Fifteen-time major championship winner Tiger Woods is back in his element. Playing in a major tournament, aiming for his 16th major trophy.

Woods expressed his gratitude to be able to swing his golf club again following a horrific car accident last February that severely injured his leg.

“If you would have seen how my leg looked to where it’s at now, the pictures — some of the guys know; they’ve seen the pictures — to see where I’ve been, to get from there to here, it was no easy task,” Woods said.

The 46-year-old also reminisced how different the situation in The Masters was three years ago when he won his last major trophy.

“The place was electric,” Woods recalled. “I hadn’t played like this since ’19 when I won because in ’20 we had COVID and we had no one here, and I didn’t play last year. So to have the patrons fully out and to have that type of energy out there was awesome to feel.”

Woods came only a few feet of making an ace on the par-3 sixth. He managed to make a 30-foot birdie on the par-3 16th. And, he also made it to the top of the green at the par-5 13th for an easy two-putt.

Fellow pro golfer Rory McIlroy remembered well how competitive Woods is, as both of them faced each other in the Final 16 back at the 2019 WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play.

“He likes to prove people wrong,” McIlroy said earlier this month.

Woods knew that he could do better in the first round, but he chose to move forward and focus on the next round.

“This is only one round. We’ve got three more to go. There’s a long way to go and a lot of shots to be played,” he said.