How Tiger Woods fared in first round of 2023 Masters originally appeared on NBC Sports Bayarea
Midway through the second round at the 2023 Masters, Tiger Woods is sitting in a tie for 50th place and in the mix to make the cut.
After an up-and-down opening round on Thursday that ended in 54th place with a score of 2-over 74, the five-time Masters champion approached the second round with a much steadier hand.
He parred each of his first six holes on Friday, capped off by a drive that nearly ended in a hole-in-one.
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Woods ran into a little bit of trouble on the seventh hole and recorded his first bogey of the day. Luckily, he managed to avoid letting that snowball and even recovered with a birdie on the very next hole.
Heading into the back nine, Woods parred holes 10 and 11 and put himself in good position to contend for a spot in the final two days of competition.
However, that momentum was quickly haulted when two large pine trees fell at Augusta National. No injuries were reported, but play was suspended until Saturday morning.
Woods is one of 40 golfers -- out of a field of 86 -- that still has to finish the second round of play.
Last year, Woods got off to a promising start with a 1-under score in the opening round. He followed that up with a 2-over score in the second round, securing him a spot in the final two rounds. Those final rounds were not kind to Woods, who shot 7-over on Saturday and Sunday to bring him to 13-over for the tournament.
Players must be in the top 50 (counting ties) through 36 holes to make the Masters cut. After breaking even through the second set of 11 holes, Woods walked into the clubhouse in a tie just under the cut.
The 47-year-old has never missed the cut at the Masters as a professional. He's looking to tie fellow champions Fred Couples and Gary Player who share the record for most consecutive Masters cuts made at 23.
While Woods improved his position to keep his weekend going, the fellow members of his group took a dip down the leaderboard. Viktor Hovland was in a three-way tie for the lead heading into Friday's round, but shot 1-over and dropped three places to join Collin Morikawa in a tie for fourth. Meanwhile, Xander Schauffele fell 23 places from sixth to a tie for 29th.
The second round is scheduled to resume at 8 a.m. on Saturday.
