VIDEO: Tiger Woods’ rollercoaster return to competitive golf

By Australian Golf Digest

By Evin Priest

TIGER Woods got off to a roaring start in his long-awaited return to golf, but a scintillating front nine was cancelled out by two dreadful holes during the first round of the Hero World Challenge.

Woods, 41, opened his round in the Bahamas with four birdies in his first eight holes, but a bogey at the ninth was the prelude to a dismal finish. The 14-time major champion showed his rust with a bogey at the 11th before double bogeys at the 16th and 18th. Combined with a birdie at the par-5 15th, Woods signed for a rollercoaster one-over-par 73 to be second last in the 18-man event.

Woods has spent the past 16 months on the sidelines with a back injury and fans awaiting his return to the sport suffered through two false starts at the Safeway Open in California and the Turkish Airlines Open, both in October.

At the event hosted by his own charity – the Tiger Woods Foundation – Woods is nine shots adrift of leader J.B. Holmes, who fired a blistering round of 64 to hold a one-shot lead over Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama.

Watch highlights of Tiger’s best shots courtesy of the US PGA Tour: