can’t keep it up

Tiger starts fast limps home In return

A disgusted Tiger Woods tosses his iron on the 16th fairway during the first round of the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas. Woods was 5-over on his final 10 holes to finish with a 1-over 73 in his first action in nearly 16 months.

N ASSAU, Bahamas — Is Tiger Woods finally saying “hello’’ when it’s nearing time to say “goodbye?’’ The following message appeared on Woods’ Twitter account at 10:03 Thursday morning, two hours before he was to tee off for his first competitive round of tournament golf in 466 days: “Can’t wait to get back out there and mix it up with the boys.’’

Woods sounded like a giddy teenager fired up for a day out with his pals at Disney World.

It was the latest evidence of Woods’ determination to present a kinder, gentler, warmer and fuzzier version of himself after years of playing the role of coldblooded killer on the golf course and someone who would look right through people rather than relate to them off of it.

En route to winning 79 tournaments, including 14 majors, Woods was a lone wolf who never needed anyone as he shattered records. Now, he suddenly sounds like a guy who craves companionship with his colleagues. It’s a weird twist to a weird career.

Woods, who shot a 1-over 73 in Thursday’s opening round of the Hero World Challenge at the Albany Golf Club, is the oldest player in this week’s field — more than a decade older than six of his 17 fellow competitors. He turns 41 on Dec. 30.

Perhaps age and being a father of his two children, coupled with being away from playing tournament golf for nearly 16 months before Thursday and realizing how much he missed it has softened Woods’ sharp edges.

To those of us who have covered Woods since before he won the first of his 14 career majors in 1997, he hardly sounded like his old self in his pre-tournament press conference when he spoke longingly about missing the camaraderie among the players on the PGA Tour.

“I think what most people don’t really understand is how much of a fraternity this tour really is,’’ Woods said. “The amount of dinners I’ve gone out to with the guys, the texts, the phone calls over the last 14, 15, 16 months. The guys wanted me to come back out here and play or help in any way possible.’’

This was a stunning turnabout from a player whose tournament routine used to go like this: Pull into the tournament parking lot, walk to the practice range already wearing his golf spikes, play his round and then march straight back to his car and drive off without interacting with anyone in the locker room.

“I think when he was at his peak of his career and he was very focused, he was always very much into his own bubble,’’ Henrik Stenson said. “He did his practice, he didn’t spend much time at the venues. My memory was that he spent very little time at the events, did his work elsewhere and focused on his things. He’s more social now than he was back then.’’

Woods’ selfish image changed with his role as Ryder Cup vice captain in September. Universally, players came away from that experience feeling like they saw a different Tiger Woods.

Patrick Reed, who grew up idolizing Woods and who was paired with him on Thursday, said their “relationship definitely grew’’ at the Ryder Cup.

Bubba Watson got emotional when talking about Woods and the impact he’s had on him.

“I think as we grow, we grow as people, we grow as family,’’ Watson said. “Now seeing his kids, I think Tiger has softened as we’ve all seen it, right? And the way he’s interacted in the [Ryder Cup] team room, what he said, how he put his arm around certain people and trying to inspire them … I think he sees how much he truly is missed.

“I think he’s learning now that we all miss him. We miss the interaction with him, we miss the interaction from seeing him practice, the interaction to just learning from him and listening from the charity side of it and from the golf side of it.

“We don’t care what he shoots,’’ Watson went on. “Y’all [the media] might, but we don’t. We just want him out here being healthy because we can learn from him on and off the course. We want our champion back. We want our Tiger Woods back.’’

Before it’s time for him to say “goodbye.’’