Patience now Woods' ally

Tiger Woods tries to coax his putt into the hole on No. 2. It didn't work. His try for a birdie went wideJonathan Ernst/Chronicle Staff

By Ward Clayton
Chronicle Staff

As Tiger Woods left the 12th green on Thursday, what had just occurred could have been a recipe for disaster.

Double bogey on No. 10. Triple bogey on No. 12. Woods was 5-over par for the day. The pre-tournament favorite was reeling.

Or was he? He rallied to birdie Nos. 13 and 15 to shoot a 3-over-par 75 and stay within seven strokes of first-round leader Dennis Paulson.

``I told (caddie) Stevie (Williams) walking off 12, `If we just get to 2-over par or 3-over par, we're fine,''' Woods said. ``We'll just keep plugging along and make the putts when we can. Give myself legitimate chances and we'll be all right.''

A younger Woods may have exploded after the early part of the back nine. Woods bunkered his approach on No. 10, blasted out and three-putted for double bogey. On No. 12, he misjudged the wind and spun an 8-iron back into Rae's Creek. He pitched to 12 feet and three-putted for a 6. It was Woods' first triple bogey in tournament play since an 8 on the difficult par-5 17th hole at Valderrama, Spain, in the American Express Championships last November.

Tiger Woods tees off at No. 4 during the first round of the Masters Tournament Thursday. He bogeyed the hole.Jonathan Ernst/Chronicle Staff

``Obviously you don't have to go out there and be reckless and try to get it all back at once,'' Woods said. ``I used to do that, and I was guilty of that. I wasn't guilty of that all the time, but at times when I got impatient, yeah.''

``I think it was a gradual change.''

Woods explained that the windy conditions made it hard to predict how to play similar clubs on different holes. He hit a knock-down 8-iron from 145 yards into Rae's Creek on No. 12 and blew an 8-iron second shot from 197 yards over the green on the par-5 13th.

Audio •"It's not easy out there" for Tiger Woods

Woods was so cool that upon finishing his round he agreed to visit the press building, an unusual occurrence for someone over par.

``It's a long tournament, a long week,'' Woods said. ``And there's a lot of things that can happen out there. I'm not the only one who can make mistakes. I just need to limit my own mistakes to a minimum.''

It was his second-highest score in 19 Masters rounds, trailing only a 77 shot in the third round of 1995 when he made his amateur debut. It was Woods' ninth straight round of 70 or above here, dating back to his record 1997 victory.