NASSAU, Bahamas – Tiger Woods’ first aggressive rounds since April had a little bit little bit of every thing with the Hero World Challenge host predictably rusty on his method to an 18^th-place end within the 20-man discipline.

For the week, Woods gave glimpses that his recreation, if not his physique, might face up to his desired four- to six-event schedule subsequent yr.

“His speed and length are not an issue. He still has plenty of talent in there,” stated Rickie Fowler, who was paired with Woods on Friday. “Now we’re coming back to injury 2.0, 6.0, I don’t know where we’re at now, but it’s better when he’s around.”

Here are six issues we discovered about Tiger 6.0 (?):

Good days and dangerous

The surgical procedure on his proper ankle in April has left Woods with a noticeably altered gait, which devolved into an outright limp by Sunday.

Although the surgical procedure has left Woods’ ankle pain-free, there are nonetheless loads of different areas of concern. On Thursday, when he was requested the place he was sore, his solely barely tongue-in-cheek reply was, “Everywhere.”

Still, for the primary time because the Genesis Invitational in February he navigated 72 holes and he appeared largely happy with the state of his recreation.

“I’m curious just like you guys what this is going to look like,” he stated. “I haven’t done it in a while, I haven’t done it with my ankle the way it is now and I was excited each and every day to kind of get through it and kind of start piecing rounds together again.

“Every day I got faster into the round. The first day took me a while to get a handle on it, second day was faster, today was right away. And that’s eventually, when I play on a regular basis, that’s normally how it is.”

Easy energy

Although Woods completed eighth within the discipline in driving distance, the extra telling statistic was his strokes gained: off-the-tee numbers, which left him fourth simply behind the likes of winner Scottie Scheffler and Viktor Hovland.

Sneaking up on his 48^th birthday later this month and slowed by all method of accidents and illnesses, Woods can nonetheless cling with the youthful gamers as evidenced by his opening tee shot that traveled 326 yards and was nicely previous taking part in associate Justin Thomas.

“I’m hitting the ball farther than I did when I first came out on Tour. I’m slower [swing speed], but tech [is better], I’m still able to hit the ball in the middle of the face so there’s always an advantage to do that,” he defined.

Swing 6.0

The most present model of Woods additionally has a barely totally different swing, however not like these iconic actions he used whereas working with Butch Harmon, Hank Haney and Sean Foley, the present swing is dictated by what his physique is ready to do.

“It wasn’t a major swing change. It just is more of a lack of mobility. My ankle really has no mobility anymore,” he defined this week. “I can’t drive my knee like I used to, and obviously I can’t twist like I used to because my back is fused. There’s just a lack of things I can do, but it’s not like I made any major swing changes or I’ve tried to make any changes. I just let me body just tell me what I need to do.”

Limitations

One of the extra attention-grabbing revelations Woods made this week at Albany was an admission that the assortment of accidents he’s endured all through his profession has restricted his choices on the course.

“There’s a lot of things I can’t do that I used to be able to do with a golf ball,” he stated. “I used to be able to call upon any shape, any shot whenever you wanted and was able to contort myself to those shots. I can’t do that anymore. I’ve always been one that has been able to hit the ball in the middle of the face, so that’s been good.”

Room for enchancment

While Woods was largely happy together with his week, there are many areas to work on earlier than subsequent season.

On Saturday, he talked about his rusty quick recreation which left him 16^th within the discipline in strokes gained: around-the-green, however he largely dismissed that as a byproduct of taking part in a grainy course that’s at all times among the many circuit’s hardest quick recreation exams.

The greater concern was his par-5 scoring. He was 3 beneath for the week in par-5 scoring (Albany has 5 par 5s), which is the place he separated himself from the sphere in his prime.

“I didn’t play the par 5s well at all. Whether it was from the fairway or from the sand or from the bushes, wherever it may be, I didn’t take care of the par 5s at all,” he stated. “When you have par 5s that are reachable, you have to play them better than I did.”

He’s been staying busy

It would have been straightforward to suppose Woods’ choice to hitch the Tour’s coverage board was ceremonial, however that clearly isn’t the case based mostly on his detailed and direct feedback this week in regards to the circuit’s ongoing negotiations with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and, extra importantly, the inner governance assessment.

“We can’t let that [the June 6 framework agreement] happen again,” he stated. “How do we do that, is having six player directors so we control the board and we control what we’re going to do. We’re not going to have what transpired in a few months without our involvement again.”

Evidence of this got here Saturday when the board had an prolonged assembly through video convention name with the framework settlement looming on Dec. 31.