Scheffler builds three-shot World Challenge lead, mixed day for Woods

MIAMI: World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler fired two eagles in his 7-under par 65 to build a three-shot lead at the Hero World Challenge on Saturday as Tiger Woods continued his comeback with a 1-under 71.

Fifteen-time Major winner Woods, playing his first tournament since ankle surgery in April that followed his withdrawal from the Masters, shook off a bogey-bogey start to card a 71 that left him at even par, 16 strokes behind Scheffler and tied for 16th in the 20-player event he hosts at the Albany Golf Course in the Bahamas.

Woods said he’d been “pleasantly surprised” at how his body has held up, which was more of a concern than the state of his game.

“I still have game,” he said. “It’s whether or not the body can do it.”

Woods, who turns 48 on Dec. 30, had ankle surgery in April on the same leg that was severely injured in a 2021 car crash. While his leg pain is gone, he said he still contends with chronic back pain, but said before the tournament he could play as much as once a month in 2024.

On Saturday he started 10 off the pace and got off to an inauspicious start with bogeys at the first and second.

He clawed back with birdies at the third, sixth eighth and ninth — where he got up and down from a greenside bunker — before two bogeys and a birdie coming in. That included a seven-foot par putt miss at the 18th.

“It could have been a little better than the score indicates,” Woods said. “I think I could have shot something in the high 60s. I think it was cleaner than it was yesterday.”

Most importantly, Woods said, he was “very excited” at how he has responded physically to the pace of competition.

“To be able to knock off some of the rust as I have this week, showed myself that I can recover each and every day,