Late stumble spoils romantic Tiger Woods return

Tiger Woods made a stunning start to his first competitive round in 466 days before a late stumble dropped him down to a 73

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Tiger Woods shot 73 in the first round of the Hero World Challenge

Anand Datla in New Providence, Bahamas

December 01, 2016: Tiger Woods walked into a dream this morning at the Albany Golf Resort. Straight off the first tee, the great American played as if he were never away from the game. It lasted for eight holes, by when he had reached four under and very near the top of the leaderboard in the Hero World Challenge. J B Holmes held a one shot lead over Hideki Matsuyama, with a brilliant 64 on Thursday.

The 14 times major winner was solid off the tee and irons helped him along nicely, carrying him within a few feet from the flag. The crowds roared their approval; Tiger Woods nodded his acknowledgment – the romance of his return started to envelope the Albany golf course like a magical shroud of misty magic.

The reality check came at the par-5 ninth hole. Tiger Woods decided to hug the left fairway, trying to give himself an opportunity to attack the flag with his approach.

The ball curled too far left, ending in the thick forage and rocks. Tiger Woods took a while just to find his footing before managing to extricate his new Bridgestone ball back to the fairway.

The third shot landed just short of the green. Tiger Woods failed to get up from there, as the ball landed just short of the green and trickled back in the wrong direction.

The Florida resident conceded his first bogey of the day and that was just the beginning of a hard day’s grind.

A second bogey came at the 11th hole and double bogeys at the 16th and 18th compromised an otherwise solid effort by Tiger Woods.

“I hit the ball in three bushes and a water ball today. It could have been something really good. I got off to a nice solid start and made a few mistakes there. I didn’t play the par 5s very well in the middle part of the round and consequently got it going the wrong way,” said Woods.

“I just made some really, if you look at it, some really silly mistakes, mistakes I don’t normally make, but I haven’t played in a while.

“Unfortunately, I made those mistakes, I can clean that up. We’ve got three more days. Wind’s supposed to pump on the weekend and I’ll be playing a little bit better.”

US Open winner Dustin Johnson also made a good start, getting off to a six under 66, with Open Champion Henrik Stenson sitting at 65.

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