Woods in Limerick warm-up for Open

IF you had to choose a place for Tiger Woods to mark his latest return from injury, then Limerick in Ireland is probably not the city where you would start.

Yet that is the unlikely setting where you will find the 15-time major champion tomorrow and Tuesday in one public outing before competing in the 150th

Open at St Andrews.

The 46-year-old has not been seen since he pulled out of the final round of the USPGA Championship in Tulsa in May. Clearly in great pain from the right leg that has practically been rebuilt since his horrific car accident in Los

Angeles 16 months ago, there were fears he would miss out on the showpiece at the Home of Golf.

Happily, such worries appear to have been misplaced following another six weeks of intensive treatment. As ever with Tiger, there have been no updates on his progress or whether he needed more surgery to ease the discomfort. Perhaps more news will be forthcoming tomorrow.

Woods has never made any secret of the fact that this, the gutsiest of all his comebacks, was about being fit enough to play in the landmark Open on his

‘favourite course in the world’. Now, we’ll get some idea regarding the state of his game during two rounds at Adare Manor.

Tiger is the star attraction but hardly the only one at the JP McManus pro-am, a stunning extravaganza taking place once every five years, where seemingly everyone who is anyone in golf simply has to show up.

World No 1 Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Open Champion Collin Morikawa, Jon Rahm, new US

Open Champion Matt Fitzpatrick, Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas, Bryson DeChambeau — will all be in Limerick along with plenty of others.

Many of these players will then move on to the Genesis Scottish Open beginning at the Renaissance Club in North Berwick on Thursday.