COMEBACK KID... NOT BACK
Tiger shows flashes before struggling to finish
NASSAU, Bahamas — For the first eight holes in Thursday’s opening round of the Hero World Challenge, Tiger Woods looked like his old self. For the final 10 holes, however, he just looked old.
Woods — playing tournament golf for the first time in 466 days, ranked 898th in the world and the oldest player in the field this week at nearly 41 — looked dominant early at Albany Golf Club with four birdies on his first eight holes.
In fact, when he birdied the par-3 8th hole to get to 4-under, Woods had a share of the tournament lead with J.B. Holmes, Matt Kuchar and Louis Oosthuizen and heads were turning all over the grounds.
But Woods played his final 10 holes at 5-over, appeared to run out of gas and finished with a 1over 73. He’s in 17th place out of the 18 players in the field. The only player who shot worse than Woods was Justin Rose, who carded a 2-over 74.
So, with re-pairing after every round in this boutique event, Woods and Rose — both of whom are members of Albany, own houses on property and play the course often — will be paired in the first group Friday morning.
Holmes took the first-round lead after shooting an 8-under 64, but all eyes were on Woods.
“It felt good to have that adrenaline surging through the system again,’’ Woods said of his first tournament round since he finished tied for 10th at the Wyndham Championship in August 2015. “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.’’
The next step is not allowing a good round to bleed away like he did Thursday.
Woods struck the ball well, though his miss with the driver was left. His iron play looked particularly crisp except for one poor approach on 16. He hit some terrific chips, but also had a couple loose ones — a chunk on No. 9 reminiscent of his chip-yips from last year being one of them.
But overall, it felt like Woods played better than his score indicated.
“Unfortunately, I hit the ball in three bushes and had a water ball, so consequently I let a really good round slip away at the end,’’ he said.
The final insult of the round came on 18, where there’s a lake on the left side of the fairway, and that’s exactly where Woods hit his tee shot, leading to his second double bogey on the final three holes. He bogeyed 16 from the middle of the fairway after hitting a terrific tee shot and then making a mess from there.
Asked if he ran short on stamina after not having com- peted for so long, Woods said, “I wouldn’t say that. I just made some mistakes. I just made 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.’’
Indeed, there is no cut in this event, so regardless of how poorly he might play the next couple of days, Woods will get in four rounds as long as he’s able.
Woods lamented his driving as the main element to his game. He hit only 6-of-14 fairways and it hurt him.
“We know the guys are going to go low around this place,’’ Woods said. “If you can drive the ball well here and if you’re on the longer side, this golf course, you can just tear it apart.’’
Indeed, Bubba Watson won last year’s event in its first year at Albany at 25-under.
Because this has been the longest layoff of his career, Woods was most encouraged by “how quickly’’ he “fell into the competitive mode and I felt the feel of the round.
“By the time I hit the second, my tee shot on the second hole, I had already gotten into the flow of the round,’’ he said. “That’s something that for me when I’ve taken layoffs and taken breaks, it’s how quickly can I find the feel of the round. To be able to not play in what, 15, 16 months, and get it on the second hole is nice.’’