Bad finish for Tiger Woods at Hero World Challenge

Albany (The Bahamas), Dec. 2: The dream run ended at the eighth hole as Tiger Woods, with two double bogies over the final three holes, placed one from bottom just ahead of Justin Rose, the opening day of the Hero World Challenge was a mixed bag for Woods.

The former world number one hit a one-over-par 73 on his return from a 15-month layoff after recovering from two back surgeries.

“It could have been something really good. I got off to a nice solid start and made a few mistakes. I didn't play the par 5s very well in the middle part of the round and consequently got it going the wrong way,” Tiger Woods summed up his first competitive day out on a golf course in almost 16 months.

The 40-year-old Woods showed glimpses of his old self as he had a run of birdies to begin with, and was even briefly tied for the lead. The 14-time Major winner and 79 PGA Tour titles had four birdies in eight holes.

“By the time I hit the second, my tee shot on the second hole, I had already gotten into the flow of the round. That's something that for me when I've taken layoffs and taken breaks, it's quickly can I find the feel of the round. It's good to be able to play in, what, 15, 16 months and get it on the second hole is nice.”

“I just made some really, if you look at it, some really silly mistakes, mistakes I don't normally make, but I haven't played in a while. Unfortunately, I made those mistakes, I can clean that up. We've got three more days.”

Woods hit only six of 13 fairways, though only one of them was bad enough to cause a problem. Woods pulled his tee shot into the water on the 18th, slamming his driver into the turf. All of his misses were to the left, some of them just catching the sandy waste area.

“Right now it's just more natural than anything else. I've gone back to a lot of my old stuff that I used to do when I was a kid. Some of the feels that I have have come back. I just need to keep playing. My feels need to keep coming back, seeing the shots, feeling the shots, hitting my numbers and the shapes and getting all that.

“It felt good to have that adrenaline surging through the system again. It's been a long time. To get up there on that first hole and feel it again and then dumb it down to be able to control it and get into my feel where I play my best, that was nice. I got it pretty quick. By the time I got to, as I said, the second or third hole I was already in it.”