Tiger Woods has a sloppy finish for a 75 in his return in the Bahamas

NASSAU, Bahamas: Tiger Woods held up just fine Thursday in his first time competing in eight months, except for limping at the end. That was more about his golf than his fused right ankle.

Woods was holding his own at the Hero World Challenge until a double bogey from a bush on the par-5 15th, followed by two more bogeys. The result was a 3-over 75, eight shots out of the lead and a score better than only two players in the 20-man field at Albany.

Asked what he got out of his round, Woods laughed and said, “Hit a lot of shots.”

British Open champion Brian Harman and Tony Finau led the way at 5-under 67, one shot ahead of Jordan Spieth, who was entertaining as ever. Spieth made only five pars and had one stretch of 10 holes without one until the final hole.

But this day was all about Woods, as it usually is whenever he plays, and especially when he has been away for so long. He expected to be rusty, and it eventually it showed.

“I didn’t have my feels,” Woods said. “Conditions were tough early. I did not finish off the round like I needed to. Kind of went sideways at the end.”

He was 1 under for the round through 14 holes when he pulled his tee shot to the left at the base of a bush. He contemplated his options before decided to try to punch it out toward the fairway or even a bunker, even though he could take the club back only a foot or so.

Woods caught mostly soil and advanced it only a few feet. He punched his third shot back to the fairway and then came up about 40 yards short of the green. He pitched that to 10 feet only to miss the bogey putt.

He found a fairway bunker off the tee on the tough 16th, came up short of the green and hit a weak pitch to 20 feet that led to bogey. Then, he three-putted the