Tiger Woods displayed the form that has won him four Masters titles in holing a remarkable par putt at the ninth hole during his first official practice round at Augusta National.

Woods hit an 8-iron second shot that went a few feet through the green but some 60-feet from the flagstick.

His birdie attempt just missed the hole but rolled 40-feet past the flag from where Woods holed the par putt.

Tiger Woods and Mark O’Meara embrace after nine holes of practice.

Then was then an emotional moment when Woods and his practice round partner Mark O’Meara embraced before O’Meara headed to the clubhouse and Woods to the 10th tee.

However it was now 6.3opm and with the course officially closed to spectators.

Woods played the 10th hole and then walked to the 18th playing before walking off at 7.10pm with some 10 security officers, a handful of greens staff and his PR manager, Glen Greenspan looking on.

“I felt good and it was nice to get out here but then the course was a little bit faster than when we played last week,” said Woods.

“My chipping is fine and today was good as I wanted to test out some wedges out here. That was why I was chipping a little bit more. It came down to a couple different bounce settings because it’s different from Florida. We figured the right one out.

“And it was good to catch up with Mark again.  We -always text each other all the time, so it felt like old times times out there.

Tiger and Bernie feature across the US on ESPV TV following Tiger Wood’s nine holes of practice at Augusta National

“That’s what we were reminiscing about. I miss him. I miss him out here playing practice rounds. You forget, I must have played probably a decade of practice rounds at every major with him. Now he’s 58, so he’s almost 60, so we joked about that.

“But the last two months has been a process for me but I’m on the good side now.

“It’s progression. I felt like I had to get my game into a spot where I could compete to win a golf tournament and it’s finally there.”

O’Meara has spoken last Tuesday at the BlueJack National course north of Houston of his hope that Woods would return to competition this week after a 2-month lay-off.

And he received a text message from the double Major winner late last week asking if they could play a practice round together.

“The thing about the kid is that you can never underestimate someone like Tiger Woods,” said O’Meara.

“It was good to be out there with him as I saw some good signs and I like what he and Chris (Como – coach) are doing as his pitching looks a whole lot better.

“There is no reason why he should not have a good week this week as there is not many people who play the golf of golf like he has played it and the game is better because of Tiger Woods.

“He seems to be in a good place and I think he will be fired-up about it and I think he is going  to be fine but then under the gun it is always going to be a little bit different but he should be okay.”

While Woods managed a great par at nine O’Meara admitted Woods did hit a few wayward shots over the front nine but then also a lot of ‘quality shots’.

“There was one hole, the fourth where I hit what I thought was a pretty good rescue club into the green and Tiger hit a 3-iron to get inside me,” he said.

“But then confidence is a crazy thing in this game of golf and you don’t just stand on the street corner and order confidence as it takes years and years to develop your confidence and in one, two or three shots it can be gone.

“He will be nervous on Thursday as there will be a lot of pressure on him but I hope for Tiger and the game he plays well this week.”