2012 Masters Results 1st Rd: Tiger Woods & Rory McIlroy Struggle

The first major tournament of the year got off to a shake start for Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy. While Tiger struggled with his new swing, McIlroy simply couldn’t get it going consistently. Nevertheless, both Woods and McIlroy were able to play through the difficulties, positioning themselves to make a move on the weekend.

Woods finished the day with an even-par, round of 72, with three birdies and three bogies. The former world No.1 struggled significantly with the driver, pushing the ball left time and time again. After the round, Woods attributed his troubles to the transitional period he’s currently in, as he tries to restructure his swing.

“I squeezed a lot out of that round,” Woods said after hitting just 6 of 14 fairways. “I didn’t hit it very good at all. Some of my old stuff from a few years ago [cropped up in his swing]. The Hank (Haney, his old coach) backswing was the new downswing. I’ve had to try and kind of work through. Every now and again, it pops up, and today it popped up a little bit… Now I’m struggling with it all the way around with all the clubs.”

For McIlroy, things got off to a dreadful start. With so much talk about his collapse last year at Augusta, the reigning U.S. Open champion started the day with a double-bogey at the first. McIlroy would eventually figure tings out, and was able to go into the clubhouse on a positive note.

“I didn’t feel like I had my best, especially starting with a six, but to finish under par, I’m very pleased,” he said. All things considered, the 22-year-old from Northern Ireland will tee off the second round at -1 and with a chance to make a move with a solid second round on Friday. When he arrived at the 10^th tee, everyone was waiting to see how he was going to play it, considering that was the beginning of the end for him last year.

“I wasn’t going left that’s for sure,” McIlroy said with a smile. “I tried to play it differently, playing a 3-wood off the tee and tuning it. It didn’t quite turn enough but I made a good solid four and moved on.”

The current 2012 Masters Results Leaderboard after 1^st round goes as follows:

• 1 (-5) Lee Westwood
• T2 (-4) Louis Oosthuizen
• T2             Peter Hanson
• T4 (-3) Ben Crane
• T4             Jason Dufner
• T4             Bubba Watson
• T4             Paul Lawrie
• T4             Miguel Angel Jimenez
• T4             Francesco Molinari
• T10 (-2) Zach Johnson
• T10             Jim Furyk
• T10             Vijay Singh
• T10             Scott Stallings
• T14 (-1) Patrick Cantlay
• T14             Kevin Na
• T14             Angel Cabrera
• T14             Rory McIlroy
• T14             Ross Fisher
• T14             Stewart Cink
• T14             Padraig Harrington
• T14             Steve Stricker
• T14             Aaron Baddeley
• T14             Hideki Matsuyama
• T14             Matt Kuchar
• T14             Henrik Stenson
• T14             Keegan Bradley
• T14             Nick Watney
• T28 (EVEN) Kevin Chappell
• T28             Ian Poulter
• T28             Jonathan Byrd
• T28             Charles Howell III
• T28             Bernhard Langer
• T28             Webb Simpson
• T28             Brandt Snedeker
• T28             Mike Weir
• T28             Rory Sabbatini
• T28             Fred Couples
• T28             Sergio Garcia
• T28             Hunter Mahan
• T28             Martin Kaymer
• T28             Bill Haas
• T28             Justin Rose
• T28             Charl Schwartzel
• T28             Tiger Woods