Wednesday 23 January 2019 20:40, UK
Tiger Woods has admitted he will have different expectations of himself in 2019 ahead of his first start of the year at the Farmers Insurance Open.
Woods featured in the Hero World Challenge last month but has not played an official PGA Tour event since September, where he registered his first win since 2013 at the season-ending Tour Championship.
The former world No 1 started 2018 unsure of how his body would hold up to further spinal fusion surgery and uncertain of his season schedule, although now feels he knows what he can manage over the coming months.
"Last year was very fluid," Woods told the media on Tuesday. "It was like trying to hit a moving target last year and it was quite interesting to try to figure it all out as the year progressed and it evolved.
"This year I have a great understanding of what I can and can't do. There's not that uncertainty that I had going into the year last year after what I did at the end of last year.
"Playing seven out of nine weeks was quite a bit. The body held up better than I thought it would, even though I got pretty tired at the end - overall it held up pretty good."
Woods returns to Torrey Pines as a seven-time winner of the event, with the venue also where he dramatically claimed the most recent of his 14 major titles at the 2008 US Open.
"It's great to be back," Tiger added. "I haven't played on the Tour since September so it's been a while and I'm looking forward to getting started, looking forward to getting out there and playing.
"A lot of it [off-season] has been training, trying to get stronger. Last year, towards the end of the season, I got really tired because I didn't expect to play that much golf at the end and I didn't train for it.
"This off-season I spent a lot of time in the gym and I've gotten a lot stronger and feel like my legs are there where they need to be, which they weren't at the end of the season."
Watch the Farmers Insurance Open throughout the week live on Sky Sports. Live coverage begins with the On the Range show on Wednesday from 8pm on Sky Sports Golf.
