tw.jpg
Getty Images

Good morning and happy Friday everyone! Hope you're doing well.

Let's get right to it.

This is the article version of the CBS Sports HQ AM morning newsletter. To sign up and get this in your inbox, fill out the information below.


Good morning to everyone but especially to...

TIGER WOODS

Tiger Woods is back, and he wasted no time letting everyone know it. Playing his first competitive golf round in nearly a year and a half, Woods fired an opening-round 1-under 71 at the Masters and is four shots back of leader Sungjae Im (more on him in a bit).

The results, of course, are far less important than the fact that Tiger is playing at all, but the result was extremely impressive nonetheless:

  • Three birdies, two bogeys, 13 pars
  • Hit nine of 18 greens in regulation
  • Hit eight of 14 fairways

Woods' driver was inconsistent at best, but he was, for the most part, able to get himself out of trouble with some crafty irons and wedges and important putts. In his strong opening round, Woods proved two things, writes our golf expert Kyle Porter.

  • Porter: "He can make the cut and work his way into contention at this tournament. ... Tiger can and will beat enough of this field through 36 holes to engender an iota of hope going into Saturday morning. ... He also proved something more meaningful than he's proved seemingly every year since he won this tournament 25 years ago. Woods clawed his way back from a hospital bed to a wheelchair to laying on his back in his palatial backyard listening to the birds chirp to blocking those same creatures out on Thursday as he unloaded every ounce of intellect, stubbornness and skill he has remaining in his body."

The big question now is how Tiger recovers ahead of his 1:41 p.m. tee time today. He looked pretty tired after yesterday's opening round, which was to be expected. But he looked happy, too, and that was awesome to see.

Honorable mentions

Elsewhere at the Masters: Sungjae Im (-5) leads after first round while some big names struggle 🏌

im.jpg
Getty Images

Sungjae Im birdied his first three holes and eagled the par-5 13th as part of an opening-round 5-under 67 to take a one-stroke lead at the Masters. Here's the top of the leaderboard after one day:

  • Sungjae Im (-5)
  • Cameron Smith (-4)
  • Danny Willett, Joaquin Niemann, Scottie Scheffler and Dustin Johnson (-3)

On the other end of things, plenty of big names struggled. Betting favorite Jon Rahm shot 74, and both Bryson DeChambeau and Justin Thomas were even worse at 76. It wasn't exactly pretty, writes our golf writer Kyle Boone.

  • Boone: "Rollercoaster round for one of golf's most polarizing players in DeChambeau, but did you expect anything different? He said earlier in the week he's only about 80% healthy after dealing with injuries of late, and he played like it with bogeys at 4, 10, 15 and 18 as well as a double at 14. As for Thomas, the stars seemed to be aligning for him after strong showings at the Valspar Championship, Genesis Invitational and Phoenix Open. But they just ... did not in Round 1."

One player who didn't draw a ton of headlines yesterday? Scottie Scheffler. Somehow the world No. 1, even after three wins in the last two months, continues to fly under the radar, as he did with a 3-under 69 in the first round. He's just fine with that, though, writes Porter.

  • Porter: "The No. 1 player in the world came in with almost zero fanfare -- partly because of Woods and partly because he was never tabbed as a surefire No. 1 player in the world -- but he finds himself in the same position he's often found himself in at majors. In his last six major championships, Scheffler has finished in the top 10 four times and in the top 20 in all six."

Here are all the tee times for today's second round, and here's how you can watch the action.

MLB Opening Day: Ohtani shines; you'll never guess who hit the first home run of the year ⚾

shohei.jpg
Getty Images

Opening Day has come and gone and it was awesome. Here's what you may have missed:

Today, 16 more teams open their season, including the Red Sox and the Yankees, whose game scheduled for yesterday was postponed due to weather. Meanwhile, the top two favorite to win the World Series -- the Dodgers (+500 at Caesars Sportsbook) and the Blue Jays (+900) -- also open their seasons at the Rockies and against the Rangers, respectively.

How Tom Brady almost joined the Dolphins... and why he didn't 🏈

tombradycbs.jpg
USATSI

Tom Brady's decision to unretire and rejoin the Buccaneers has been arguably the biggest storyline in an offseason full of them. But according to a recent report, Brady's comeback was almost even wilder: He almost ended up with the Dolphins.

  • The Dolphins had hoped to bring in Brady as a minority owner.
  • Then Miami planned to trade with the Buccaneers to add Brady as a player.
  • In this scenario, the Dolphins also would have brought in Sean Payton as head coach.

It all fell apart in a matter of hours, though, explains our NFL expert John Breech:

  • Breech: "The Dolphins were hoping to make an announcement about Brady joining the ownership group the week before the Super Bowl, but before that could happen, the team was hit with the Brian Flores lawsuit, which was filed the same day Brady announced his retirement (Feb. 1). ... In the lawsuit, Flores alleges that Dolphins owner Stephen Ross tried to get him to tamper with another team's quarterback by meeting with the unnamed QB on Ross' yacht. [According to reports], the unnamed quarterback in the lawsuit was Brady and the crazy part is that Brady actually showed up for the meeting even though Flores didn't."

What we're watching this weekend 📺

We're watching the Masters all weekend, of course. Here's the schedule and TV/streaming info. But we're also watching...

Friday

🏀 Bucks at Pistons, 4 p.m. on NBA TV
🏀 Suns at Jazz, 7:30 p.m. on NBA TV

Saturday

🏒 Capitals at Penguins, 3 p.m. on ABC
Red Sox at Yankees, 4:05 p.m. on FS1
🏀 Pelicans at Grizzlies, 6 p.m. on NBA TV
🏀 Warriors at Spurs, 8:30 p.m. on NBA TV

Sunday

🏒 Bruins at Capitals, 1:30 p.m. on TNT
🏀 Pacers at Nets, 3:30 p.m. on ESPN
🏀 Celtics at Grizzlies, 7 p.m. on TNT
🏀 Warriors at Pelicans, 9:30 p.m. on TNT