Tiger Woods results: Ugly finish leaves Tiger near the bottom of the leaderboard

Unless it got really ugly, the final score was never going to matter much in Tiger Woods’ first competitive round in 466 days. We just wanted to have him back, doing something, anything.

Tiger gave us a little bit of everything — the darts into flagsticks, some booming drives, birdie runs, wild drives, messy chips, and an opening round 73.

Again, the number doesn’t matter so much as how the day progressed after the longest layoff of his career. Overall, there was probably more good than bad, given the circumstances, but this round hit its emotional peak on the eighth hole. Unfortunately for Tiger, there were 10 more holes to play and he hit an adrenaline crash, turning what should have been a 68 into a 73.

The churn of the final 10 holes was not particularly kind to the scorecard, as Woods went from a tie for the lead on the eighth hole down to second-to-last place by giving back five shots over that last stretch. It became a grind, the kind we’ve grown accustomed to over the last five years, that finished with a yanked drive in the water on the 18th hole and a closing double bogey.

The card read 33-40 for a 1-over round and despite that ugliness on the back nine, this was a positive day for Tiger. The expectations were low and no matter what happened, he held us in the palm of his hand there for the first two hours. Woods poured in four birdies in his first eight holes to match the lead at 4-under.

The hot start used every club in the bag, too. He was ripping drives, using his new TaylorMade M2 to often outdrive his younger playing partner Patrick Reed. He put it past Reed some 20 yards on an early par-5. The short game — which, separate and apart from his back injuries, threatened to end his career in recent years — was actually a strength early in the round. He saved multiple pars with delicate chips from tight, grainy greenside lies.

Those were the kind of spots where he’d chili-dip and chunk from during those dark times when it appeared he had the yips. Every time he found one of those spots, it got a little tense but he almost always executed the shot he needed to and got in the vicinity of the hole. There was only one chunk and it came on the ninth hole from an extremely difficult spot.

The irons were strongest part of his game. He fired several darts into these flagsticks, including a tee ball on the par-3 eighth that included his infamous “ONE YARD!” command. That pushed us to the edge of the couch, swooning for what might come. We lost it when he dropped this on top of the flag.

That tap-in birdie was his third straight red number, his fourth of the day, and gave him a share of the lead. The start far exceeded all expectations. If he could do this after such a long layoff and looking so miserable the last time we saw him, he could do anything. The Masters and everything else this coming summer were over. Give them to Tiger.

Reality then set in over the closing nine. He’d post only one more birdie and give away the round with two doubles in his final three holes. The messy close included a water ball and several trips into the many waste areas that left him in or up against a bush. Those bushes forced one unplayable lie drop and another shot that had to come out backwards.

While his putter did not convert several chances early in the round, the driver was probably his biggest problem. That club repeatedly put him in trouble, including at the last with that yank into the pond. The slight positive for Tiger with that club is that it seemed to be a one-way miss — every ball was going left. In the past, he’s been a complete mess caught between a two-way miss searching for something. These were supposed to be pull-cut shots that just never cut back into play.

There’s obviously a lot of work to do, but we expected as much. The back nine 40 would be really ugly under normal circumstances but that’s not what today was. It was still ugly, but acceptable. Staying healthy, avoiding those dreaded chip yips and not totally imploding with some astronomical number in the 80s were the goals.

There will be more ugly shots and crooked numbers over the weekend but the point is, Tiger is back. An early run to the top of the leaderboard reminded us how nothing else in golf compares to having Tiger around and what can be again.

Here’s the full leaderboard after one round in the Bahamas: