Tiger Woods makes superb start as he begins long-awaited comeback in Bahamas

Coming into the tournament, all eyes were on Woods, who had not played competitive golf for 466 days following a number of back surgeries and setbacks on his long road to recovery.

While Tiger was right there with J.B. Holmes at the start of the Hero World Challenge 2016 event, he’s now near the bottom of the field. He admitted that there was a time where he thought he would never play golf again, but now, he hopes he is back and better than ever.

The greatest player of his generation and arguably of all time, he has not won a tournament anywhere since 2013 and his title drought in the major championships dates back to 2008. “Wind’s supposed to pump on the weekend and I’ll be playing a little bit better”.

At that point he was tied for lead at four under, but he found only heavy rough from the ninth tee and then mis-hit a chip to the green, dropping him back to three under.

He added another bogey on the 11th when he drove into a waste area and then had to take an unplayable after his layup wound up in a bush.

“I’m going to be focused, I’m going to do what I can do and put the ball in the correct spots, give myself looks and try to bury these putts and post scores, and get myself in that mix come Sunday afternoon”, Woods said.

“All in all, I felt pretty good”. He also hit a terrific 5-iron from 231 yards to set up a near kick-in birdie on the par-3 eighth. Woods said there were no surprises about how he played, and his only complaint was getting his speed right on the green.

“By the time I hit my tee shot on the second hole, I had already gotten into the flow of the round”, he said.

“Like anybody that takes off – I mean, a year and a half for injury or whatever other reasons – you don’t just come back and expect anything, ” Spieth said. “We’ve got three more days”. The last couple holes I made a couple putts and I was telling Joey I’m going to hit it at least four, five feet past the hole, I don’t care, and they were going about a foot past.

Next April will mark 20 years since Woods won his first major crown at the 1997 Masters, setting a course record at 21 with a dominating display that humbled a world-class field, ignited “Tiger-mania” and helped push revamping and lengthening at famed Augusta National.

Only Briton Justin Rose (72), who is battling back problems of his own, finished below Woods. He finished the round with another double-bogey, to finish 1-over on the day.

“I’m nervous for every tournament I play in whether it’s after a lay-off or six in a row or a major”.

On the front nine the 14-times major victor looked like the player who once dominated the sport as he stormed to four-under through eight holes, including a sizzling stretch of three straight birdies from the sixth. Woods has been away from his sport for months, but now is finally back for this latest tournament in the Bahamas. Plagued by back problems since 2013 when he was No. 1 in the world, he finally shut it down after tying for 10th in the Wyndham Championship on August 23, 2015, and then going through two back surgeries. I’ve waited this long, it’s not going to hurt to wait just this much longer.

“I wouldn’t say that”, he offered.

That, however, was the last positive hole Woods played.