The walk to the Riviera Country Club from green #18 is steep. But any pain a smiling Tiger Woods might feel in his right ankle seemed to be soothed by the crowd chanting his name near the grassy hall surrounding the hole.
Despite the injury still plaguing the 15-time major winner on the run, Tiger Woods punctuated his first round of competitive golf in seven months with three birdies in the final three holes to shoot a 2-under 69 at the Genesis Invitational. to the PGA Electric Tour.
Woods trails by five shots behind co-captains Max Homma and Keith Mitchell.
“I didn’t want to be the silly host to miss her in front of everyone right after making a birdie,” Woods said of his birdie throw at No. 18. “It was a great run.”
Woods’ joy on the 18th was the culmination of not only seven months of waiting and rehab, but a fitting end to a tour that wasn’t easy at all. Over the course of more than five hours, Woods loaded the clutch and bounced three bogeys to finish with a flurry of stale shots that changed the duration of his entire turn.
Tiger Woods told reporters on Tuesday that hitting is not a problem. And on Thursday he came out and proved it. Off the tee, Woods was consistently hitting the ball for 320 yards (three of his shots were over 330 yards) and outpacing his playing partners – Rory McIlroy and Justin Thomas – in a few holes.
As Woods explained, the way the track was set up allowed him to get more distance off the tee due to his dribbling, though he still had to adjust to the distance he was getting based solely on adrenaline.
“There’s nothing better than the moment of a game, just feeling the butterflies and trying to smooth everything out,” Woods said. “Even though it’s cold out here, [the ball] was going farther than expected. I had to bring it all back.”
Given his physical condition, it was expected to be difficult for Tiger Woods to bear. And while that may have been the case, his game got better as the tour went on. The shots were advancing further, the approaching shots were getting tighter and the jabs fell last. After penetrating the 10th and 12th holes, Woods made three pars before moving to the 16th tee and hitting the putt of the day.
Woods set up on the left side of the tee box and carved a nine iron that faded to the right and landed at pin height, five feet from the cut. The batting slid to the right side and seemed to give Woods the spark he needed. He then drove a ball for 322 yards on a 17 par 5 and threw a 24-foot punt for birdie. He was well enough to run his first fist pump of the day.
By the time he reached the 18th green and had dropped to about eight feet for that third birdie in a row, it looked like a formality. There was no fist pump when the ball went down, just an immediate salute to the crowd who had been cheering him on since the first hit on the tee.
“I tried to stay calm all day,” Woods said. ‘I’m trying to figure out what I’m doing here because I haven’t played.’
Woods’ return is encouraging, given his health. Throughout the run, he again had a slight snag in his stride as he sought to reduce pressure on his right ankle. Several times on the tour, Woods removed his right boot and adjusted his ankle brace and sock. Other times, when he was waiting to start, he would tip his right foot up to stretch it as well.
When he finished in 11th place, Woods also took some time to apply some cream to his right lower back.
“My ankle is so much smaller than it used to be. I’ve had so many surgeries that the ankle keeps changing, the leg keeps changing,” Woods said. “Yeah, the shoes keep changing, the socks keep changing. Everything is a moving target. How far I’m going, how far I’m going, how active I’m going, how much I’m not. And the muscles that get activated, they’re a moving target all the time.”
Now comes the real test. After he finished his turn after 5 p.m. local time Thursday, Woods is scheduled to play the second round at 7:24 a.m. Friday — a two-hour shift to prepare his body for another 18 holes in the cold weather. As Woods explained, the time in between will involve plenty of icing and processing in order to get ready. Meanwhile, his playing partner McIlroy said he would spend some time punching the driver.
“I’ll work on the lineup,” McIlroy said. “I don’t like being hit.”
Woods said a big part of what made the game fun was playing alongside Thomas and McIlroy, two of his closest friends.
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“The ebbs and flows of acupuncture and mutual encouragement and storytelling,” Woods said. “I wasn’t here, so I missed some of the things that happened on the tour, which is kind of fun.”
It was clear at various points on Thursday that Woods was enjoying the comeback. However, it was also clear that the joy he showed after the round remained tied to his good performance and, in his mind, his chance of winning.
“That’s the only reason I brought it up,” Woods said.
