Tiger Woods made a successful comeback after a good ten months break. At the Hero World Challenge in Albany/Bahamas, which he organized himself, the 41-year-old American was ranked ninth out of 18 participants with a total of 280 strokes.
At the end, Woods played a 68 on the par-72 course, except for the third day of the tournament (75 strokes), the 14-time Major Winner showed consistently good performances,”Overall, I am very satisfied. I have shown good signs of improvement,”said Woods after the last lap. He hopes for a “brilliant future”.
Victory went to Rickie Fowler. The 28-year-old won 270 strokes ahead of his U. S. compatriot Charley Hoffman (274), third place went to Tommy Fleetwood (England) and Jordan Spieth (USA/both 276).
Woods had suffered from persistent back pain since his early retirement from the Dubai tournament on 3 March. February no longer played on the tour. In April, the former number one in the world ranking list had been operated on his damaged back for the fourth time. In mid-October Woods returned to training.
In the Hero World Challenge, besides Woods, who slipped to 1199th place in the rankings, there were also world number one Dustin Johnson, world number two in the rankings, Spieth and Olympic gold medallist Justin Rose (England).