Westwood had said it would be naive for anyone to think this major was only about Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.

Those two horses were happy to still be in the running.

Woods took two penalty shots, hit three tee shots that rattled the pines and was thrilled to make bogey on his last hole for a 72, the first time since 2008 that he failed to break par in the opening round of the Masters.

“I had some of the worst golf swings I’ve ever hit today,” Woods said.

McIlroy opened with a double bogey, though his big moment was on the 10th hole. A year ago, that’s where his Sunday collapse began with a hooked tee shot into the cabins for a triple bogey. This time, he pushed a 3-wood into the trees on the other side and managed a par.

“That was a bit of an improvement from the last time I played it,” McIlroy said.

Better yet was a birdie-birdie finish, including a 15-foot putt from the fringe on the 18th that gave him a 71, making him one of 28 players who broke par and were within four shots of the lead.

“It was huge,” McIlroy said. “I didn’t feel like I had my best out there. To finish under par for the day, I’m very pleased.”

Along with Woods smiling after a 72, three-time Masters champion Phil Mickelson was delighted with a 74. He sprayed tee shots all over the course, including one so far left on the 10th into bushes he didn’t know existed that he never found his ball. Mickelson made a triple bogey there, then spent the rest of the back nine scrambling for his life.

He recounted all the bad shots, the missed opportunities, the triple bogey, and decided the glass was half full, almost spilling over.

“This is good news,” Mickelson said. “Because if I can get hot tomorrow, I’m playing good enough to shoot 6 or 7 under, and I’ll be right in it for the weekend. Fortunately, I didn’t shoot myself out of it.”

Luke Donald, the No. 1 player in the world, had a few nervous moments, and that was after he signed for a 75. When his card was sent to the scoring room to be entered into the computer, an official accidentally punched in a birdie 3 for the fifth hole, even though Donald three-putted for a 5. The leaderboard showed him with a 73.

It took about two hours to clear up the confusion.

“This place, if you are a little bit off, it can eat you up,” Donald said.

Donald and Westwood are the only two players to be No. 1 without ever having won a major. Westwood is atop the list of the best who have never won a Grand Slam event — 36 wins around the world, formerly No. 1 in the world and a half-dozen close calls in the majors, including a runner-up finish at the Masters two years ago.

“I’ve come close,” Westwood said. “I’ve won all there is to win other than a major championship. That’s my primary focus and it’s been a long time coming around since the PGA last year.”

Westwood made his move on the front nine when he ran off four straight birdies, all of them inside 10 feet, including a difficult pitch from short of the par-5 eighth green that settled within tap-in range.

Despite the soft conditions from storms earlier in the week, the scoring wasn’t as low as some thought. Westwood’s caddie, Billy Foster, walked the course earlier in the day and sent back a scouting report.

“Billy had sent me a text saying that the pins were tough,” Westwood said. “He used slightly more flowering language than that, but we’ll stick to tough. So I knew it was a day for patience.”

Stenson celebrated his 36th birthday with a 31 on the front nine, including eagles on both par 5s, and he was the only player to reach 6-under par during the round. It just didn’t last.

He hooked his drive into the trees on the 18th, took two shots to get back to the fairway, sent a wedge over the green and took four shots to get down from there. He wound up with a quadruple-bogey 8 — known as a “snowman” in golf vernacular — which matched the highest score on the 18th hole in Masters history.

That dropped him to a 71, not bad considering his last two opening rounds at Augusta were an 80 and an 83, but still not what he wanted.

“You make a little mistake, and then you compound it with another one, and it just keeps on snowballing,” Stenson said. “And I got the snowman in the end. What to do?”

Paul Lawrie made two eagles on the back nine to join the group at 69 that included Miguel Angel Jimenez, Edoardo Molinari, Ben Crane and Jason Dufner, who lost in a playoff at the PGA Championship last summer.

Only nine players managed to break 70, and the scoring was so bunched that only eight of the 96 players were 10 shots behind, the measure for making the cut on Friday.

“There’s still a lot of world class players there and a lot of them playing well, and majors are hard to win as it is,” Westwood said. “I’m going to have to play as good, if not better, than I did today to carry on in the position I’m in.”

