Tiger Woods felt like he had never been away. He played that way, too. Woods took five practice swings, slow and measured, settled over the ball and then backed away to make sure he was aiming in the right direction. Then he launched his 3-wood down the fairway and went back to work.

“Walking down the fairway, it felt like business as usual,” he said. “I thought I would be more nervous on the first tee. It just came back down to playing the game again, and that felt good.”

His game looked as good as ever.

Woods made a triumphant return to golf Wednesday in the Accenture Match Play Championship with a birdie-eagle start and a convincing victory that showed golf what it had been missing in the 253 days since he limped his way to an epic U.S. Open title.

The gentle fist pump returned when he hit 3-iron from 237 yards to within 4 feet for eagle. He struck another familiar pose by slowly raising his putter over his head as a 20-foot eagle dropped on the 13th hole.

The only attention paid to his left knee came after a lengthy wait on the 315-yard 15th hole. Woods stretched his legs, then grabbed a 3-wood and drove onto the green.

He never trailed Brendan Jones of Australia, closing him out with a par save from bunker to win, 3 and 2.

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