Daily Mail

Astonishin­g Tiger shows he can mix it with elite

- By DEREK LAWRENSON

WHEN Tiger Woods said on the eve of his comeback he hoped to show the current elite what all the fuss was about in his prime, did anyone in their right mind think he would give them a glimpse this weekend? It is barely possible to comprehend what we are seeing in the Bahamas, where he is putting the hero into the Hero World Challenge. As if a 69 for openers was not startling enough, what happened over the front nine yesterday was truly astonishin­g. Let us remind ourselves that the 18-man field contains eight members of the world top 10, including the top three Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas. And yet after 27 holes they were all looking up at the man ranked 1,199th who, until Thursday, had not played competitiv­ely for 301 days. You would like to say his driving was as good as it was in his prime — except, for two days, it has been better. The swing speed is where it needs to be to take on the likes of Johnson and Thomas next year and, right now, so is the accuracy. Take the par-five ninth, measuring more than 600 yards. A bullet drive that took on the water on the right before sliding back towards the middle of the fairway was followed by a three wood that pitched on the green and finished 20ft from the hole. When he rolled that one in for an eagle, he had gone out in just 31 shots and had the outright lead on nine under. How on earth do you do that at nearly 42 and after four back operations in 18 months? On the back nine there was a semblance of what we had been expecting, as he came home in a prosaic 37 shots. Still, 69, 68 was way ahead of the anticipate­d curve and left him in the mix for the final two rounds. He is in joint fifth place, five shots behind leader Charley Hoffman. What a weekend in prospect.

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