Woods had an inkling of what to expect. He was on his way to the putting green when he ducked into the clubhouse, glanced at the computer and was surprised to see so few birdies. Once he teed off, it all made sense.

The pins were tucked in some of the tougher positions at the Masters, especially for the opening round, such as a right pin on the par-3 12th typically only seen on a Sunday.

“It was what I expected throughout the week, but maybe not on Thursday,” Zach Johnson said after a 70.

And it sure wasn’t easy getting at some of those pins with splotches of mud on the ball. Keegan Bradley had to deal with it on the opening hole. His shot went left of the bunker and he made double bogey. Steve Stricker was trying to lay up on the par-5 eighth hole when mud on his ball caused it to veer sharply to the left and into the pines. He made bogey.

Kyle Stanley was asked where he had to cope with mud.

“One, two, five, 10, 11, 13, 15,” he said. “That was it.”

Woods had other issues.

With thousands of fans lining the first fairway, they looked toward the sky to find the flight of his ball and figured out where it went by the sound of a hard, hollow knock striking Georgia pine. On the next hole, he pulled his tee shot toward the creek for a penalty shot. In both cases, he escaped with par by making putts of 8 and 5 feet.

But there was no escaping the finish. A tee shot to the left on the 17th left him no angle to get on the green, so Woods hit into the front bunker and failed to save par. And on the 18th, another wild hook went into the trees. Woods had to take a penalty stroke to get relief, and only a delicate pitch left of the green allowed him to save bogey.

Woods usually talks about the shots that got away. This time, there weren’t many.

“Today I squeezed a lot out of that round,” he said. “I just felt my way around today. I know how to play this golf course. I think it’s just understanding what I need to do.”

All it took was one win at Bay Hill two weeks ago for Woods to even remotely resemble the guy who once dominated golf. He won by five shots, and, just like that, was elevated to the favorite at Augusta National.

“Everything is headed in the right direction at the right time,” Woods said.

But he’s not the only star of this Masters.

Rory McIlroy has all the traits of the heir apparent — an easy swing that produces enormous power, a U.S. Open title at age 22, a tennis star for a girlfriend, and an engaging personality – something that Woods is not. In his last 12 tournaments, McIlroy finished third or better eight times, including two wins and a brief stay at No. 1 in the world.

“I’m in a great place,” McIlroy said. “I feel like my golf game is in great shape.”

There is so much anticipation about this clash of generations it’s as if they were the only two players competing for a green jacket, much like the days of Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer.

Far from it.

“There probably hasn’t been a Masters with more legitimate chances,” Geoff Ogilvy said before heading out for a final practice round. “I can understand people seeing this as a two-man race, but it’s never been further from the truth. There are more horses in this race than ever before.”

Luke Donald returned to No. 1 in the world three weeks ago by winning at Innisbrook. He is one of eight players among the top 20 in the world who have won this year, a list that includes Woods and McIlroy, along with Hunter Mahan (twice), Steve Stricker, Justin Rose and Phil Mickelson, a threat at Augusta even when he’s not playing well.

“And you’ve got a guy like Keegan Bradley,” Ogilvy said, referring to the PGA champion who won the first major he ever played. “Nobody ever talked about a Masters rookie with a chance. There’s more people in the conversation, isn’t there?”

One conversation that was kept short Wednesday was Masters chairman Billy Payne refusing to discuss the all-male membership at Augusta National. The topic returned this year because IBM appointed Virginia Rometty its CEO, and the last four chief executives of Big Blue were invited to be members.

“All issues of membership are now and have been historically subject to the private deliberations of the members, and that statement remains accurate, and remains my statement,” Payne said.

Despite a few more attempts — including a tense moment when Payne cut off a series of questions by saying, “Thank you” — the focus at Augusta quickly shifted back to golf.

Still fresh are memories from last year, when eight players had at least a share of the lead in the final round — McIlroy early, Woods in the middle, Adam Scott late — until Charl Schwartzel finished with four straight birdies for a two-shot win.

It could be anyone this year — not just Woods and McIlroy.

