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From the walking to the actual striking of the golf ball, nothing came easy to Tiger Woods in his first round of the 2023 Masters. Ultimately signing for a 2-over 74, the 15-time major champion finds himself outside the top 50 of the leaderboard and nine strokes off the early clubhouse lead set by playing partner Viktor Hovland (-7).

"I didn't have very good speed [on the greens] early," said Woods. "I had two three-putts, and consequently I'm a couple over par. I didn't hit my irons close enough today. I didn't give myself very good looks. Need to do a better job of that going forward to hopefully get myself back in this tournament."

The stress came immediately for the 47-year-old. Required to drip a pair of 4 footers just to save par on the first two holes, Woods delayed the inevitable. The first dropped shot of the day came on the short par-4 3rd when he needed four shots from 50 yards in the middle of the fairway.

It wouldn't get any better from there. After finding the putting surface on the difficult par-4 5th, Woods 3-putted for bogey and followed that two holes later with another 3-putt. Finding himself 3 over through seven, the five-time Masters winner temporarily eased his suffering with a tap-in birdie on the par-5 8th.

Pars sandwiching the turn saw Woods enter Amen Corner at 2 over and only four strokes off those in second place. This as Hovland was busy running away from the entire field, not just Woods.

Near-disaster struck on the 11th when, from the middle of the fairway, Tiger flared his approach wide right. He dumped his third into the greenside bunker and was faced with a must-make bogey from roughly 10 feet. The putt dropped, but so did Woods' name on the leaderboard as he was now nine behind the Norwegian.

"The wind laid down just a little bit, and I hit a good 5-iron in there right where I was looking," Woods said of his approach into 11. "We were trying to keep it short of that bunker so we have an angle. The wind just laid down. I missed a spot by two yards, and it careened off the edge of the slope and gave myself basically no shot."

Two pars rounded out Woods' trip to Amen Corner as the gear shift remained in neutral adhering to the theme of most of his round. Finally, some life was injected into Woods' hobble on the par-5 15th when he converted an unlikely birdie opportunity from 30 feet to get back to 2 over.

A sauteed butter cut on the par-3 16th from the tee set up another scoring chance for Woods. From 10 feet below the hole, the 2019 champion connected and all of a sudden some sizzle percolated around an otherwise bland round. After giving his birdie bid a run on 17, Woods' caught an unfortunate lie in the fairway on 18. 

With his feet in the bunker and ball well above his bottom half, Woods slashed his approach into the greenside bunker. One last bogey put the finishing touches on Woods' 74 and first competitive round since the final day at the 2023 Genesis Invitational in February.

History is now stacked against Woods as the last 17 Masters champions found themselves in red figures after Round 1. While claiming his sixth green jacket and tying Jack Nicklaus' record seems unlikely -- as it was entering the week -- it's another record which Woods may have his eyes on now.

Having previously never missed the cut as a professional, Woods entered the week riding 22 straight made cuts at Augusta National. He now aims to tie longest streak ever (23) held by Bernhard Langer and Woods' good friend Fred Couples. In order to accomplish that goal, he will need to put an end to a current four-round over-par streak dating back to 2022.

"Today was the opportune time to get the ball -- get the round under par, and I didn't do that today," said Woods. "Most of the guys are going low today. This was the day to do it. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be a little bit better, a little bit sharper, and kind of inch my way through it. This is going to be an interesting finish to the tournament with the weather coming in. If I can just kind of hang in there, maybe kind of inch my way back, hopefully it will be positive towards the end."

Watch all four rounds of the 2023 Masters starting Thursday with Masters Live as we follow the best golfers in the world throughout Augusta National with Featured Groups, check in at the famed Amen Corner and see leaders round the turn on holes 15 & 16. Watch live on CBSSports.com, the CBS Sports App and Paramount+.