If it's possible to have a bad week playing golf for hundreds of thousands of dollars in the Bahamas, Tiger Woods just had one. The 2018 Hero World Challenge host finished up in Sunday's final round with a 1-over 73 to end his week at 1-under 287, one clear of Hideki Matsuyama. Woods dug himself a deep hole on the sandy beaches of Albany on the front nine on Sunday, and he spent all day trying to dig his way back out. Let's take a look at his round.
Front nine (4-over 40): That's right, Woods shot a 40 (!) on the front nine with two bogeys on the three par 5s. The good news (if there can be good news on an easy course like Albany in this low-stress event) is that he didn't have any blowup holes like he did in the first three rounds (all of which saw him make double or worse on at least one hole).
Back nine (3-under 33): Woods had it cranking nicely after his weak start. Only a bogey at the par-3 17th kept him from completely righting the ship and getting back to even par on the day. The biggest difference? He played the par 5s in 2 under instead of 2 over.
What went well: Well ... I guess you could say his bounce back on the back nine went well. Woods noted that after his round. "I just always compete," Woods said. "It was not very pretty on that front nine." No it wasn't!
What went poorly: His distances with short irons have not been great. That's mostly chipping, but from 100 yards and in he's just not been super inspiring. I'm not going to lose my mind about it, though. Just like we warned against reading too much into a T9 finish in last year's Hero World Challenge, I refuse to get even remotely worked up about a 17th-place showing here.
Quote of the day: "It was an incredible year to go from where I was at this point last year to go to where I'm at now," Woods told Steve Sands of NBC. "I'm so blessed and so thankful to have the opportunity to have everything turn my way."
Stat of the day: Progress!
Tiger Woods finishes the year without a single withdrawal from a tournament for the first time since 2013.
— Justin Ray (@JustinRayGC) December 2, 2018
Where he stands: Woods will end his week about 20 strokes back of the leaders. It's not ideal -- and it's certainly not where I pegged him coming into the week -- but again, when you combine the fact that it's the beginning of December with the fact that Woods got sick after "The Match" against Phil Mickelson, you get a whole lot of "do not care" from me.
What's next: Woods flies to Australia for a 2019 Presidents Cup walkthrough. He is presumably done with competitive golf in 2018, and we won't see him again until (likely) January 2019. His normal start date is the Farmers Insurance Open (Jan. 24-27), but there's a little buzz about him potentially playing the Sentry Tournament of Champions on Jan. 3-6. Regardless of when we see him, there will be a lot more properly placed excitement about Year 2 of what will likely be the last big comeback of Tiger's professional career.
