Tiger Woods 'good to go' as he gets ready for Firestone

TIGER Woods, back in action this week for the first time since mid-May, showed no signs of a limp as he played nine holes of practice at Firestone yesterday.

"I'm good to go," said the former world No 1, who has slumped to 28th in the rankings during an absence for knee and Achilles tendon injuries suffered at The Masters in April. "The docs gave me the clearance, so here I am. I started practising a couple of weeks ago, which was nice, and I was close to playing last week, but again the doctors advised me that maybe I should take another week. I started pushing it pretty hard (in training] and I feel good now."

Woods, without a major for more than three years and any tournament victory since November 2009, was last seen in competitive action at the Players Championship, but aggravated his injuries on the first tee and, clearly struggling, limped through the outward half in a six-over-par 42 and withdrew.

His return comes in the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational on the Akron course where he won seven times in nine visits and was second and fourth the other two times, but last year finished an horrendous joint 78th out of 80 on 18 over par as the details of his multi-million dollar divorce were being finalised.

The other big news during his lay-off was his sacking of caddie Steve Williams, the New Zealander who helped him win 13 of his 14 majors, but who reportedly upset Woods by working for Australian Adam Scott without seeking permission first. He is using old friend Bryon Bell as what he terms an "interim" measure and has not made any decision yet on who takes over his bag on a long-term basis.

As has been his custom throughout his career, Woods was out practising before most of the crowd had even arrived. No other players were on the range as he warmed up, but Bell and swing coach Sean Foley were there and after about an hour Woods was out on the course. He completed his nine holes in only 90 minutes, strode into the clubhouse and 30 minutes later was back on the driving range.

Asked if there was any rust in his game to remove, Woods - who tees off with Open winner Darren Clarke tomorrow - replied: "I actually didn't feel any. It's Tuesday. I still haven't been in a competitive environment yet, so that's a totally different atmosphere. But the shots felt very crisp, very clean, I was very pleased."