Woods hooked his opening tee shot left and into the crowd – leading to nervous applause from supporters on the first tee.
Nicklaus and Player had earlier walked to the opening hole through masses of excited fans before being introduced by new Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley.
The duo have a combined total of nine Green Jackets between them, with Nicklaus winning a record six and South African Player claiming three.
Nicklaus, who is regarded as the greatest golfer of all time with 18 Major wins, was in jubilant mood in the wake of his grandson G.T hitting a hole-in-one in the Par 3 competition.
G.T was caddying for Nicklaus and stuck the shot on the ninth hole in front of playing partners Tom Watson and Player.
G.T is spending the week at Augusta and is a budding golf professional who plays off a handicap of plus two.
But the teenager didn’t have to fulfil the tradition of getting the beers in following his hole-in-one – because he’s only 15 and not old enough to buy alcohol in the state of Georgia.
He said: “It’s my first hole-in-one, so to get it here at Augusta is neat. I didn’t need to go to the bar, either.
MASTERS 2018 LEADERBOARD
“I’m looking forward to the tournament. I’m friends with Rickie Fowler and Jordan Spieth so I’m going to follow those two round.”
Nicklaus said: “It was neat. To have him be on the bag and be a part of what we’re doing was a lot of fun.
“I said to him about three days ago, ‘you sure you want to hit a ball on 9?’ He says, ‘oh, yeah, I want to hit a ball. And I says, ‘well, then I think you’re going to make a hole‑in‑one this year’.
“That was three days ago I said this to him. And darn if he didn’t knock it right in the hole. He’s a nice player to start with, obviously.
“He’s learning how to play golf and I think he learned pretty well here. That’s pretty special.
“I was asked where that ranks and I said, that’s No.1. My wins, that’s okay, but to have your grandson make a hole‑in‑one and watch him do it, man, that’s amazing.”
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