It was a good round for Tiger Woods at the Hero World Challenge on Thursday. He messed up his first tee shot, made a few long putts, and hit some impressive long iron shots with his playing partner Justin Thomas.
Woods’ round went off the rails when he hit his tee shot into a bush on the par-5 15th hole.
His ball got stuck in some plants, making the second shot hard to make.
At that point, Woods looked like a middle-handicapper who was trying to figure it out. His second shot went only a couple of feet, so he just barely made it.
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Woods told Todd Lewis of Golf Channel after the round, “I just tried to get it into the bunker, hack it out, and then knock it on the green from there.”
“But I couldn’t quite get it out, so I had to pitch it back to the fairway. I still had a chance to get up and down for bogey, but I didn’t take it.”
He made a double bogey right then, which dropped him from one-under for the day to one-over, and all of his progress stopped.
After that, Woods’ short game let him down on the next holes, as he failed to get up and down for par on the 16th. After that, he missed the 17th hole’s three-putt, putting him three shots over.
This gave the 15-time major winner a 3-over 75. He then made a par on the 18th hole. Tony Finau and Brian Harman, who both shot 5-under 67s, are ahead of him by eight strokes.
There’s no way you could blame Woods for saying he felt “rusty” after his round. It’s been since the 2023 Masters that he last played in a tournament. To date, Woods has played in six games since his car accident in February 2021.
“I want to play and compete.” “After my round, I felt like I was ready to play and compete,” Woods said.
“Most of the day I hit it hard.” I just didn’t do the things in my mind that I usually do and that I need to do. Even though I hit it hard, I did it wrong. I’ve always been good at hitting the ball in the middle of the face, but I need to get better at hitting it in the glass.
To the delight of the small crowd in the Bahamas, Woods hit his first tee shot right in the middle of the club face. On the first hole, a par 4, his shot of 326 yards was the longest of the day.
His first birdie came at the par-5 third hole, two holes after that one. After that, he made bogey, birdie, and bogey on his next three holes.
The best part of his round, though, was when he made a 48-foot birdie putt on the par-5 11th.
He got to 1-under with that, but that was the lowest he would go.
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So, Woods knows he needs to do better.
Woods said, “I guess you take it for granted when you play all the time.”
“All right, the wind is coming up. It will push the ball back. All you have to do is lean on it a little, flight it down a little, and add a couple of yards.” I wasn’t responding to it; I was thinking about what to do. After I thought about whether I should do it or not, I pulled the button. I should not fire the gun. Make a bad shot. It was something I did over and over again. I didn’t care about what I was doing or how I felt. I need to do a better job.”
Woods won’t have to worry about making a cut, thank goodness. There are no cuts in the Hero World Challenge. There are 20 people in the field. He is sitting in 18th place as of Friday.
