Rust showed, but Woods is healthy
After 15-month hiatus, former world No. 1 has mixed bag of results at Hero World Challenge
NASSAU, Bahamas — Tiger Woods finished his first tournament in just over 15 months and it showed Sunday in the Hero World Challenge.
His fourth round brought out signs of fatigue and focus. One day after Woods made a brief run up the leaderboard, he made three double-bogeys and closed with a 4-over 76, the highest score of the tournament.
He led the field in birdies with 24. He led the field in double-bogeys with six. It added to 15th place out of 17 players.
But this week was not just about numbers.
Rarely has a December event attracted this much curiosity. Woods, the dominant player of his generation, had gone 466 days since his previous tournament because of two back surgeries. The recovery at times made it difficult for him to walk and led him to wonder if he would ever play again.
Woods showed plenty of length off the tee. His swing looked comfortable. And after five straight days walking, including the pro-am, he showed no signs of pain.
“It’s really good to be back playing again, competing,” Woods said. “Unfortunately, I made a lot of mistakes. I made a lot of birdies, but I made a lot of mistakes.” Rust or fatigue? “It’s both,” he said with a laugh. “I made some poor decisions. I hit the ball in some wrong spots. Quite frankly, it feels kind of weird not to be in a cart. Getting my legs back, focusing for a long period of time, these are the things I missed for a year and a half.”
One day after he briefly pulled within two shots of the lead, it was clear early on that this day would be a struggle. Woods was scrambling for pars instead of being in a position to attack pins. He twice made double-bogey on a par 5, starting at No. 6 when he blasted out of the sandy area to the back side of a double green, forcing him to chip off the putting surface.
Still, he rallied with three straight birdies to play the front nine at Albany in even par. He was never going to win the tournament — Hideki Matsuyama was too far ahead — but it was a chance to post a decent number and take more positives into what figures to be a two-month off-season.
Instead, Woods couldn’t get up and down on No. 10 and made bogey. His tee shot failed to clear a deep bunker and a poor pitch from a tough lie from right of the green led to a double-bogey. He missed a short par putt on the next hole.
And then he answered with two birdies.
Woods made his third double-bogey of the week at the 18th hole, this time without even going into the water. His tee shot landed in a thick palmetto bush and he had to take a penalty drop to take it out. Just his luck, his drop in the sandy waste area settled right in front of the nub of another bush. He got that back to the fairway, went just over the green and took two putts from there.
Woods managed to keep the week in perspective.
“I made some birdies, which was nice. I was playing aggressively,” he said. “But I also made some mistakes. I had two sevens. You can’t make two sevens. It adds up to a high number. On the flip side, I was able to be aggressive. I need to balance it out.”
Woods at least starts his climb from No. 898 in the world, the product of not playing since Aug. 23, 2015.
Caddie Joe LaCava offered the best perspective.
“Honestly, my goal was to get him through five rounds on his feet,” LaCava said. “That was big.”