Woods, Woodland share Rd 1 lead in Japan

Chiba (Japan), October 24

Tiger Woods returned to competition in style, shooting his best score in more than a year to take the lead with a spectacular 6-under-par 64 in the opening round at the Zozo Championship today.

Two months after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery, the 15-time Major champion made an “ugly start”, hitting his opening tee shot with a five wood into a pond at Narashino Country Club.

Three straight bogeys augured for a long day, but for the next 15 holes he could do nothing wrong, running up nine birdies in his first career appearance in the Tokyo area.

Followed by a huge sell-out gallery of 17,000, nearly all of whom had eyes for one player only, Woods did not let them down with a performance that conjured up images of the halcyon days when he strutted the fairways with an aura of invincibility.

“It was a crazy day,” he said after earning a share of the lead with fellow American Gary Woodland, one shot in front of home favourite Hideki Matsuyama.

“I hit bad shot after bad shot after bad shot ... and next thing you know, things aren’t looking very good,” Woods said.

But he had a bashful smile on his face a few seconds later after his ball hit a tree and ricocheted back towards the fairway.

He made the most of his reprieve. From 194 yards, he took direct aim at the pin and hoisted an eight iron that landed a few feet in front of the hole, setting up a closing birdie. — Reuters