent by tournament officials said, “Due to injury, Paul Casey has officially withdrawn from the Masters Tournament prior to the start of his first round.”
There was no word on the injury or severity. Casey played the Par 3 Contest on Wednesday with his son, Lex. He also participated in practice rounds. In March, Casey withdrew from each of his three matches because of back spasms at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play in Texas.
Casey’s best Masters finish was a tie for fourth in 2016. He has 12 top-10 finishes in majors in his career. This would have been his 16th Masters appearance.
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AUGUSTA, Ga. – The wait is over for Sam Kouvaris to be honored at the Masters.
In early 2020, Kouvaris received a letter in the mail from Augusta National Golf Club Chairman Fred Ridley congratulating him on his upcoming coverage of his 40th Masters and notifying him that he would be honored with the Masters Major Achievement Award in April. But then the global pandemic postponed the Masters until November and canceled the Golf Writers Association of America Annual Awards Dinner, where the award is traditionally presented, for not one but two years.
On Wednesday evening at the Savannah Rapids Pavilion, Kouvaris, 66, was one of five honored with a plaque for reaching this milestone achieved by just 31 members of the press corps.
“Your vivid descriptions, accurate reporting and heartfelt love of golf and the individuals who play the game will serve as an inspiration for all time. These accounts from Augusta National have helped make the Masters one of the great sporting traditions in the world,” are the words inscribed on a permanent plaque in the Masters media center with a roll call of this exclusive club.
Kouvaris also received his own parking spot in the press lot at Augusta National.
“A friend of mine texted me a picture of my sign on Sunday and told me I’m in the front row,” he said.
Kouvaris covered his first Masters in 1979 at age 23 when he was working for Channel 2 in Charleston, South Carolina, and his credential followed him to Jacksonville when he joined WJXT-Channel 4. He missed the tournament once in 1982, but for good reason – his oldest daughter was born during the final round. Instead, Kouvaris watched the broadcast on a small black-and-white TV in the hospital. He covered his 40th Masters in 2020 for the Florida Times Union.
“The first one was pretty special,” Kouvaris said of seeing first-time participant Fuzzy Zoeller win in a playoff. “I was standing behind the green at 18 when Jack Nicklaus won in 1986. One year I was standing with a friend at 13 and he asked me, ‘Where should I propose to my fiancée?’ I said, ‘Right here.’ He brought her over and dropped to one knee and proposed to her right there. It turned out to be David Duval’s sister.”
Another thrill included Duval, at the time ranked No. 1 in the world, who invited Kouvaris to caddie for him in the Par 3 Contest.
But perhaps his favorite story to tell is about the time around five years ago when he was standing under the famed oak tree that shades the clubhouse, smoking a cigar. Kouvaris noticed a man, who turned out to be with the Argentina Golf Association, standing nearby who gave a nod of approval. Kouvaris always carries two cigars for just such occasions. He pulled out the other one, cut the end and lit it for his new friend. Before long, he realized that his fellow cigar smoker didn’t speak English. No words were needed to express that they were having the time of their lives.
Kouvaris delivers the kicker to this story: “A year later, I come out of the clubhouse and walked under the tree and there was the same man waiting for me with a cigar to return the favor,” he recalled. “That doesn’t happen anywhere else. That doesn’t happen at the Daytona 500, that doesn’t happen at the Super Bowl, that doesn’t happen at the World Series. That only happens at Augusta National. It’s those kinds of memories that stick with me.”
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Only 14 months removed from a horrific single-car accident in Los Angeles, Tiger Woods is healed, rested, and ready for the 86th Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club.
It’ll be the first time we see him play since he paired with his son Charlie at the PNC Championship in November.
This will be his first competitive round of golf since the five-time Masters champion closed with a 4-over 76, which tied his highest score ever in the Masters as a professional. That 76 included a 10 at the par-3 12th, his highest score ever recorded on any hole in his PGA Tour career. He did close his round with four consecutive birdies on Nos. 15, 16, 17, and 18.
When does Tiger Woods play?
Thursday morning, alongside playing partners Louis Oosthuizen and Joaquin Niemann, Woods will stick a tee in the ground on the first hole to resume his Masters career.
That trio makes up Group 14, which has the tee at No. 1 at 10:34 a.m. ET. On Friday, they are Group 29 and will tee off on the first hole at 1:41 p.m. ET.
What TV channel is the Masters on?
ESPN has the main TV coverage of the first two rounds starting at 3 p.m. ESPN will have a replay of the first round at 8 p.m. the first two days.
ESPN’s SportsCenter and the CBS Sports Network will have plenty of golf action throughout the morning.
On the weekends, CBS has live over-the-air network coverage for the 67th consecutive year. CBS comes on the air at 3 p.m. ET both days.
So Tiger will be done before ESPN comes on?
That’s a true statement, barring any sort of delay. Woods starts at 10:34 a.m. ET so he’ll be finishing right when ESPN starts its live coverage Thursday, so have your phone, tablet, or smart TV ready.
How do I watch the live streams of the Masters?
Masters.com and the Masters app will have about 12 hours of live coverage the first two days, as will ESPN+. On either platform, you can watch featured groups, featured holes, and Amen Corner.
The live streams on Thursday and Friday start at 7:40 a.m. ET and go till 7:30 p.m. ET. Over the weekend, the live streams start at 10 a.m. ET. and go till 7 p.m. ET. Sunday, keep the live stream on Masters.com going past 7 p.m. so you can watch the Green Jacket Ceremony live.
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