Tiger's Return Marred By First Round Meltdown

In a day which many thought wouldn't happen again, Tiger Woods came back to play professional golf for the first time in 15 months. It looked like the Tiger Woods of old was back and ready to play. However, a late round meltdown made Tiger finish with a 73 (+1). Tiger is in 17th place and 9 strokes behind the leader J.B. Holmes (-8) at the Hero World Challenge.

Tiger got off to a hot start. After paring the first two holes, Wood birdied the par 5 3rd hole after a good chip on shot 3. After paring holes 4 and 5, Tiger would go on to birdie holes 6, 7 and 8 to go to -4 for the round and a share of the lead. 

However, things would start to crumble for Tiger after that. Tiger would bogey the 9th to finish the front 9 at -3 and a score of 33. After paring the 10th, Woods bogeyed the 11th. Woods would par 12, 13 and 14. He would then birdie the 15th to briefly get back to -3 with 3 holes to play. Then on the 16th hole, Woods would double bogey to fall to -1. After paring the 17th, Woods would again double bogey to fall to +1. Tiger shot a 40 on the back 9.

In an interview with ESPN; Tiger said this about his round "I just made some really silly mistakes, mistakes I don't normally make, but I haven't played in a while." When asked if Tiger was running out of gas; Tiger added, "I wouldn't say that. I just made some mistakes." However Tiger was optimistic about his round adding, "How quickly I fell into the competitive mode and I felt the feel of the round. By the time I hit my tee shot on the second hole, I had already gotten into the flow of the round. That's something that for me, when I've taken layoffs and taken breaks, it's how quickly can I find the feel of the round. It's good to be able to play [for the first time] in, what, 15, 16 months and get it on the second hole." Tiger will be back at it for Round 2 tomorrow afternoon on the Golf Channel at 1:30pm.