Despite being entrenched in controversy stemming from a sex scandal since Thanksgiving of last year, Tiger Woods came out in the first round of the 2010 Masters and played outstanding.

From ESPN.com:

For the first time in 16 appearances at the Masters, Tiger Woods opened the tournament by breaking 70, shooting a 4-under 68 to trail 50-year-old Fred Couples by 2 shots.

It was Woods’ first round of tournament golf in 144 days after a highly publicized sex scandal that caused him to take a leave from the game.

“Very pleased,” Woods said of his first official round of golf since winning the Australian Masters on Nov. 15. “I hit the ball well all day. … For the most part, I think I hit the ball well all day. And I just didn’t make a lot of putts. If I putted well today, it could have been a really special round.”

“The people were just incredible, incredible all day,” he said.

It’s nice to see people separate what Tiger does off the links from what he does on them. There was really no reason to boo or criticize him, seeing as how golf has little or nothing to do with his personal life. He may still be the scum of the earth for cheating on his wife with porn stars, groupies and whoever was working the counter at Taco Bell that late Friday night, but again, that has little to do with his golf career.

It appears that the scandal humbled Tiger a bit, and that’s a good thing.

Photo from fOTOGLIF