“Rory has never won here,” Lee Westwood said. “Tiger has not won here since 2005. So I think everybody in this room would have to be naive to think it was a two-horse race, wouldn’t they? There’s more. I think Phil might have a little bit of something to say about that. Luke might. I might.”

Adding to the wide-open feel is the weather.

An unseasonably warm spring, which caused the azaleas and dogwoods to already lose their blooms, gave way to storms that dumped 1½ inches of rain on the course before dawn Wednesday and toppled a few trees, including one that crashed onto a restroom.

Another storm arrived in the afternoon and cut short the Par 3 Contest, along with making Augusta National even softer. Mickelson said to brace for birdies in such soft conditions. His fear was that players could fire at pins, instead of thinking their way around a course that can require so much strategy.

The forecast was for occasional storms the opening two rounds, followed by sunshine on the weekend. That’s all it takes to change the dynamics of this major. The greens are more receptive, yet a soft course also becomes a longer course.

Soft conditions might favor McIlroy. Remember, Congressional also received plenty of rain at the U.S. Open last summer when Boy Wonder set the championship record at 16-under 268.

“He plays without fear, which is a great way to play,” Mickelson said. “When you get soft conditions like at the U.S. Open, he’s going to light it up. And I think that he’s going to continue his great play. If he ends up learning this golf course, I think he’s going to win here a number of times.”

Then again, that’s what Nicklaus and Palmer said about Woods when they first saw him at Augusta as an amateur and predicted he would win as many green jackets as they had combined — 10. Instead, he is stuck on four Masters.

McIlroy will be playing with Angel Cabrera the first two rounds, a replay from last year. They were in the final group, when McIlroy shot 80 on the final day to go from a four-shot lead to a 10-shot deficit.

Asked if he felt sorry for McIlroy going through such a meltdown, Cabrera said:

“No, because when I play bad, nobody feels sorry for me. It was a shame, but I didn’t feel bad for him. I knew it was going to be hard for him. When we got done, I told him, ‘This is a tournament you can win many times.’ “

Where have all the flowers gone?

“I saw them,” defending champion Charl Schwartzel said. “But it was last week. I was a here a week ago last Thursday, and they were beautiful. But the first thing I thought was, ‘They’re all going to be gone.’ I thought Augusta would be able to do something — get the fans on them or something. It’s weird”

Indeed, the Masters has gone green.

The 13th hole has an estimated 1,600 azalea bushes — that’s why it’s called “Azalea” — yet there are only a dozen or so bushes behind the green that still have blooms. Fans on the course Monday for a practice round posed for pictures in front of one azalea bush with its pink flowers having fallen onto the pine needles.

Yes, the tournament will manage to go on. Augusta National is still beautiful as ever with sunlight filtering through the Georgia pines, and not a blade of grass out of place. But it’s not the same.

It’s like an actress without her makeup. It’s like Wrigley Field without the ivy. It’s like Ian Poulter dressed in white.

“You’re kidding. No flowers?” said Poulter, who arrived on Monday dressed head to toe in white. “I can’t believe that.”

It’s not the first time this has happened, and if nothing else, it should put the rumors to rest that Augusta National packs ice on the azaleas to keep them from blooming until Masters week.

Those aren’t the only rumors.

“I always heard they had hot and cold water running through the pipes to control when it blooms,” Jonathan Byrd said.

Byrd added his own piece of color — a pink ribbon on his cap with the letter “K” to celebrate the birth of his daughter, Kate, on Friday. He showed up at the Masters expecting to be asked about his chipping and putting, not jasmine and camellia.

But he understands the significance of flowers at Augusta National, built on the home of a former nursery.

“It’s what everyone thinks about,” he said.

Joanne Taylor was sitting along the ropes on the 13th hole, her toenails painted “Masters green” for the occasion. She drove down for the Monday practice round from Dahlonega in the northern part of the state, where the blooms have come and gone.

“I’ve always heard they keep the azaleas in potted plants in a greenhouse, then brought them out for the Masters,” she said, another rumor proved untrue amid so little color.

The golf is not going to suffer. Players have raved about the conditioning at the Masters, and the excitement level is higher than usual for the first major of the year. Tiger Woods, who played nine holes early Monday with Mark O’Meara, comes into the Masters having won at Bay Hill two years ago and thus became an instant favorite.

