Masters 2012 Golf Leaderboard: Tiger Woods Finishes With Par-72, Five Lead With 3-Under

Tiger Woods, chasing his fifth Masters green jacket, finished with a par-72 Thusday, the first day of the Masters 2012 golf tournament at Augusta National.

Woods came into the first day as the favorite to win the prestigious golf tournament, but had an inconsistent first round that landed him at tied for 28^th place with some golfers still continuing their rounds on Thursday.

His first two drives of the day were not very good, but Woods managed to par on both strong second and third shots. He managed a few nice shots during the opening round -- he birdied the 3^rd, 8^th, and 10^th -- but late bogeys doomed him to an even round. Woods bogeyed the 17^th and 18^th holes -- both par-4s -- that dropped him in the leaderboard, but the first round could be looked at as a win for the 36-year-old.

Woods, who hasn't won a major since 2008, notoriously starts slow during big events -- a detail Hank Haney hammers home in his book on working with Tiger -- but he is still in a good place after the first day. He is known for taking it up an extra notch in the later rounds, especially the final round, but he needs to be within striking distance if he hopes to win at Augusta this year.

Henrik Stenson looked poised to open up a big lead after the first round, but stumbled badly on No. 18 with a quadruple-bogey 8. That dropped him from the clear leader spot at 6-under par to a 1-under 71. Stenson will be a big player the rest of the tournament if he can keep up nailing down eagles, but massive miscues like his on No. 18 cannot happen.

The leaderboard currently features a five-way tie at 3-under par. Paul Lawrie, Miguel Angel Jimenez, and Francesco Molinari have all finished their day, while Lee Westwood and Bubba Watson are still competing as of 4:30 p.m. EST.

There is a four-way tied for 6^th place at 2-under par with Louis Oosthuizen, Zach Johnson, Ben Crane, and Jason Dufner all yet to finish their first round of the 2012 Masters.