Tiger’s on the prowl Woods back among leaders on his return
American returns from 10-month lay-off in style Five birdies in his first round since back surgery
Never mind merely playing four rounds simply to prove his fitness, Tiger Woods has rather more lofty, and, indeed, more familiar, ambitions after a rousing comeback round of 69.
In his first competitive appearance in 10 months and after a spinal-fusion operation six months ago, Woods’s three-under resurrection thrust him into contention at the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas, putting him only three behind the leader, England’s Tommy Fleetwood.
But the fact the player ranked 1,199th in the world is up there competing in an 18-man field featuring eight of the world’s top 10 only begins to tell the tale this of remarkable golfing day, in which he matched the score of his playing partner, world No3 Justin Thomas.
“I thought I did great,” Woods said. “I hadn’t played in a while after everything that I went through and it was fun to have a scorecard again.”
This is an essentially meaningless event, an end-of-season dollar fest in which 18 multi-millionaire pals get to play for some much needed Christmas money in a £2.6million purse. But with the 14time major-winner back in his spikes, the interest inevitably spiked with the likes of basketball superstar Steph Curry tweeting “the wait is over” and Olympic legend Michael Phelps announcing he was “so pumped to see Tiger back”.
He swung it free and easy, rotated through the ball with no apparent constraint and, in contrast to the last few of his many comebacks, was able to fully engage in his shots.
Indeed, he did not hold back and, more pertinently, did not hold his back. In short, Woods ripped it like yesteryear.
Granted, there were a few extremely worrying duffed pitches and the cynics will recall that he contracted the chipping yips a few years ago and believe that the demons slyly went into hibernation in the inactive seasons since.
Yet we should not forget that here was a 41-year-old who has undergone four back operations in the past two years, as well as going through rehab for addiction to prescription medicines which saw him arrested while slumped over the steering wheel of his car in May.
To get from that humiliating police mugshot to the first page of a leaderboard has been some journey. And if he is as fit as he looked at the Albany golf course then this could just be beginning of one of sport’s more fantastical trips.
The drama started on the very first drive. It was heading towards the sandy wasteland on the left before a fortuitous bounce saw it end up on the fairway. He missed a 10-footer for birdie and then one from 15-footer on the second, before he hit the par-five third in two, courtesy of a marvellous approach.
There was a fist-pump straight from the memory banks on the fourth when he saved par and even though it was followed by an F-bomb – which, yes, was just as memorable – on the ninth, it only added to the sense that Tiger is, indeed, back.
This was four strokes better than his first round in last year’s comeback in the same tournament, but it seemed on a different level.
Through all this it was easy to forget there were 17 other players on the course and none more impressive than Fleetwood. Two weeks after securing the European Tour’s Order of Merit, he went bogey-free for a six-under 66 and a one-shot lead over Rickie Fowler and Matt Kuchar.
It will be a special week for Fleetwood, regardless, in New Providence. He will marry his fiancée, Clare Craig, there on Tuesday, with their two-month old son Frankie in attendance. It could prove a memorable tournament for all of them.