TIGER WOODS FELT “silly mistakes” prevented him from making a return to remember in the opening round of the Hero World Challenge.
Woods took to the first tee in the Bahamas without a competitive round to his name since August 2015, having undergone two back surgeries last year.
The 40-year-old got off to a flyer and was four under through eight, although bogeys at par-fives nine and 11 derailed a round that limped to a one-over 73 with double-bogeys at 16 and 18.
“I got off to a nice start, was four-under par there for a little bit,” Woods told the Golf Channel.
“Unfortunately I hit the ball into three bushes and had a water ball so, consequently, I let a really good round slip away at the end.
“I wouldn’t say that [I ran out of gas]. I just made some mistakes. I tried to hug that left side on nine and ended up in a bush there, made a mistake; tugged it up the left side on 11 trying to hit one really hard, made a mistake there and put it in another bush on my lay-up.
If you look at it, I made some really silly mistakes – mistakes I don’t normally make. But I hadn’t played in a while. Unfortunately I made those mistakes. I can clean that up. We’ve got three more days and hopefully by the weekend I’ll be playing a little bit better.
Woods lies 17th in an 18-man field and will partner last-placed Justin Rose on Friday after the 2016 Olympic champion carded a 74.
JB Holmes currently leads the way on eight under and Woods believes there will be plenty more low scores to come.
“We know the guys are going to go low around this place,” he said.
If you can drive the ball well here and if you’re on the longer side, this golf course you can tear apart.
“You can drive a couple of par fours, all the par fives are reachable and then you’re going to have probably four or five pitching wedges on down into the par fours. You can see somebody shooting 20-plus [under par].
“I just made a couple of mistakes out there on the par fives. I bogeyed nine and 11 – two holes I should be making birdies on. I should just tear those holes apart.”
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