• Tiger Woods admits 'nerves' ahead of his competitive return
• The 40-year-old is back at this week's Hero World Challenge
• "If I care, I'm nervous," the 14-time major winner told USA Today

Tiger Woods has admitted he’s ‘nervous’ ahead of his return to competitive golf at the Hero World Challenge this week.

The 40-year-old, who will peg it up for the first time in almost 16 months in the Bahamas, has been putting in some serious practice since withdrawing from the Safeway Open and now says he’s ‘ready’ to return.

When Woods pulled out three days prior to the PGA Tour’s opening event in October, he said his game was in a ‘vulnerable’ state.

"If I care, I’m nervous" - Tiger Woods

That doesn’t seem to be the case anymore, however, and he admitted that if he didn’t feel nervous about his return, it would mean that he didn’t care.

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“Yes, I’m nervous,” Woods told USA Today’s Steve DiMeglio. “I’m nervous for every tournament I play in, whether it’s after a lay-off, or six in a row, or a major.

“I care. If I care, I’m nervous. And it’s good to be that way. To have that nervous energy and channel it, into aggression, into focus, into concentration, that’s good stuff.

“If I wasn’t nervous, that would mean I didn’t care. I don’t want to be out there flat. I want to be out here so bad. And now I am.”

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The 14-time major winner also revealed, following the strains of his role as vice-captain at the Ryder Cup, that pulling out of the Safeway Open and Turkish Airlines Open was a wise idea.

“It was a smart decision in the end to pull out of the tournaments,” he added.

"I had waited more than a year, so let’s wait a little more and get it right" - Tiger Woods

“The competitor inside me wanted to go so badly, I was itching to go, I had been playing at home, and I thought I could get it around. I had played feeling worse and won golf tournaments.

“But I finally decided why rush. I had waited more than a year, so let’s wait a little more and get it right.”

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Tiger Woods’ return to action

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