Rusty Tiger Woods drops multiple F-bombs on first PGA Tour start since Masters

A poor finish saw Tiger Woods card an opening round of 3-over 75 at the Hero World Challenge. 

Woods, 47, was making his first competitive start on the PGA Tour since hobbling out of the 47th Masters in April. 

The 15-time major champion showed little sign of any rust early on, hitting his first drive 326 yards and splitting the fairway. 

Woods made birdies at No. 3 and 5 either side of bogeys at 4 and 6 to turn in level par. 

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He sank a 48ft birdie putt on the par-5 11th to move into the red numbers but immediately dropped a shot.

Woods made a comfortable birdie at the par-4 14th but came unstuck at the very next hole with his first poor tee shot of the day.  

Using the new TaylorMade driver, Woods pulled his tee shot way left into a bush and struggled to hack his ball back into play. 

He was forced to go backwards and was visibly frustrated. He eventually made a double bogey before carding consecutive bogeys at 16 and 17. 

Sky Sports were forced to apologise after the hot mics picked up Woods dropping some F-bombs. "F---ing grainy," he muttered. 

A safe par at the last saw him sign for a 75. Woods' playing partner Justin Thomas posted a 2-under 70. 

Woods later told Golf Channel he was 'sore' and lacking in his feels. "I was a bit rusty," he said but nonethless pleased with his first competitive 18 holes in seven months. 

He added: "I felt like I was ready to compete and play. I hit it solid most of the day.

"As I said, I just didn't mentally do the things I normally would do and I need to do. I still hit it solid, but I hit it crooked.

"I've always had a knack of hitting the ball in the middle of the face, but I need to do a better job where I need to hit it in my windows."

By day's end that was eight shots off Brian Harman and Tony Finau's early lead of 5-under. 

The Hero World Challenge is an invite-only event, featuring only 20 players. Viktor Hovland is the defending champion. 

Leaderboard:

B. Harman, T. Finau -5

J. Spieth -4

C. Young, S. Scheffler, C. Morikawa, M. Homa -3

M. Fitzpatrick, J. Thomas -2

L. Glover, S. Burns, J. Day, V. Hovland -1

 

 

 

 

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