Associated Press
    Not exactly the Tiger of old.
    Not completely terrible, either.
    Tiger Woods is probably not going to win the Masters, unless something weird even by his standards happens over the next three rounds. His protestations aside, nine shots is an awful long way to come back for a player whose game is just beginning to come back.
    But after a round Thursday where his short game looked much like the Tiger of days past, he walked off the 18th green with a smile on his face and a bit of a bounce in his step. At the very least, Woods has a realistic chance of completing all four rounds of a tournament for the first time since last year's British Open.
    And that's progress, at least in the way Woods is measured these days.
    "I felt good," Woods said after a shooting a 1-over 73 despite hitting the ball in places around Augusta National he hasn't seen before. "I felt I hit the ball well enough to shoot 3-under-par."
    Forgive Woods if he was somewhat in denial. Just finishing rounds in the past few years has been an issue, so he had to be breathing a sigh of relief when he sat down at the scorer's table and signed for his 73.
    And the fact is he's not only nine shots behind first round leader Jordan Spieth, but couldn't break par on a day made for scoring. Conditions were so benign that nearly a third of the 97-man field finished under par, including 65-year-old Tom Watson, who beat Woods by two shots with a 71.