TIGER WOODS PREPARED his season schedule under the assumption he would be involved in this week’s WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.

Woods finished tied for sixth at The Open a fortnight ago to climb back into the world’s top 50 and earn an invitation to Akron, Ohio.

But Woods – an 18-time winner of WGC events – is not concerned by the additional physical rigours of playing more competitive golf as he continues his encouraging comeback from back surgery.

One player who will not be in action this week is Justin Rose, who was tied for second at The Open, as the English golfer has been forced to pull out with back spasms.

Rose was due to tee off alongside Henrik Stenson in tomorrow’s first round but withdrew through injury on the eve of the tournament. There is no confirmation yet whether Rose – the 2013 U.S. Open winner – will be fit to play in the US PGA Championship next weekend.

Woods is looking forward to the tournament, where he will play alongside Jason Day in the first round.

“Early part of the summer, [I realised] if I played well, this is what I was going to have to endure, coming with a pretty big schedule at the very end,” said Woods.

“We built a pretty good physical game plan for it.

“My training schedule, how to build myself, my recovery breaks, even had to factor in how much I can practice, just to make sure I’m physically fit enough to get through this section.

“But I also want to play well and win tournaments through this. I feel like my body is good. I need to keep it that way.

“I still need to train really hard and limit how much I do practice, the wear and tear on the body, because I’m going to be putting it through its paces in tournament play, which as we all know, we hit the ball harder in tournaments than we do in practice.”

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