Former world number one Tiger Woods said he would compete in the European Tour’s Dubai Desert Classic next month as he charts his comeback from injury.
“I’ve always enjoyed playing in Dubai and it’s fantastic to see how the city has grown phenomenally from when I first started playing there,” Woods said on the event website (www.dubaidesertclassic.com) yesterday.
Woods, sidelined by back pain for the past 15 months, will launch his official comeback at the January 26-29 Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines in southern California, the PGA Tour event announced on Wednesday. The Desert Classic at Emirates Golf Club is the longest-running European Tour event in the region and takes place from February 2-5.
Woods has also committed to play the February 16-19 Genesis Open at Riviera, California, and his hometown tournament, the Honda Classic in south Florida, the following week as he leads up to the Masters in Augusta in April. He is expected to play the March 16-19 Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando, Florida, an event he has won a record eight times.
The 41-year-old American has not played an official money event since Aug. 2015 and pulled out of a planned return at the first event of the 2016-17 season in northern California in October.
He said then that his game was not ready but the 14-times major champion subsequently made his comeback at the Hero World Challenge, an unofficial PGA Tour event, in the Bahamas in December where he finished 15th in an 18-man field.
Woods will be making his eighth appearance in Dubai, where he has won twice and is 92-under par for the 28 rounds he has played there since 2001.
He joins world number two Rory McIlroy, Sweden’s British Open champion Henrik Stenson and Masters winner Danny Willett among leading players at an event dubbed the ‘Major of the Middle East’.
“It was great winning in Dubai in 2006 and 2008. When you win in Dubai, you know you’ve beaten an outstanding field,” said Woods. Woods will however start the year at the Farmers Insurance Open this month, the PGA Tour event announced.
Woods had been widely expected to start his season at the January 26-29 Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines in southern California, an event he has won seven times.
He also captured the 2008 US Open there on one of his favourite layouts.
The former world number one had already committed to the Feb. 16-19 Genesis Open at storied Riviera and announced on Wednesday that he would also tee it up the following week at his hometown tournament, the Honda Classic in south Florida.
Woods was scheduled to return at the first event of the 2016-17 season in northern California in October, but pulled out three days beforehand, saying his game was not ready.
The 14-times major champion subsequently made his comeback at the Hero World Challenge, an unofficial PGA Tour event, in the Bahamas in December where he finished 15th in an 18-man field.
Woods has not publicly announced his full schedule leading up to April’s Masters, the first major of the year.
But in confirming these events he is clearly planning to get plenty of tournament rounds under his belt before his tilt at a fifth green jacket in Augusta.
Woods is expected to play the March 16-19 Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando, Florida, an event he has won a record eight times.
Tiger Woods has added a second and third PGA Tour event to his early 2017 schedule.
