WGC-Bridgestone Leaderboard: What Tiger Woods Must Do to Stay in the Mix

After a three-month layoff, Tiger Woods returned to the PGA Tour at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in Akron, Ohio on Thursday, firing an impressive two-under-par 68.

His opening round score was good for 18th place, tied with 13 other players in the field of 77. Playing conditions on the South Course at Firestone Country Club were close to perfect. The wind was virtually nonexistent. The greens were soft and very receptive. And the skies were either partly cloudy or overcast amidst humid, mid-80 degree temperatures.

Woods didn't appear to have any lingering effects from the injuries to his bum knee or Achilles tendon that had kept him from a full round of competitive golf since the Masters Tournament back in April.

He parred his first nine holes, but it wasn't without challenge. A 17-foot par save on No. 3 and a 20-footer for par on No. 9 kept Woods at even par heading into the back nine. He then promptly birdied holes 10 and 11 to get to two-under par.

His only bogey of the day came at No. 14, but an athletic cut shot from the right rough on No. 16 set up an average approach followed by a 30-foot putt for birdie to get back to two-under par.

"I was hitting proper shots out there," Woods said in his post-round presser. "And the distances I was hitting the golf ball—I hadn't hit the ball like this. This was fun, to be able to hit the ball with that much flush feeling through the golf ball and speed I had. It was pretty nice."

I was very impressed with Woods' round today. While he didn't find a lot of these narrow fairways (only five), he did manage to hit 12 greens in regulation, and most impressively he only needed 27 putts.

In a seemingly endless comeback that has seen far worse play from Woods, he has to be encouraged by his ball striking and especially his putting.

If he continues to putt as well as he did today, Woods could very easily find himself high on the leaderboard on Sunday. Of course, he'll have his work cut out for him, chasing the likes of Adam Scott (eight-under par) and Jason Day (seven-under par), who both took full advantage of the ideal playing conditions.

FedExCup points leader Nick Watney was three shots back at five-under par. Then nine golfers were at four-under par and five more players, including Phil Mickelson, were at three-under par.

That's a lot of talent to get past, but Woods can't be concerned about what everyone else is doing. At least not yet. He needs to keep hitting quality golf shots and reading and rolling his putts as well as he did today.

As far as caring for his injured leg following a full day at the office, so to speak—forget about it. Woods said no treatment was necessary anymore.