Masters is all about Tiger Woods, even with so many subplots

The gates to Augusta National opened a little after 7 a.m. Monday. It didn't feel as though Masters week started until just before 3 p.m.

Tiger Woods was on the first tee, and this was no time to be shopping for shirts and caps or standing in line for pimento cheese sandwiches. That much was evident by the biggest golf crowd this year on one hole except for the circus par-3 16th at the Phoenix Open.

Woods consumes attention at every Masters he plays. It's been that way since the first of his five green jackets he won 25 years ago.

Now it's even greater under these unusual circumstances.

He hasn't played against the best in 17 months, not since the 2020 Masters in November, while recovering from a car crash that once looked as though it might end his career. And still to be determined is whether he plays this one.