He’s back … now what? The next step for Tiger Woods

Tiger makes his first competitive appearance in two months. From how to watch to what’s happening on each and every hole, we have you covered.

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PLAYA DEL CARMEN, Mexico – For the last two days at the World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba, you can’t miss a Norwegian. RELATED: Final leaderboard | The clubs Hovland used to win And that’s not, specifically, Viktor Hovland – although we’ll get to him soon – instead a throng of about 15 Norwegian fans who planned a trip around the event at Mayakoba in order to cheer on their countryman. Hovland gave the crew plenty to root for over the weekend at El Camaleón Mayakoba Golf Course and on Sunday he won for the third time on TOUR. He set the 72-hole scoring record in the process and became the first every back-to-back champ of the event. The group, all members of the same golf club in Norway, make an annual trip to Mexico. Hovland said he had no idea who they are, but when he played at Mayakoba three years ago he did see them once before. Oslo, Norway, is about 5,200 miles from Playa Del Carmen, but for the last two days, anyway, Hovland felt the love. “The Norwegian people are very patriotic and it’s cool to see that I can get so much support even in Mexico, which is pretty far away from Norway. They were great,” said Hovland, the fifth consecutive international winner on the PGA TOUR. “They applauded good shots and obviously cheered a little bit extra when I made a putt. It was really nice. I want to thank them a lot.” The crew was in full voice Sunday to cheer on the 24-year-old, who overcame what seemed like the universe working against him this week to take this one across the finish line. He won by four over Carlos Ortiz, who put on a show for the Mexican faithful. This is Ortiz’s second runner-up result in three years at Mayakoba. Hovland’s week started with a broken driver, a product of Danny Lee doing some speed training exercise on the range Wednesday. He had to borrow James Hahn’s, which worked out just fine – he was T2 in Driving Accuracy for the week. Hovland had his best-career effort in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee last season, so he said it’s unlikely he’ll put the new driver specs into his bag full-time, but there’s no denying that something clicked this week. “I could see myself using maybe this setup at certain courses for sure,” said Hovland. Then Hovland opened his second round by hitting his approach no more than “four steps right of the pin.” But it landed on a sprinkler head and went into the trees. Lost ball. “When something like that happens, you just kind of go, ‘Oh, man, come on, like really, is that (going to) happen?” said Hovland. “I was able to get over that pretty quickly.” Hovland righted the ship on Saturday with a 9-under 62 (perhaps since nothing odd happened that day) and was untouchable Sunday. He became the first golfer to win the same event in back-to-back years since Brooks Koepka at the PGA Championship in 2018-19. Hovland put on as complete a performance as any through the early part of the 2021-22 PGA TOUR season – despite plenty of obstacles in his way – and is projected to move to fourth in the FedExCup standings. “I wouldn’t say the third round that I played is my best round ever. I didn’t like, tell myself, ‘Oh, man, I’m playing the best golf of my life,’ but it’s just kind of putting everything together into four rounds and making very few mistakes,” said Hovland. “I would say I’ve definitely had better ball-striking weeks, but to put a good ball-striking week with good short game and good putting is something that I haven’t done very often.” On Sunday Hovland was 3-under for his first nine holes, and despite to bogeys on the back nine, he came in with a 4-under 67 to close the door. “I was coming in with some high expectations, but obviously for it to end like this and win by four shots, it’s been a cool week,” said Hovland. “Couldn’t ask for it to go any different.” Justin Thomas, playing in the group ahead of Hovland and Talor Gooch, finished third at 18 under, while another Ryder Cupper, Scottie Scheffler, finished fourth. Scheffler, who played alongside Bryson DeChambeau and defeated Hovland and Tommy Fleetwood on Saturday at Whistling Straits, said Hovland’s game has been “proven” over the last couple of seasons. “He’s a great ball-striker and a really good putter as well and obviously a very talented guy,” said Scheffler. “I’m sure this won’t be the last time you’ll see him on top of the leaderboard.” And with every appearance on top of a PGA TOUR leaderboard, you can bet there will be even more fans from Norway cheering him on.

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Day 4 competition at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play commenced with the Round of 16, bright and early Saturday morning at Austin Country Club. The eight players to advance will complete in Saturday afternoon’s quarterfinal round, with the winners moving on to Sunday morning’s semifinal matches. Keep it here to learn how the action unfolds throughout the day at Austin CC. MATCH RECAPS (LIVE SCORES, BRACKET) ROUND OF 16 SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER (5) def. BILLY HORSCHEL (12), 1-up In a rematch of the 2021 WGC-Dell Match Play championship match, Scheffler exacted a bit of revenge with a narrow victory in a match that wasn’t determined until the final green, thrilling the fans in his college town of Austin in the process. Since his runner-up at last year’s Match Play, Scheffler has gone on a tear, winning twice on the PGA TOUR this spring in addition to Ryder Cup stardom last fall, where he defeated Jon Rahm in Sunday singles. The University of Texas product added another notch to his match-play belt on Saturday morning against the spirited Horschel. In a closely contested battle, neither player led by more than 1 up at any point. Horschel won holes 1, 4, 9 and 13; Scheffler won holes 3, 6, 10 and 12. With the match tied at the par-5 16th, Scheffler drained an 8-footer for birdie to take the 1-up lead, after Horschel had narrowly missed his birdie try from just outside. Scheffler had a chance to close the match with a 10-foot birdie try at the par-3 17th, which gave the majority of the field fits all morning, but he could not convert. With Scheffler in for par at the finishing hole, Horschel had a 12-foot birdie try to force a playoff, but it did not fall. Scheffler advances to face upstart Seamus Power in the quarterfinal round, while Horschel falls short of a successful title defense despite a 2-0-1 mark in group play and a worthy battle against one of the game’s hottest pros. SEAMUS POWER (42) def. TYRRELL HATTON (13), 4 and 3 One of the feel-good stories of this year’s WGC-Dell Match Play, Power kept the good times rolling with a decisive victory over his fellow European, closing out the match with a routine par at No. 15 after Hatton’s 27-foot birdie try to apply pressure would not drop. Power, who hails from West Waterford, Ireland, developed a reputation for his elite play on the eGolf Tour in the early 2010s before earning his TOUR card via the Korn Ferry Tour. Up-and-down form persisted as recently as 2021; a year ago this week, he stood No. 463 on the Official World Golf Ranking. Propelled by a victory at the 2021 Barbasol Championship, he steadily ascended the ranks en route to earning his first Match Play start, and he has taken full advantage. After advancing to knockout competition with a 2-1 mark in group play, Power won the first hole with a par and then caught fire with three consecutive holes won on Nos. 3-5, including two birdies, staking a 4-up lead that proved to be insurmountable. Power’s 14-foot birdie at No. 8, his fourth birdie in a five-hole stretch, pushed his lead to 5 up. Power’s lead alternated between 4 up and 5 up for the remainder of the match, but Hatton could not move within striking distance after Power’s early surge. The Englishman’s 2022 Match Play run comes to an end despite a sparkling 3-0 mark in group play, where he knocked off Si Woo Kim, Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Daniel Berger.

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