Golf legend Tiger Woods was also all smiles on his third day of competition at the Hero World Challenge, a tournament in the Bahamas where he returned from ankle surgery in April.
Author of a card of 75 (3 over par) on Thursday and 70 on Friday, Woods (47 years old) finished the day on Saturday with 71, moving one place to 16th in the rankings (out of 20) heading into this tournament that he organizes.
“I still have the game in me. Now it’s a matter of whether my body can keep up,” he said.
“It could have been a little better than the score suggests, I could have returned a card a little less than 70 I think. “But I played cleaner than yesterday (Friday),” he added.
“Being able to overcome my little aches and pains showed me that I could string together laps and recover every day, which I wasn’t sure about. I’m very happy with how the week went.”
The golfer with 15 major titles, who was the victim of a serious car accident in February 2021, initially stayed away from the greens for more than a year and returned at the 2022 Masters, where he finished 47th. This year he was eliminated in the third round of the Augusta Masters before undergoing surgery on his right ankle in April due to the aftermath of his accident.
After three of four days, American world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler (69-66-65) leads the rankings, three shots ahead of Britain’s Matt Fitzpatrick (70-68-65), with Woods 16 shots ahead.