FANS have been left worried over Tiger Woods after he was left grimacing after an awkward shot during his first round at the Masters.

The American icon, 47, had to play a shot on the edge of a bunker in which one of his feet had to be positioned in the sand.

As he took his shot, he lost his balance and appeared to hurt himself as he hopped away.

The golfer could be seen visibly grimacing after the effort.

And fans flocked to social media to share their concern for Woods.

One supporter tweeted: “Tiger Woods in pain after that shot.”

A second wrote: “Sucks that Tiger Woods just hurt himself hitting out of that bunker.”

A third said: “Tiger Woods hobbling around The Masters. Kinda sad.”

A fourth added: “Christ was waiting for an almighty crack from Tigers leg watching him play that shot. Ouch!!!”

Another commented: “Tiger Woods narrowly avoided the bunker on 18 from the tee but I think anyone watching will have watched from behind their hands as all his weight was on his weakened right ankle.

“He gives it a few hops and seems OK, but the ball finds the sand. He seems relatively fine though.”

Woods was able to continue and finish his first round with a score of two over par.

He did have a late surge with birdies at holes 15 and 16 to get to two over but bogeyed the last hole.

Woods admitted afterwards that he hopped on his left leg in order to protect his right one after it was mangled in his horrific road crash two years ago.

He said: “It’s a good job the weight was on my left leg. I’m good. Hopping on the left leg is fine. If I did it on the other one, not so fine. That leg is still pretty sore.”

Asked if the injury only flared up over certain shots, Woods replied: “No, it’s constant pain.”