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CHRISTINE BRENNAN
Tiger Woods

'He's an inspiration to us all': Tiger Woods has magical moments in Masters return | Opinion

Tiger made it on the leaderboard during his round, but this was clearly a grind getting around Augusta National.

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Something was in the air, a murmur at first, a rush of sound far away from the first tee, growing louder by the second. Hundreds of heads turned. The galleries were as large as they could ever be at Augusta National, packed 20-25 deep, waiting for one person, and that person, Tiger Woods, was on his way, magically enough, from the practice green to the tee box of the 2022 Masters.

Less than 14 months earlier, he crashed his SUV and thought he might lose his right leg or never walk again. Now, here he was, striding confidently, albeit with a persistent limp, in front of a massive Thursday morning audience to begin his first official round of golf since he last teed off here in the November 2020 Masters.