Tiger Woods has already exceeded expectations at the Masters, plus Opening Day surprises

Good morning and happy Friday everyone! Hope you're doing well.

Let's get right to it.

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Good morning to everyone but especially to...

TIGER WOODS

Tiger Woods is back, and he wasted no time letting everyone know it. Playing his first competitive golf round in nearly a year and a half, Woods fired an opening-round 1-under 71 at the Masters and is four shots back of leader Sungjae Im (more on him in a bit).

The results, of course, are far less important than the fact that Tiger is playing at all, but the result was extremely impressive nonetheless:

Three birdies, two bogeys, 13 parsHit nine of 18 greens in regulationHit eight of 14 fairways

Woods' driver was inconsistent at best, but he was, for the most part, able to get himself out of trouble with some crafty irons and wedges and important putts. In his strong opening round, Woods proved two things, writes our golf expert Kyle Porter.

Porter: "He can make the cut and work his way into contention at this tournament. ... Tiger can and will beat enough of this field through 36 holes to engender an iota of hope going into Saturday morning. ... He also proved something more meaningful than he's proved seemingly every year since he won this tournament 25 years ago. Woods clawed his way back from a hospital bed to a wheelchair to laying on his back in his palatial backyard listening to the birds chirp to blocking those same creatures out on Thursday as he unloaded every ounce of intellect, stubbornness and skill he has remaining in his body."

The big question now is how Tiger recovers ahead of his 1:41 p.m. tee time today. He looked pretty tired after yesterday's opening round, which was to be expected. But he looked happy, too, and that was awesome to see.