Tiger Woods is dialed in on Friday at the Hero World Challenge

Tiger Woods’ first competitive round in more than a year featured the kind of inconsistency we’ve grown accustomed to in recent years, and what you’d expect after the longest layoff of his career. The front nine was a brilliant 33, and then it got messy on the back nine as Tiger dropped into second-to-last place with a 40.

So far on Friday, we’re only getting the good Tiger. The strong point of his game in the opening round was his iron play and approach shots. Those are dialed in again on Friday.

Two-thirds of the way through his round, Tiger has five birdies and no bogeys. The back nine, which was a mess in his opener, started with two red numbers in his first three holes, including this dart to a foot at the 12th hole.

Tiger is playing by himself, starting the day in second-to-last but dropping officially to last when his scheduled playing partner Justin Rose had to withdraw with a back injury. As a result, Woods is cruising around the course, playing the front nine in under 90 minutes, and developing a bit of a rhythm out there solo.

We’ve got six more holes to play, but this is thrilling to watch again, even if there are a couple crooked numbers coming into the house. Overall, he’s now 4-under and in the middle of the pack of this 18-man field.