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Woods

LOS ANGELES. — Tiger Woods, 14 months removed from his last competitive outing, nearing his 41st birthday and in recovery from multiple back surgeries, still ignites interest like no other golfer.The 14-time major champion will tee it up on Thursday at the Silverado Resort in Napa, California, in his first competitive start since a 10th-place finish at the Wyndham Championship on August 23 of 2015.

The normally low-key Safeway Open, start of the USPGA Tour’s 2016-17 season in California’s Wine Country north of San Francisco, is suddenly the centre of the golfing world.

“I’m sort of glad I’m not there that week,” Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy said when Woods announced the projected timetable for his return in September. “It’s going to be a bit of a circus.”

Compared to 45 media outlets credentialed in 2015, 106 are credentialed for this year, with organizers doubling the physical size of their media centre.

A similar jump in ticket sales was expected, with some reports suggesting fans could be treated to a superstar pairing of Woods and five-time major winner Phil Mickelson in the opening rounds.

Not that Woods needs any help to draw a spotlight, and rampant speculation on just where his game might be after more than a year of painstaking rehabilitation.

“We’ve played nine holes together. He’s pounding it a mile and flushing everything . . . his trajectory and ball flight are like the Tiger we knew 15 years ago,” Sweden’s Jesper Parnevik told Golf Digest in early October.

“Comebacks are never a sure thing, but something tells me his might be spectacular.”Woods, who will turn 41 on December 30, might settle for steady, with no setbacks.His agent slammed reports in February that Woods’ rehabilitation wasn’t going well, and that his condition had deteriorated. — AFP.