Branden Grace finished one over par for his opening round after recovering from a sluggish start on Thursday, writes WADE PRETORIUS.
Grace finished alongside Tiger Woods in the group at +1 through 18 at The Masters.
The 29-year-old South African was quickly playing catchup at Augusta National after opening with a bogey and dropping shots on both of the front nine’s par threes. A birdie at 7th and two pars to close out his outward nine helped reduce the damage as the leaders moved the target to -4.
Grace, whose best finish in a Major was back in 2015 at the PGA Championship, then steadied the ship with pars at the 10th and 11th before his second birdie of the day at the par-three 12th; a hole that would cost Woods one shot after the four-time Masters winner found the hazard off the tee. The 42-year-old made the most of a lucky break when his pitch from short of the hazard stayed up on the green by rolling in his length bogey putt.
Crucially, Grace then did what Woods ― playing in front of him ― could not and played the two par fives coming home in -2 with a pair of solid birdies. The downside for Grace is the dropped shot at the 14th, the hardest hole on the course.
Woods, however, turned his day around with a birdie there and made another at the short 16th to limit his losses on a day that included a number of wild drives.
‘It felt great to be back out there again,’ said Woods, playing here for the first time since 2015. ‘I only came up here the last couple of years just to have food [at the Champions dinner]. It’s nice that I came out to play and know that I had the golf course in front of me.
‘It was a day when the wind was puffing up, changing different directions. I didn’t play the par 5s very well today.’
Grace was heading for an even-par 72 with two pars that followed his birdie on the 15th but a closing bogey saw him sign for a 73.
Photo: Andrew Redington/Getty Images
