Tiger Woods will play in the Open at St Andrews in July if he recovers from the neck injury that forced him to withdraw from the Players Championship in May.
The world number one pulled out during the final round at Sawgrass and has not indicated when he will resume playing.
However, he is scheduled to play in the US Open at Pebble Beach in June and defend his AT&T National title in July.
Woods, 34, hopes to become the first man to win three Opens at St Andrews after victories there in 2000 and 2005.
While Woods has not confirmed when he will return to competition, he is expected to make a full recovery from the inflamed facet joint injury which has troubled him since the Masters in April.
“I now need to take care of this condition and will return to playing golf when I’m physically able,” he said last week.
However, the thought of playing two of his favourite courses in the next two majors of the season will surely aid his recovery as the 14-time major winner looks to close in on Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 victories.
Woods won the US Open in 2000, the last time it was played at Pebble Beach in California, by an astonishing 15 shots – the largest margin of victory in a major.
Later that same year, he romped to victory over the Old Course at St Andrews, carding 19 under par for an eight-shot victory and his fourth major.
He followed that by leading from start to finish in 2005, the last time the Open was contested at St Andrews, to win the Claret Jug by five shots from Scotland’s Colin Montgomerie.
Woods has played in only three events this year since returning from a self-imposed exile of five months because of a sex scandal.
He crashed his car into a fire hydrant outside his Florida home on 27 November 2009, with the incident sparking a series of revelations about the American’s private life that led him to admit he had “had affairs and cheated”.
BLOG KATAKAMI.COM 