‘Thankful to be Back’, Tiger Woods Finishes 15th in his Comeback

The weekend was all about Tiger Woods’ much-anticipated return but it was Japan’s Hideki Matsuyuma who won.

Tiger Woods returned to competitive golf after nearly 16 months. (Photo Courtesy: Twitter/PGATOUR)

The weekend was all about Tiger Woods' much-anticipated return to the golf course course but it was Japanese Hideki Matsuyuma who clinched the 2016 Hero World Challenge Golf title in the Bahamas on Monday. Woods' return to competition after an absence of nearly 16 months was a mixed bag, though the former world number one said he had a great week simply competing again.

He wrapped up his campaign with a four-over 76 at the Albany Golf Club and finished 15th in a 17-man final field.

I am just so thankful to be back out here playing again. I made some birdies this week, and I felt like I did really well in that regard but I also made some really silly mistakes. I played the par-fives, quite frankly, awful.

Tiger Woods

The roller-coaster nature of his form over the four days at the Albany course on the island of New Providence was sharply illustrated by the fact that he led the elite field with birdies (24) and double-bogeys (six).

He sank a few long-range putts but too often was unsteady from inside six feet as he tried to shake off the rust after a lengthy stint on the sidelines due to back-related issues.

In the twilight of his career at age 40, Woods knows that time is not on his side but he intends to play as much tournament golf as he can next year as he strives to work his way back up the world rankings from a mind-boggling 898th.

The good thing is that because I have been away for so long, everything I do here I keep accruing (ranking) points. If I play halfway decent, I will keep climbing quickly.

Tiger Woods

For Matsuyuma, it was his fourth win in his last five outings, including the WGC-HSBC Champions in China. He dominated the event throughout with rounds of 65, 67, 65 and 73, his worst of the tournament. He led both Dustin Johnson and Henrik Stenson by seven strokes going into the final day's play.

After winning, Matsuyuma said:

I can’t say that I played well today, but I did win Tiger’s tournament and what a great honour that is. I first heard the name of Tiger Woods at the ‘97 Masters. I videotaped it and I watched that video over and over and over again.

"Unfortunately, I was not able to see all those wins (by Tiger) because they didn't have the broadcast in Japan, but I knew Tiger was winning and I knew he was very good and I almost expected him to win in almost every tournament," said the Japanese.

(With inputs from Reuters and PTI.)