Tiger happy with progress

ORLANDO. — Tiger Woods was pleased to swing powerfully and without pain in his come-back golf event, but the former world number one finished the Hero World Challenge with plenty of work ahead.

Woods, who ended a four-month back injury lay-off at the event, fired a par 72 on Sunday at Isleworth to complete 72 holes on level par 288, sharing last with Hunter Mahan in the 18-golfer field.

“It feels good to feel that rush again,” Woods said.

“I didn’t hit the ball as well as I would like. My short game was awful. But I was able to play for four days and hit the ball the way I wanted to and that’s progress.

“It’s so nice to hit drives that hard again, take bunkers out of play, cut corners, hadn’t felt healthy enough to do that in a very long time.”

After battling illness for two days, stumbling to five-over in his first eight holes and displaying woeful chip shots thrown off by swing changes, Woods found the positives in simply playing without pain, rare for him in 2014.

“I made some progress,” Woods said. “I hadn’t played in four months. I was able to play without any issues and that really reinforces that I’m doing the right thing for my body.

“It’s nice to be able to go out and hit driver that hard again. I’ve gotten my speed back. Look how far I’m hitting it now. That’s nice.

“I obviously need to clean up my short game. That still needs a lot of work.

“To come out and not play in any kind of pain and hit the ball as hard as I want without really flinching is great progress.”

Jordan Spieth, coming off an Australian Open win last week, fired a 66 to finish a wire-to-wire Challenge victory by 10 strokes over world number two Henrik Stenson, his 26-under 262 dominating the field much the way Woods did in his heyday.

Woods, who had not played since the PGA Championship in August, said he planned to build upon his solid start in a four-month plan to peak for the Masters, happy his body was healthy enough for full-power practices.

“If I stay the course I’m on now, I’ll eventually be able to do what I want to do,” Woods said. — AFP.