Fowler wins while Woods finishes well

Rickie Fowler, seven shots behind to start the final round of the Hero World Challenge, opened with seven straight birdies Sunday and closed with an 11-under 61 to win by four shots over Charley Hoffman.

Tiger Woods, meanwhile, closed with a 68 to tie for ninth in the 18-player field in the Bahamas — his best finish since a playoff loss at this holiday event in 2013.

It capped a successful return to golf by Woods, and he headed into the holidays thinking about a schedule for 2018.

“I’m excited,” Woods said. “This is the way I’ve been playing at home.”

Fowler was the first player to offer a scouting report on Woods ahead of his return from a 10-month layoff, hinting that Woods was hitting it “way by” him in some of their matches in Florida.

“He sharpened me up a little bit,” said Fowler, who set the course record at Albany Golf Club. “I’ve gotten a little scared of how good he was playing at home, thought I needed to start playing a little bit better.”

Fowler won his second title of the year, but Woods was the story. More than his score, he looked strong from start to finish.

Playing for the first time since recovering from fusion surgery on his lower back — his fourth back surgery in three years — Woods shot another 31 on the front nine and closed with back-to-back bogeys to finish 10 shots behind Fowler.

Fowler, whose lone PGA Tour victory this year was in the Honda Classic, was close to flawless on the front nine. He holed birdie putts of about 12 feet on the first two holes, hit a gap wedge to three feet on the par-five third, made his toughest putt into the green from 15 feet on No. 4, and then holed a bunker shot on No. 5. He followed that with another wedge that spun back to a foot on the parfive sixth, and he hit out of a bunker to about seven feet on the next hole.

By then, he was tied for the lead as Hoffman, who birdied his first hole, began to drop shots. Hoffman never caught up and shot 72.