Tiger Woods returns to competitive golf with 'squirrely' 75, soreness - ESPN

NASSAU, Bahamas — After the first competitive round of his latest comeback, Tiger Woods said his surgically repaired right foot and ankle held up well over the opening 18 holes at the Hero World Challenge on Thursday.

That doesn't mean the 15-time major champion wasn't hurting.

«My leg, my back, my neck,» Woods said when asked what was sore. «Just from playing, hitting shots and trying to hold off shots. It's just different at game speed, too. Game speed's a lot different than at-home speed.»

It probably didn't matter that Woods carded a 3-over 75 in the first round, which was good for 18th place out of 20 golfers, 8 shots behind co-leaders Brian Harman and Tony Finau. Or that Woods was 4 over in the last four holes after he seemed to run out of gas.

What probably mattered, at least for Woods, was that he was able to play a round of competitive golf without the excruciating pain he experienced at the Masters in April, when he was forced to withdraw during the third round.

Woods, who turns 48 next month, had subtalar fusion surgery on his right ankle two weeks after the Masters to address post-traumatic arthritis that was caused by injuries suffered in a car wreck outside Los Angeles in February 2021.

«I was going to have to have this ankle either replaced or fused at some point,» Woods said. «It just wore out and I was dealing with bone-on-bone for a number of months. I don't have to worry about that anymore.»

Playing in his first PGA Tour event in more than seven months, Woods was rusty. He carded five bogeys and a double-bogey on the par-5 15th, the easiest hole on the course. Woods hit only six of 13 fairways and 10 of 18 greens in regulation. He lost 2.09 strokes to the field on approach.

Woods said he was never