The good, then bad for Tiger

Woods, who tees off at noon (1700 GMT) Thursday alongside fellow American Patrick Reed, had said his biggest worry after 16 months away was how he would handle the adrenaline rush of facing rivals.

– Reuters picBAHAMAS, Dec 2 ― Tiger Woods’s first competitive round in almost 16 months provided more questions than answers as he teased golf fans with a performance that fluctuated between brilliant and terrible at the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas yesterday.

That he is able to play at all and at times as well as he did was as much a positive as anything, especially given an injury history that includes three back surgeries since early 2014 and his first competitive round in more than a year.

“It’s going to take a little time”, said Jordan Spieth, the PGA Tour Rookie of the Year in 2013, the last year that Woods won on tour. And I said ‘just stop it.’ I feel sorry for Tiger Woods now, because he is still a prisoner of who he used to be. He then postponed his return as a player twice and finally, at the Hero World Challenge, the world has the chance to see him play again. Tried to hit one really hard and made a mistake there, put it in another bush on my layup. Unfortunately, I made those mistakes. After opening with pars thanks to efficient approaches, Woods delighted the sizeable “Tiger Troop” moving along with him by grabbing his first birdie on the par-five third.

Woods climbed the leaderboard early with birdies at the third, sixth, seven and eighth holes, exhibiting a deft chipping game in the process, before losing a good bit of his momentum with a poor tee shot and a chunked chip shot that led to a bogey at the par-5 ninth.

The event is not an officially sanctioned PGA Tour event, but it is his first event since playing at the Wyndham Championship in 2015.

Woods sank an eight-foot birdie putt at the par-4 seventh and followed with a two-foot birdie putt at the par-3 eighth to join the leaders before his stumble at nine. “The first eight holes he played really well”.

“But overall, he’s really close, and that’s good to see”.

Woods made a bogey on Nos. “I look forward to this season and hopefully a win or two”.

“I just made some really, if you look at it, some really silly mistakes”, he said.

The 40-year-old Woods showed glimpses of his old self as he had a run of birdies to begin with, and was even briefly tied for the lead. “I was be able to hit all the shots I needed to hit”. Another green in regulation set up Woods for a birdie putt he converted to get to two-under par. I just need to keep playing, my feel just has to keep coming back. Two holes later, he flared an iron from the sandy waste area into a bush and had to take a penalty shot, making another bogey on a par 5. And his woods and driver were erratic, often pushed left and off the fairway.

“I know it generally is a half a club, but is it going to be more than that because I haven’t played or is it going to be less than that or be about that? We’ve got three more days”.

However, he withdrew three days before the opening round, saying his game was not sharp enough.