Overheard at Augusta National Tuesday

Tiger Woods: (who played a practice round with Fred Couples, Tuesday morning)

“This is my 18th year, so I’ve spent just about half my life playing this tournament. It’s understanding how to play this golf course, where to miss it. I’ve gotten just umpteen amount of advice from guys who have played here way more than I have. That’s really helped. Over the years of playing with Raymond and Freddie and Ollie and Nick Price, you name it, right on down the list, of just understanding how to play this golf course.

“Granted, it’s changed over the years, but still, you still miss it in the same spots. Just understanding how to do that has really helped me over the years, and I think that’s one of the reasons why you see so many guys here. The older players are in contention a lot, they just know how to play it.”

When asked how impressed Tiger was with Rory McElroy’s recovery from last year’s Masters blowup …

“Very, very, because I had not met Rory at that time and I didn’t really know much about him. I had not played golf with him yet, so I had not seen it. The first time I got a chance to really sit down and talk to him was this year at Abu Dhabi when we played nine holes together. Then we ended up being paired together. That was fun I think for both of us. But as far as his recovery, it was cool to see someone learn from their mistakes like that and apply it. He had just one bad round. It happens to everybody. That was some pretty impressive playing at the Open.”