The Tiger Woods hype train is running at full steam heading into his first competitive round of golf in nearly 10 months on Thursday at the Hero World Challenge. The various reports of Woods’ recovery and return to form have down nothing to stop the fanning of the flames.
However, until Wednesday at the Hero pro-am, those reports were simply that: hearsay. Woods showed at Albany Golf Club that, at least on occassion, the 41-year-old can still conjure up some magic.
Playing the 340-yard par-4 seventh hole, Woods pulled driver and reached the green. From there, a 20-footer found the bottom of the cup.
.@TigerWoods drove the green on the 340-yard 7th hole during his pro-am round on Wednesday.
Then he made the 20-foot putt for eagle. pic.twitter.com/P6nBsM9H2g
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) November 29, 2017
While pro-ams are much different that competing under the gun with a scorecard in his pocket, Tiger’s performance on Wednesday added a little more expectation on a return he insists is devoid of them.
GolfChannel.com’s Rex Hoggard had a recap of Tiger’s final day of preparation.
Tiger Woods completed his pro-am round on Wednesday at the Hero World Challenge, his first 18-hole round this week, and headed to the practice tee for some final tinkering before Thursday’s opening round, his first competitive round since having fusion surgery on his lower back in April.
“My driver feels good, I feel like I’m hitting it well,” said Woods, who missed just one fairway during his pro-am round and would have posted something around 3-4 under on his own golf ball, a number helped by an eagle at the par-4 seventh hole which was playing about 300 yards.
Woods said he wanted to work on his distance control with his irons and continued to focus on his chipping to prepare for his first competitive round since February when he withdrew after 18 holes from the Dubai Desert Classic.
Asked what he was looking forward to the most, Woods left no room for interpretation.
“Competing again,” he smiled. “It’s been a very long time and I’m really looking forward to getting out there and playing with Justin [Thomas] and having a good time.”
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