Woods to Return to Golf at Bridgestone

Tiger Woods will return to golf at next week’s World Golf Championships event in Ohio, more than two months after withdrawing from the Players championship with knee and ankle injuries.

Woods, who originally was injured during the Masters Tournament in April, missed the U.S. Open in June and British Open in July, stalling his pursuit of Jack Nicklaus’s record of 18 major titles. (Titleist 909 D3 Driver)

Woods announced his plans to play in the U.S. PGA Tour event at the Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio, in a statement today on his website. The tournament starts Aug. 4.

"I’m excited to get back out there," Woods said in the statement.

The Bridgestone Invitational is the last U.S. event before the PGA Championship, golf’s final major of the season.

Woods will play Titleist 909 D3 Driver in the tournament without longtime caddie Steve Williams, who was fired by the golfer on July 20 after 13 years together.

Williams, a 47-year-old New Zealander, had been Woods’s caddie since 1999 and helped him win 13 of his 14 major titles. Mike "Fluff" Cowan caddied for Woods during his first major victory, the 1997 Masters Tournament.

The Golf Channel said today that Bryon Bell, Woods’s longtime friend and current president of Woods’s golf course design firm, will be his caddie.

Williams caddied for Australian Adam Scott at golf’s past two major championships, the U.S. and British Opens, and said he will now continue to work with him full time. (Titleist 909 D3 Driver)

The winner of 14 major tournaments, Woods has been recovering from left knee and Achilles tendon injuries. He has had four operations during his career on his injured knee, most recently in 2008.

Woods, 35, hasn’t played in a tournament since May 12, when he pulled out of the Players championship in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, after nine holes by Titleist 909 D3 Driver.

"In hindsight, I probably shouldn’t have competed at the Players, but it’s a big event, and I wanted to be there to support the Tour," Woods said when he withdrew from the British Open, an event he has won three times. "I’ve got to learn from what I did there and do it right this time and not come back until I’m ready."

Woods hasn’t won a tournament since November 2009. He’s fallen to No. 21 in the Official World Golf Ranking after holding the top spot for a record 281 weeks.