Tiger Woods is looking forward to a rare chance to compete in match play as he tees up at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play for the first time in six years.
Woods has not played in the event since suffering a first-round defeat to Charles Howell III in 2013, when the format was a straight knockout and played at Dove Mountain in Arizona.
The three-time champion admits this week's outing will feel like a "new event for him" as he prepares to take on Aaron Wise, Brandt Snedeker and Patrick Cantlay in Group 13, with the group winner likely to face Rory McIlroy in the last 16.
"It's been a while," said Woods, who has not played a competitive tournament in the state of Texas for 14 years. "I haven't played this in six years, but I qualified for this event and worked my way back into this field, which is I think pretty positive.
"I'm looking forward to getting introduced to this new format. This will be a little bit different than what I'm used to, and [you have] still got to win matches and move on.
"Hopefully I can play well enough to get to that point to where I'm in the finals. It's different because it was either win or go home before, so this round-robin format being here for three days is a little bit different.
"Also the fact there's no 36-hole final is a little bit different, for me anyways. So this is a new event and a new format for me. But win six matches and you're good to go.
"I guess you can halve a match and still move on, so that's also different. I don't really know the intricacies of it all. I just know that I need to win all three, and I move on. It's not real complicated. Play well and take care of the guy in front of me."
Woods also suggested the level of competition in world golf has increased due to the advances in equipment technology, hinting that placing a premium on quality and consistent ball-striking is less of a factor than when he was in his prime.
"I think that equipment has made the margin much smaller than it used to be," he added. "Now look at these 460cc clubheads, you hit the ball anywhere on the face and have it go 300 yards.
"Before it put a premium on good ball-strikers to hit the ball in the middle of the face each and every time, and there was a distinction between the guys who could do that and the guys who couldn't. And that's no longer the case.
"It promotes people swinging harder. Teeing the ball higher, swinging harder and hitting the ball further. And the old shot of hitting just a low cut in play, that's no longer the case.
"Guys are trying to maximise distance off the tee, to try and carry that number 300, 320, 330 yards in the air. And it's become a game that's played more up in the air than it ever used to be."