Tiger Woods opened the defense of his Masters Tournament title with a 2-under-par 70 in Thursday's opening round.

Afterward, the reigning king of golf turned his attention to the news of the original King's farewell to Augusta.

"Well, for him to compete as long as he has is to his credit," Woods said after the announcement by Arnold Palmer that this will be his final Masters as a competitive player. "He's kept himself in good enough shape. For him to stick around for this long is awfully impressive. The golf course has just gotten a little too big for him."

In his quest for a third green jacket, Woods is very much in the hunt entering today's second round. The world's No. 1-ranked player is tied for seventh place, three shots behind first-round leader Davis Love III.

Woods started and finished strong, but ran into some trouble in between. After making three straight birdies on Nos. 3-5, he fell back to even par with bogeys at Nos. 6, 10 and 14.

But birdies at the par-5 15th and par-4 17th salvaged a round during which he said he "grinded his way around the golf course, made a couple of mistakes here and there, but just hung in there and stayed patient."

As for how he felt the changes to the Augusta National course were reflected in the scores Thursday, Woods described some shots as being "obviously more difficult." In particular, Woods said the tee shot at the new-look par-4 ninth hole was one of the most treacherous Thursday.

Woods drove his ball right into the first cut of rough, then recovered with a 6-iron to 15 feet and a two-putt for par.

"With the wind blowing out of the east, that shot was more difficult," Woods said. "Anytime the hole is blowing left-to-right, it's almost bogey written all over it."

But the course alterations were almost an afterthought for Woods in light of what figures to be the biggest Masters change of all next year.

"Arnold's charge here and what he has done in the past, it's pretty neat knowing we've played the same golf course. Even though it's changed, it's the same piece of property," said Woods, who added he feels honored to have played in the Par-3 Contest on Wednesday with Palmer.

"There will come a point in time where it will be neat to tell my grandkids that, 'Hey, I played with the great Arnold Palmer - even if it was a Par-3 course - in his last Masters."'