Rounding out the field are FedEx Cup champion Vijay Singh, K.J. Choi, Stephen Ames, Mike Weir and Luke Donald, who has missed the last three months with a wrist injury.

With so much success by younger players, is Woods eager to return?

“Yes and no,” he said. “Because as of right now, I couldn’t beat anyone. I can’t swing a club yet. So there’s really no sense in me getting too excited and too fired up, and going out there and embarrassing myself right now. Maybe I could take them on in a putt-putt contest.”

He is curious what he could have done without knee surgery.

Woods won four of his six starts on the PGA Tour, and he kept his lead on the money list until Singh won the Deutsche Bank Championship outside Boston on Labor Day.

“I missed the two major championships. I missed the entire playoffs,” Woods said. “It was frustrating in a sense because I was having a pretty good year to that point when I decided to shut it down for the rest of the year. It would have been nice to see what I could have done for the rest of the year.”

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