The day after his stunning return to competition, thirteen months after his car accident, Tiger Woods experienced a second round of sawtooth at the Augusta Masters, temporarily pointing nine shots behind Scottie Scheffler, author of a narrow breakaway . The winner of 15 Majors, in search of a 6th coronation in Georgia to equal Jack Nicklaus’ record, returned a card of 74, two strokes over par. Which, combined with his -1 the day before, makes him total +1, for a slide to 19th position. An obviously unsatisfactory performance for the one who assured to be able to win, for his return after 17 months without competition – his last tournament was the 2020 edition of the Masters postponed to November due to the Covid-19 -, but all in all not as catastrophic as its start let predict. During this time, a strange bird flew over the debates, in the person of Scottie Scheffler. The 25-year-old American, who remains on three victories in Phoenix, at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, in the World Championship (WGC) of match-play, and celebrates in Augusta his status as world N.1, with the objective to win a first Grand Slam, was formidable. He chained four birdies between N.12 and N.16 (seven in total making forget two bogeys in two of the first three holes), for a score of 67 (-5) and a total of -8.
He is provisionally ahead by five lengths of a quartet made up of the defending champion, the Japanese Hideki Matsuyama, the South Korean Sungjae Im, leader the day before, the Irishman Shane Lowry and the South African Charl Schwartzel, winner of the event in 2011. Finally, even if that did not allow him to cross the cut, like Brooks Koepka, Jordan Spieth, Xander Schauffele or even Bryson DeChambeau, the unknown Stewart Cink distinguished himself by signing the first hole- one of the week on N.16.
