Woods frustrated on bogey-laden final round
Tiger Woods wrapped up his first tournament in 15 months with a mixed display as he carded a 76 to finish the Hero World Challenge on four-under par.
The 14-time major winner made a disappointing 73 on his PGA Tour return on Thursday despite being four under through his opening holes, but showed more promising signs with scores of 65 and 70 on rounds two and three.
Woods was unable to maintain that low scoring on Sunday, though, as his final round was littered with high scores, his five birdies not enough to move him on from his overnight score of eight under.
After four successive pars the 40-year-old encountered blips at five and six that saw him drop three shots, a double bogey coming after a bogey at the par-three fifth.
However, he reacted superbly to reach the turn at level par with three birdies in a row.
Tiger Woods’ 2016 debut is complete.
73-65-70-76. pic.twitter.com/PjweZlNRAB
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) December 4, 2016
Maintaining that run proved difficult, though, as he saw another four shots slip away in the early stages of the back nine and Woods reached the 13th tee four-under.
Once again he fought back with two birdies at 14 and 15 but he was unable to pick up any more shots and finished on a low at the last.
After his tee shot found a bush, the former world number one scrambled to card a double bogey and sign for a 76, leaving him on four under for the tournament.
“I think it was a great week to be back, to be competing, playing against the best players in the world,” he told the PGA Tour’s official website.
“Unfortunately I made a lot of mistakes this week, I made a lot of birdies but I also made a lot of mistakes.
“I made some poor decisions, and quite frankly it feels a little weird not to play in a cart. So it’s a little different, getting my legs back and get my body back, and focusing for a long period of time, these are things that I have missed for about a year and a half.
“I made some birdies which was nice, I was playing aggressive, this golf course allows one to be aggressive but I made some bad mistakes, like I had two sevens [on Sunday], you can’t make two sevens, I had three doubles which adds up to a pretty big number but on the flip side I was able to be aggressive and make birdies and some putts. I just need to balance it out.”
