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Woods was present for the opening of Bluejack National Golf
Course, which he helped design.
The former world number one warmed up in front of a crowd, hit a
ceremonial tee shot and then played a few holes with longtime
friend and fellow Major champion Mark O'Meara.
"I haven't been out here playing like this. I hadn’t played any
holes until today," Woods told reporters.
"I know people have said I've played holes back at Medalist, but
I haven’t. This is actually the first time I’ve played holes
since Wyndham. It's been a while."
Woods, 40, last competed at the Wyndham Championship in North
Carolina last August before back surgeries ended his year.
Woods' world ranking has plummeted to 499 and earlier this month
he missed the Masters for only the second time since his
tournament debut in 1995. Multiple videos of the 14-times Major
champion hitting golf balls have surfaced this year and Monday’s
short round showed further improvement.
"I'm just progressing," he said. "You saw how I was going at it
today, nice and smooth. That's harder than I have been going at
it the last month. Just gradually progressing. We're just trying
to progress and I'm doing that."
The Golf Channel reported that Woods could compete at the Wells
Fargo Championship early next month but Woods and his team have
maintained there is no planned return date.
(Writing by Jahmal Corner in Los Angeles; editing by Amlan
Charaborty)
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