The Open champion, Brian Harman, made a strong debut at the Hero World Challenge. First off the blocks he came back with a 5-under 67, which was matched by Tony Finau. The two were co-leaders after the first day. Woods played for the first time in eight months since the second round of the Augusta National, admitting to feeling’ soreness’ after a 3-over 75. Despite being in red numbers for the first 14 holes, he struggled to get back to 3-over, sometimes indicating a limp.
Woods was playing well, but he consistently made immediate bogeys after each birdie, resulting in three consecutive bogeys. Harman may not have found many greens, but he scrambled really well. He said, “I’m going to go hit a few, see if I can tighten my iron game up a little bit. Putted nicely other than the bogey on the last, pretty good.”
Finau made gains on the first and the third holes, but gave one of them on the tenth. Then in a span of five holes, he picked four birdies to surge to the top. He said, “I made a lot of six, seven footers whether it was after a chip or a bad first putt. That just kind of kept the momentum throughout the round.”