AUGUSTA – It is the fifth-year anniversary of Tiger Woods winning his fifth green jacket, a stunning one-stroke victory over Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and Xander Schauffele in 2019. It came 14 years after his fourth Masters win in 2005.
In the past 20 years, there have been only two golfers to win the Masters after being outside the top 10 following the first round. They were both Woods.
Woods shot a first-round 70 in 2019 and was tied for 11th, four strokes behind Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau.
“Thank you for telling me I started outside the top 10,” Woods joked to the Augusta National moderator of his press conference on Tuesday.
Woods shot an opening-round 74 in 2005 before winning a playoff over Chris DiMarco. He was tied for 33rd, seven strokes behind DiMarco.
End of an era
This will be the 40th and final Masters for CBS broadcaster Verne Lundquist.
Lundquist has had many memorable calls over his career, including Jack Nicklaus’ birdie on No. 17 on the way to winning in 1986 and Woods’ birdie chip on No. 16 on the way to winning in 2005.
Of the latter call, Lundquist famously said: “Oh wow! In your life have you seen anything like that?”
“Yeah, I’ve heard that call a couple times,” Woods said with a smile Tuesday. “He has just an amazing ability to bring in the audience and describe a situation and just be able to narrate it in a way that is poetic but it’s also -- he describes it with emotionality. He just draws the audience in.”
No cell phones
There is a no cell phones policy at Augusta National.
It’s one tradition of the Masters that has remained even as other PGA Tour events have allowed the use of phones during the tournament.
Jordan Spieth was asked about the absence of phones on Tuesday. The former champion understands that fans with phones can help promote the game and add to the overall experience. But for one week, it is “amazing” to be without them.
“It’s nice for a week, but if it was every tournament … our growth would be limited,” Spieth said. “But what’s really cool about it is you just feel that everyone’s very, very present. They’re not focused on if they got the right shot that they’re sending and maybe they don’t even know where your ball went, right? And here the patrons are -- just like at the Open Championship, they’re just highly educated, they’re very involved, they’re very present.
“So you end up having those kind of roars and stuff that may be similar but might not be, you know, with the phones out. I think from a player in the ropes, which is the way you asked me the question, it’s very nice because you feel like everyone’s there with you all the time.”
Ailing back won’t prevent Couples from playing
Fred Couples is still having back troubles from the fall he took at the PGA Tour Champions event in Sioux Falls, S.D., nearly four years ago. But it would take a lot of pain to prevent him from making his 39th Masters start.
“My back from the old actually feels pretty well,” said Couples, who has dealt with back problems for much of his career. “It’s just a different place. Up on the right side, probably halfway back.”
Couples had a cortisone shot last week – “several of them,” he said – and brought along Dr. Chad Beauchamp, founder of the Southern California physical therapy company RepaiSI, to help keep his back loose.
The 1993 Masters champion has done everything possible to make sure he was physically able to play this week. He withdrew from his hometown tournament, the Hoag Classic in Newport Beach, Calif., after one round. He withdrew from the Galleri Classic in Mission Hills, Calif., last week.
“I didn’t even touch a club from Thursday until Sunday here because I didn’t even want to move,” Couples said. “And I played Sunday – not very well, but I got it around.”
The back injury has curtailed some of Couples’ distance off the tee. He played a practice round on Tuesday with buddies Tiger Woods and Justin Thomas and said, “I was being outdriven by I don’t even know how far.”
Couples is curious to see how the back holds up and how he performs on Thursday.
“The last thing I want to do is come out and embarrass myself by a bad score,” he said. “I know I can hit the ball. I don’t know if that’s a 73 or 75, but I’m not shooting 80. There’s no way. Of course I can, but I’m not planning on it.”
Honorary starters
The Masters will officially get underway on Thursday with the honorary starter ceremony. Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Tom Watson will hit from No. 1 at 7:40 a.m. The three combined to win 11 Masters Tournaments and have made 140 Tournament appearances.
The custom of having Honorary Starters began in 1963 with Jock Hutchison (1963-1973) and Fred McLeod (1963-1976) performing the duties. Byron Nelson (1981-2001, non-consecutive), Gene Sarazen (1981-1999), Ken Venturi (1983), Sam Snead (1984-2002), Arnold Palmer (2007-2016), Nicklaus (2010-present), Player (2012-present), Lee Elder (2021) and Watson (2022-present) have continued the tradition.
-Stan Awtrey and Chris Vivlamore contributed to this report.
