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Tiger Woods speaks glowingly of injury comeback and sets his stall out for the winter

Image: Tiger Woods: Hopes to compete early next year

Tiger Woods insists he is delighted with his return to golf following a four-month lay-off with injury.

The former world No 1 has been out with a back problem but raved about his freedom of movement on a comeback at the Hero World Challenge at Isleworth.

“I’ve made some progress. I hadn't played in four months but I was able to play without any issues and that really reinforces that I'm doing the right thing for my body,” he said.

“I obviously need to clean up my short game, but to come out and play without any kind of pain, and hit the ball as hard as I want without really flinching, is great progress.

“It feels good to get that rush and hit drives that hard again; take bunkers out of play and cut corners. I haven’t felt healthy enough to do that in a very long time. I've got my speed back.

“I didn't hit the ball as well as I would like but I was able to play for four days and the way I wanted to and that's progress.”

To come out and play without any kind of pain, and hit the ball as hard as I want without really flinching, is great progress.
Tiger Woods

Woods, who had not played since the PGA Championship in August, gave little away about his upcoming schedule, stating it was “pretty full – I’ll leave it at that”.

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The current world no 24 has previously spoken of a desire to compete with world no 1 Rory McIlroy at the August National in April and has identified what side of his game he can improve in the meantime.

“If I stay the course I'm on now, I'll eventually be able to do what I want to do,” he said.

“It’s a process to get back to that level. It takes winning and you've got to build up to it but I've got some time.

"I like what I'm doing right now. I just want to reinforce it before I take my break. My short game was not good so there are some things I can definitely work on.”

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