Golf great Tiger Woods played his first round of competitive golf since February on Thursday and it was like he had never been away.

The 14-times major champion, who also missed the whole 2015-16 season because of injury, had back surgery in April and then suffered a recurrence of much publicized personal problems.

The 41-year-old pleaded guilty to reckless driving having being found asleep in his car by the side of the road in May.

He had five drugs in his system and has since had treatment to help him deal with his medications.

He looked to be very much on the way to recovery as he hit five birdies as part of his three-under-par opening round in the invitational Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas. He is just three shots off the leader.

"I thought I did great," Woods said. "I hadn't played in a while after some difficulities, so to come out here and score like I did was nice. It was fun to be out there and be part of a scorecard again."

Woods has not won a major title since the 2008 US Open and his career has gone downhill since amid injury and tales of marital infidelity.

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