Woods pencils in Memorial return

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Tiger Woods will make his latest comeback to competitive golf in Ohio next week. The Golf Channel revealed last night that the world No 1 will play in The Memorial at Muirfield Village, alleviating fears that a neck injury would force him to go into next month's US Open without a prep event.

Woods won the Memorial – which is hosted by Jack Nicklaus – last year and in any normal season would be a huge favourite to defend successfully. But 17 days ago at Sawgrass, Woods withdrew during the final round of Players Championships and when scans highlighted an inflamed facet joint his schedule was thrown up in the air. Woods insisted that he would not return until he was "physically able". Evidently the treatment has gone well.