IT WAS something that the golf world had been waiting for.

'I'm now ready to play again,' Tiger Woods wrote on his website on Thursday while announcing his much-anticipated return to competitive golf next week at the World Golf Championships, a match-play event in Tucson, Arizona.

Woods, the defending champion, has been sidelined since June 16, when he defeated Rocco Mediate to win the US Open.

After the event, Woods had surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee. He revealed that he had played not only on a bad knee, but with a fractured left tibia as well.

His announcement totally overshadowed Thursday's first round at the Northern Trust Open in California.

Television coverage of the event at the Riviera Country Club came to a virtual halt as commentators avidly discussed the news and began to speculate on the form Woods is likely to produce on his comeback.

Although even the 33-year-old Woods has to be a little uncertain how his left knee will stand up to the rigours of tournament golf after a long layoff, all the signs point towards a successful comeback.

The 14-time Majors winner is renowned for his meticulous approach to the game and has repeatedly said he would not return until he felt capable of winning.

For the first time in a decade, he is virtually pain-free in his knee and is able to make the most of the swing changes he has effected while working with his coach, Hank Haney.

'Long-term, the greatest thing that could have happened is to go in there and reconstruct it,' Woods said of his knee surgery, the third in the last five years.

'We've been trying to play with a softer left leg, but I couldn't. There was nothing there. Right now it feels great to have that stability in the leg.

'It's not sliding all over the place; my bones aren't moving. Things that I was dealing with, I don't feel that any more. Now it's better than it's been in over a decade.'

Beyond next week's tournament in Tucson, he is likely to play at next month's WGC-CA Championship in Miami and the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando to complete his preparation for the Masters, the opening Major of the year.

The driving force behind his career has been his desire to overhaul the record 18 Major titles piled up by his childhood idol Jack Nicklaus.

Woods now trails by four with only Nicklaus ahead of him and, with a stronger knee and a more efficient swing, few would bet against him eventually outstripping the Golden Bear.

More dangerous

Padraig Harrington, who has won three of the last six Majors, believes Woods will return to the game as a more dangerous competitor with a bigger appetite for victory.

'I think he'll come back better,' the Irish world No. 3 said.

'He's proved over the years he's a guy who plays much better with rest.

'I also believe that, like any player who is forced to take a break from the game, he'll come back with a greater enthusiasm and love for the game because he's missed it.'

Woods has been sorely missed from golf's biggest events over the last eight months, his absence sharply reflected on the PGA Tour by plummeting television ratings.

Those ratings will soar next week, especially if Woods returns to immediate winning ways.

- Wire Services.

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