Tiger Woods Contending after First Round of Professional Return

After months of hype and expectations, Tiger Woods finally took the tee in a PGA TOUR event today at the Hero Challenge. And for those who were expecting a good performance, you weren’t disappointed.

After his first professional round in over 300 days, Woods was able to shoot a three-under 69 on Thursday. And not only is that a low number to shoot in a return from spinal injuries and substance abuse, it’s also good enough to put him right in the hunt for the tournament. Tiger only sits three shots back of leader Tommy Fleetwood.

Woods had received positive marks from many players and analysts in the last few weeks saying that he was healthy and due for a strong return. And his return performance was quite strong, especially his accuracy and distance. On the first round, Woods was able to hit 7 of 13 fairways and 12 of 18 greens in regulation. He’s certainly leaving himself putts so if the putter starts working well for him, Tiger is flashing his un-capped potential.

Tiger Woods walks off the 18th green underneath a rainbow during the…

Tiger Woods walks off the 18th green underneath a rainbow during the first round of the Hero World Challenge at Albany course on November 30, 2017 in Nassau, Bahamas. Get premium, high resolution news photos at Getty Images

For Tiger, he was just happy to get back into a solid rhythm on the course. “I was very happy I found the rhythm of the round by the second hole,” said Woods. “After I hit that 8-iron in there pin high (on the par-3 second), I felt I’ve got the rhythm. On 3, I smashed a drive down there and then hit a 2-iron about 265 into the wind, I just hit it on a rope, put it up there on the green. I knew I was back playing again.”

If returning to the game after such a long absence wasn’t enough pressure on the always cool Tiger, he was also playing with Justin Thomas, last year’s player of the year. Thomas won five tournaments and finished top 10 in many more, but Tiger was able to keep pace with the young phenom, who also posted a 69 on the day. And not only did Woods match Thomas score-wise, he also did with distance, a big positive coming off back surgery.

Overall, Tiger did not disappoint even with the high expectations he had coming into the Hero Challenge. Now that he has one round under him and is in contention, maybe we’ll be lucky to see Tiger’s clutch gene return in an opening tournament victory.

Cover Image via Instagram