Tiger Woods struggles with putting, shoots a 1-over 73 in opening round of Masters

After one day at the Masters, Tiger Woods had a simple message.

“You know,” Woods said. “I’m still in it.”

Woods, who was making his return to professional golf after a two-month break, shot a 1-over 73 Thursday, finishing the day in a tie for 41st, 10 shots back of leader Jordan Spieth.

Woods finished with three bogeys and two birdies on the front nine before closing with an even-par 36 on the back nine. His short game, which looked erratic earlier this year, was vastly improved. But he couldn’t make enough putts on Augusta’s difficult greens.

“Our entire group was really struggling at the greens,” Woods said. “We were talking about how slow they were today. We had a hard time hitting the putts hard enough. You’ve got to give respect to the downhill putts, but they weren’t rolling out.”

This story was originally published April 9, 2015 at 7:21 PM with the headline "Tiger Woods struggles with putting, shoots a 1-over 73 in opening round of Masters."