Tiger Woods Cites Progress, Notes Difficulty in Return at Riviera

Tiger Woods fired a two-over par 73 in the ultimate spherical at the Genesis Invitational on Sunday, calling 4 accomplished rounds in his first begin in seven months “progress” even if in classic Woods fashion he’d have liked to do better.

“It’s progress, but I didn’t win,” mentioned the 15-time main champion, who remains to be restricted by the extreme decrease proper leg accidents he suffered in a February 2021 automobile accident, which have required a number of surgical procedures.

“It actually was slightly bit tougher than I in all probability let on,” Woods added after posting a one-under par total of 283 for 72 holes.

“My team has been fantastic in getting my body recovered day to day and getting me ready to play each and every day.

“That’s the hard part that I can’t simulate at home,” Woods mentioned. “Even if I performed 4 days at residence, it’s not the identical as adrenaline, it’s not the identical because the system being ramped up like that, the depth, simply the main target that it takes to play at this stage.”

Woods, who reiterated this week that with spinal fusion surgery behind him and a right ankle that will always make walking any course a challenge, he can only hope to play all four major championships in a season with “a couple” of different occasions scattered by way of a yr.

“That’s simply going to be my future,” Woods said.

The first major of the year will be The Masters in April at Augusta National — where Woods won his fifth green jacket in 2019.

He didn’t specify if he might try to compete in another tournament before the Masters.

Woods hadn’t played a tour-level event since he missed the cut at the Open Championship in July.

Sidelined after his accident for the remainder of 2021, he made a stunning return at the Masters last year to finish tied for 47th. But he withdrew from the PGA Championship after the third round.

A return at Riviera continued Woods’s long history with the course, where he made his PGA Tour in 1992 as a 16-year-old high schooler playing on a sponsor’s exemption.

Unfortunate streak continues

He missed the cut — and Riviera remains the course he’s played most without a tournament victory, with a runner-up finish in 1999 his best result in 14 tournament starts.

“Unfortunately, my streak still continues,” he mentioned.

His four-under par 67 on Saturday was Woods’s greatest spherical in relation to par since 2020.

But the whole lot appeared just a bit bit more durable for the previous world primary on Sunday.

After a birdie at the par-five first, he had bogeys at the fifth, eighth, ninth and twelfth earlier than rolling in a 30-footer for birdie at 13 that obtained him again into pink numbers for the event.

At 15, nonetheless, he missed from inside 4 toes for an additional bogey.

Woods bounced again rapidly, sticking his tee shot at the par-three sixteenth inside six toes and making that for birdie, however he was unable to make the most of the par-five seventeenth, the place he was in a greenside bunker on the way in which to a par.

He closed with a textbook par at 18 and had a wave for the massive, supportive gallery.

While Woods has loads of time to hang around with colleagues like Justin Thomas and Rory McIlroy at residence, teeing it up alongside them is totally different.

“I miss the fraternity of the fellows,” he said, adding that after being away from the tour so much in recent years it’s also interesting to see “a lot of new faces out here that are going to be the future of our tour.”

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