Luke Donald and Rory McIlroy both won in the last month, trading spots at No. 1 in the world. Hunter Mahan has won twice. Schwartzel is trying to join Woods, Nick Faldo and Jack Nicklaus as the only repeat winners at Augusta.

All the eyeballs will be on a little white golf ball, not the bloom on a dogwood.

But it’s different, nonetheless.

“Everybody would love to see the flowers, and we’d love to have them here,” said Lance Barrow, the coordinating producer of CBS Sports, which is televising the Masters for the 57th year. “But we have no control over Mother Nature.”

The timing could not have been worse for Jennifer Markman of Atlanta. She has been coming to the Masters for the last 17 years with a tournament badge, which is good for Thursday through Sunday. But she had never been to Augusta during the practice rounds, the only days when patrons can take pictures.

Standing to the right of the 10th green, she held her camera steady for nearly 30 seconds before she took a picture. There were no golfers in sight. There were no flowers to be found. She was waiting for just the right moment, when a puff of wind blew the flag upright so she could capture its long shadow across the green.

She was pleased with the image, though it’s not what she wanted.

“I’m upset all the azaleas are gone,” she said. “This is my 18th year coming to the tournament, and I’ve never been able to bring my camera. This is my first year taking pictures.”

She paused to stick out her lower lip, adding, “And somebody took all my azaleas away.”

Jerry and Kim Tackett got practice-round tickets for the first time and drove from Tulsa, Okla., over the weekend to be at the gates Monday morning. They camped out on the 13th fairway, watching in awe as Kevin Na drilled his approach over the winding tributary of Rae’s Creek and safely on the green.

They have seen this hole countless times on TV, memorable because of how the green appears to tilt toward the creek, with three bunkers of white sand behind the green, and hundreds of azalea bushes on the hill.

“I was expecting more blooms,” Tackett said. “But we’re pretty excited just to be here. We don’t mind all the green.”

It would be nearly four months until Woods completed another tournament, and he fell out of the top 50 in the world.

McIlroy, meanwhile, was on his way to the greatest collapse by a 54-hole leader at the Masters in more than a half-century. The tee shot behind a cabin left of the 10th fairway. A three-putt from 7 feet on the 11th, and a four-putt from 12 feet on the 12th. The lasting image was Boy Wonder burying his head in the crook of his arm after a wayward tee shot on the 13th. He shot 80 that day.

The devastation gave way to a coronation two months later, however, when the 22-year-old from Northern Ireland shattered the U.S. Open scoring record and won by eight shots at Congressional.

McIlroy has won twice and finished no worse than third in nine of his last 12 tournaments, and his win at the Honda Classic a month ago made him the second-youngest player (behind Woods) to be No. 1 in the world, even if the top ranking lasted only two weeks.

That made him the favorite among bookies — until Woods ended a 30-month drought on the PGA Tour by winning the Arnold Palmer Invitational three weeks later.

Here they come again.

A chance for redemption for McIlroy at the Masters. A chance for Woods to resume his pursuit of Jack Nicklaus’ record 18 majors.

“It was definitely a defining moment,” McIlroy said of blowing a four-shot lead last year. “It could have been the crossroads of my career. I could have did what I did on Sunday at Augusta and let it affect me, maybe go into a slump or feel down or feel sorry for myself. I had enough good people around me not to let that happen.

“I was able to go down the right path, and do the right things, and to put everything right and win the next major.”

Woods has been stuck on 14 majors since he won the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines in 2008 on a badly damaged left leg. His last win at the Masters was in 2005, his longest drought in any of the majors.

He has withdrawn from two tournaments since last year, the most recent at Doral because of soreness and swelling in his left Achilles tendon. One week changed everything. He made a hard course at Bay Hill look easy and won by five shots, just like he used to do.

“I’ve gone into Augusta with wins and without wins,” Woods said. “You’re looking for one week, that’s all. Hopefully, everything comes together for that one week. I understand how to play Augusta National. And it’s just a matter of executing the game plan.”

