Five things from The Masters: Spieth gets hot; Tiger hovers; Sergio tanks - News - DailyTidings.com - Ashland, OR

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Reporting from The Masters: Tiger starts strong; still no rowdiness at Augusta Tiger Woods blasts out from the sand during the opening round of The Masters. Michael Holahan/The Augusta Chronicle Thursday Apr 5, 2018 at 10:05 AM Apr 5, 2018 at 11:03 AM Tim Schmitt/GateHouse Media After a windy, overcast day on Wednesday, the skies have parted and the sun is shining at Augusta National. Here's a link to the live leaderboard. Here are four things to know with play underway at The Masters: 1. Tiger, Tiger and more Tiger The galleries following Tiger Woods have been unworldly, even for his opening round. And after sticking a birdie on the third hole, the buzz intensified. He slipped a bit, however, by stringing bogeys together on the next two holes. He later a bogey on No. 11 and then plunked it in the water on the following hole. Here's a link to the live leaderboard. He's as focused as ever, but it's clear that Tiger is enjoying the limelight more than in years past. As veteran Augusta Chronicle scribe David Westin writes in this piece: During his comeback, the 42-year-old has been more engaged on and off the course with fans. He’s also opened up with the media. The longer Woods stays in contention, the more eyeballs will be tuning into coverage of the event. Click here for a slideshow of the opening round, including some of Tiger's shots. 2. True hero living out a dream Sure, it might seem stressful, standing over a big putt. But Matt Parziale knows what real pressure is. Parziale won the U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship last October, but his full-time job is putting out fires in his hometown of Brockton, Mass. We're not talking metaphoric, tough-day-on-the-links fires here. Real working fires. Parziale played with Tiger Woods on Wednesday, as this story explains, and he had a moment during Thursday's opening round, when he fought back to even with birdies on the fourth and fifth holes. His day didn't finish as he would have hoped — he played a nine-hole stretch at 8-over-par — but he still did his hometown proud. 3. The Tour is changing, but this is still Augusta After a number of incidents at PGA Tour events over the last few months, some have worried that rowdy behavior could infiltrate Augusta National. That hasn't been the case at Augusta National, however, and there might be one good reason: “I think given how hard it is to get in at Augusta, I think maybe the fans are a little more cautious of not wanting to be thrown out,” said Henrik Stenson. Here's more on the story from Scott Michaux. 4. TV crews to use shot tracers on broadcast Some things stay the same at Augusta, but broadcast television isn't one of them. Shot-tracing technology has been used at other events, but never at The Masters, at least until now; both CBS and ESPN have access to the feature for this year's tournament, but only on specific holes. Here's more of the story, from Augusta.com.   Tweets by TMSGateHouse