Despite the absence of its greatest ambassador, Tiger Woods, the Hero World Challenge exhibition tournament kicked off Thursday in the Bahamas. After a round, four golfers share the reins of the competition.

While this event does not earn PGA ranking points, it brings together 20 of the top 35 golfers in the world and offers a total prize pool of US$3.5 million. Above all, donations are collected for the Tiger Woods Foundation.

South Korean Tom Kim, Austrian Sepp Straka, American Collin Morikawa and Norwegian Viktor Hovland temporarily took the lead with 69 (-3) points.

The Albany Course continued to pose problems for the crème de la crème of professional golf, with only eight of the participating athletes finishing the day on 72 under par.

The only Canadian in the race, Ontarian Corey Conners, is not part of this group. He had a roller-coaster day, catching six birdies but committing seven bogeys and one double bogey. This earned him the penultimate place in the competition at +3. Only Jordan Spieth (76) had a harder day.

Woods was due to return to competition at the tournament he is organizing but had to retire due to suffering from plantar fasciitis in his right foot.

The “Tiger” hasn’t played since July, when he missed the cut at the British Open. He is set to appear on The Match on December 10 alongside Spieth, Rory McIlroy and Justin Thomas.