It is easy to get wrapped up in the “Tiger and Rory” show at the Masters when it starts Thursday.

But the 76th edition could be so much more.

Off the golf course, a sticky issue returned in the week before the Masters because of something that happened in a board room, not inside the ropes. Virginia Rometty was appointed chief executive of IBM, a longtime sponsor of the Masters. The last four CEOs of Big Blue have been members at Augusta National. The club, however, has never had a female member since it opened in 1933.

So while Woods and McIlroy are getting plenty of attention, so is Martha Burk, who led an unsuccessful campaign for the club to end its all-male membership a decade ago.

On the golf course, all the right players are winning going into the first major of the year.

It started the first week of the season with Steve Stricker winning the Tournament of Champions. Phil Mickelson appears to have discovered his putting touch and shot 64 to win at Pebble Beach for his 40th career PGA Tour win. Bill Haas backed up his FedEx Cup title with a playoff win at Riviera. McIlroy went to No. 1 in the world until Luke Donald won a four-man playoff at Innisbrook and regained his No. 1 ranking.

Eight players from the top 20 in the world already have won this year.

“Augusta is always the most exciting event, just because it’s the first major, a lot of exciting things are happening in golf, a lot of the big names are doing well,” Donald said. “Tiger is making a mini-comeback. All of the pieces are falling into place.”

Topping last year will be a tall order.

In one of the most exciting final rounds in Masters history, eight players had at least a share of the lead on the final day. Charl Schwartzel delivered a finish that matched the quality of the final round. He became the first Masters champion to close with four straight birdies for a two-shot win over Jason Day and Adam Scott.

There hasn’t been this much anticipation about the Masters, and the leading characters, since 2005 when seven of the top 10 in the world had won tournaments going into the Augusta, including multiple wins for Woods, Mickelson and Ernie Els.

Woods ended up winning his fourth Masters. Not many could have imagined he would go six years without another. This year, however, might be as good of a chance as any.

He hardly practiced in 2010 after missing four months as his personal life caved in around him, yet Woods tied for fourth. He had not finished closer than seven shots all year in 2011, showed up at Augusta and nearly won again.

What happens when he is swinging well (which he is) and has more confidence (he does) than he has in three years?

His win at Bay Hill gave him 72 for his PGA Tour career, and someone mentioned to Woods that if he were to win the Masters, it would tie him with Nicklaus for second on the career list with 73 wins. Woods smiled when he heard the question. It’s not the statistic most people associate with Nicklaus, least of all Woods.

“Yeah, well, that’s nice,” Woods said. “But I’m looking forward to more of the green jacket part of it.”

The closest McIlroy ever got to the green jacket was on a private plane to Malaysia after the Masters, with Schwartzel on board. They posed for a picture, the South African in a green jacket.

It revealed a comfortable side of McIlroy, evidence that this would not crush his spirits, much less his career.

Then again, he showed that in the immediate aftermath of his meltdown. Woods shot 67 and could not get away from a TV interview quickly enough. McIlroy faced reporters in the locker room after his 80, looking everyone in the eye, making no excuses.

He returns as a U.S. Open champion. That four-shot lead he took into the last round a year ago now is looked upon as an example of what he can do, not what he didn’t. What’s new is the attention, the heir apparent to Woods.

“It will be very different,” McIlroy said. “I wasn’t necessarily under the radar last year, but I’ll be going in there with a lot more attention, a lot of scrutiny, because of what happened last year. The spotlight will be on me, and it’s something that I’ll just have to deal with. But I’ll try to … approach it like I did last year — at least for three days, anyway.”

The Masters will add a minor wrinkle for the opening round when Gary Player joins Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer as the honorary starters. Otherwise, the course has not changed significantly since last year, except for some new hole locations now available on the 16th green.

What has changed is the outlook.

Even as Woods was out for three straight months, and two majors, golf was being handed over to youth like McIlroy, Schwartzel, PGA champion Keegan Bradley, major champions Martin Kaymer and Louis Oosthuizen. It was in good hands.

And now, Woods is back to join them.

“I think they’re both in a bind,” Martha Burk said Thursday evening.

