Tiger Woods shows signs of rust at World Challenge, makes it through unscathed
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Tiger Woods has finished his first tournament in just over 15 months, and the rust was clearly evident during the final round of the World Challenge in the Bahamas.
His fourth straight round brought out mixed signs of fatigue and focus.
One day after Woods made a brief run up the leaderboard, he made three double bogeys and closed with a 4-over 76 — the highest score of the tournament.
He led the field in birdies with 24. He led the field in double bogeys with six. It resulted in the world number 898 finishing 15th out of 17 players.
But this week was not just about numbers.
Woods, the dominant player of his generation, had gone 466 days since his previous tournament because of two back surgeries — the recovery at times making it difficult for him to walk and leading him to wonder if he would ever play again.
He showed plenty of length off the tee, and after five straight days walking, including the pro-am, he showed no signs of pain.
"It's really good to be back playing again, competing," Woods said. "Unfortunately, I made a lot of mistakes. I made a lot of birdies, but I made a lot of mistakes."
Rust or fatigue?
"It's both. I made some poor decisions. I hit the ball in some wrong spots," he said.
"Quite frankly, it feels kind of weird not to be in a cart. Getting my legs back, focusing for a long period of time, these are the things I missed for a year-and-a-half."
One day after he briefly pulled within two shots of the lead, it was clear early the final round would be a struggle.
Woods was scrambling for pars instead of being in a position to attack pins. He twice made double bogey on a par 5, starting at number six when he blasted out of the sandy area to the back side of a double green, forcing him to chip off the putting surface.
He rallied with three straight birdies to play the front nine at Albany in even par. He was never going to win the tournament — Hideki Matsuyama was too far ahead — but it was a chance to post a decent number.
Instead, Woods could not get up-and-down on number 10 and made bogey, which was followed by a double bogey, and while he responded with two birdies, he made his third double bogey of the week at the 18th hole.
"I made some birdies, which was nice. I was playing aggressively," he said.
"But I also made some mistakes. I had two sevens. You can't make two sevens. It adds up to a high number. On the flip side, I was able to be aggressive. I need to balance it out."
AP
