Monday 29 January 2018 06:38, UK
After Tiger Woods declared himself "very pleased" with his comeback at the Farmers Insurance Open, Sky Sports Golf editor Keith Jackson rates his performance at Torrey Pines.
After an encouraging opening round in terms of fairways hit, Woods found far more long grass than short over the next three days, hitting only nine - yes, nine - of a possible 42 fairways.
On the plus side, the clubhead speed and power were good and his distance off the tee with both driver and three-wood was impressive for a 42-year-old with so little tournament golf under his belt since 2015.
It is obviously a work in progress, and he will look forward to hitting a few more long-irons from the tee box on the tight and twisty Riviera layout in a couple of weeks' time, when the famous "stinger" should prove a useful asset.
It is difficult to gauge his absolute performance with irons in hand as the majority of his approaches to the par-fours and fives were played from the rough.
But it was evident that he has regained enough power to gouge his ball from the deep stuff to somewhere in the vicinity of the green which gave him the chance to save par on a number of occasions.
Woods was one over for the par-threes over the week, a stat which would have been a lot worse had it not been for his scrambling abilities, and he did come within a couple of inches of marking his comeback with a hole-in-one in the first round with his best six-iron of the week.
The Woods short game certainly got a good work-out thanks to his waywardness off the tee, and he passed this particular test with an impressive touch with his wedges.
The chipping troubles he went through in late 2014 and into the following year were a very distant memory as he rediscovered his technique and his confidence around the greens with very little fuss.
Bunker play was solid, short-range pitching was consistent and we even saw a few high-quality flop-shots as he went through his full repertoire with more success than not.
Woods did not hole much of note in the first round but, by his own admission, he did not give himself enough decent looks at birdie as he struggled to get his irons within 20-foot range.
But his putting over the next three rounds was outstanding and looked very close to the Woods of old as he made a number of clutch par-saving attempts from 10-15 feet and nailed a few for birdies as well.
His class with the short-stick helped him turn "a snowman" into a two-under 70 on Saturday, and he ended the week ranked 15th in putts per GIR (1,714).
If his long game had been 10 per cent more accurate, I would have given Woods an A-minus for his 72-hole performance, but a solid B+ is a welcome score for a guy who completed four rounds in a full-field PGA Tour event for the first time since 2015.
The most important factor for the loyal army of Tiger fans was that he got through his comeback tournament without any signs of pain in his troublesome back, and the 42-year-old declared himself "pain-free" after he had holed out on Sunday afternoon.
With expectations tempered, and fairly unknown, at the start of the week, just making the halfway cut was an achievement, particularly as he had to birdie his 36th hole to get into the weekend on the number.
It is too early to tell if Woods can genuinely compete and contend for more majors and titles, but this was a positive start to build on ahead of his return to Riviera next month.