Burk, who spearheaded an unsuccessful campaign 10 years ago for the club to admit a female member, said Friday morning on CNN she fears Augusta and IBM will work out a “sham solution” to make the issue go away.

“The company has a huge responsibility here not to undermine its first female CEO,” Burk said. “If they accept anything less than full member — or resign their sponsorship, which is another option — they’re going to undermine their new CEO. And they’ll be making a statement that they don’t consider her an equal to her predecessors.”

Still to be determined is how much traction the topic will muster going into the Masters.

Augusta National, through a spokesman, declined comment in keeping to its policy that membership issues are private. IBM did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.

Rometty is said to play golf sparingly. Her greater passion is scuba diving.

Hootie Johnson, chairman of the club a decade ago, ignited the controversy back then when he said that while Augusta might one day have a female member, it would be on the club’s timetable and “not at the point of a bayonet.”

Burk applied pressure on just about everyone connected with the club and with the Masters, the major championship that garners the highest TV ratings. She demanded that four companies drop their television sponsorship because of discrimination. She lobbied PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem not to recognize the Masters as part of the tour schedule.

It didn’t work. The protest fizzled in a parking lot down the street from the club during the third round of the 2003 tournament.

“We did raise the issue,” Burk said on CNN. “If we had not done that, this would not be on the table now.”

Not only is the debate back, this time it has a face — Rometty, a 31-year veteran of IBM who has been ranked among the “50 Most Powerful Women in Business” by Fortune magazine the last seven years. Rometty was No. 7 last year.

The chairman of Augusta National — and the Masters — is Billy Payne, who ran the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. When he replaced Johnson as chairman of the club and of the Masters tournament in 2006, he said there was “no specific timetable” for admitting women.

The question was raised at the 2007 and 2010 Masters. Both times, Payne said membership issues were private.

Rometty succeeds Sam Palmissano at IBM, which runs the Masters’ website from the bottom floor of the media center. According to a list published by USA Today in 2002, the three CEOs prior to Palmissano also were members — Louis Gertsner, John Akers and John Opel.

As the corporate sponsors became the target, Johnson wound up doing away with TV sponsorship for two years at the Masters to keep the corporate partners — IBM, Coca-Cola and Citigroup — out of the fray.

Only IBM returned as a TV sponsor for the 2005 Masters. The others were SBC Communications and ExxonMobil.

Burk said it should not be that easy for IBM to hide if the debate gains momentum.

“What IBM needs to do is draw a line in the sand — ‘We’re either going to pull our sponsorship and membership and any ancillary activities we support with the tournament, or the club is going to have to honor our CEO the way they have in the past,’” Burk said in a telephone interview Thursday evening. “There’s no papering over it. They just need to step up and do the right thing.

“They need to not pull that argument that they support the tournament and not the club,” she said. “That does not fool anybody, and they could undermine their new CEO.”

Burk said she would not be surprised if IBM pressured Rometty to say she doesn’t want to be a member.

“Really, I don’t think it’s her responsibility,” Burk said. “It’s the board of directors. They need to take action here. They don’t need to put that on her. They need to say, ‘This is wrong. We thought the club was on the verge of making changes several years ago, and we regretfully end our sponsorship to maintain her credibility and the company brand.’”

The debate returns just in time for one of the most anticipated Masters in years. Tiger Woods finally returned to winning form last week at Bay Hill and is considered one of the favorites, along with U.S. Open champion Rory McIlroy. Eight of the top 20 players in the world ranking have won heading into the first major of the year, a list that includes world No. 1 Luke Donald and Phil Mickelson.

Now comes a sensitive issue that dogged the tournament a decade ago, and might not go away easily. Women can play the course at Augusta National, but cannot join the club or wear the Augusta green jacket, which is reserved for members and stands as a status symbol in business and golf.

Rometty could become a central figure in the argument over female membership whether she wishes to or not.

“We have a face, we have a resume, we have a title and we have a credible reason to do it that doesn’t involve Martha Burk,” Burk said.

Burk said she is no longer chair of the National Council of Women’s Organizations. She had planned to step down until the first flap with the Masters began in the summer of 2002. Now, she said she runs the Corporate Accountability Project for the council, a project born from her battle with Augusta.