Tiger Woods is "getting after it" with the Hero World Challenge in mind

I'm sure you have heard this one a lot off late, Tiger Woods is expected to return to competitive action.

The big cat is expected to come back from his 15-month lay-off at his own event, Hero World Challenge on Dec 2^nd.

He is on track to play in the tournament after he called off his most recent comeback attempt at the Safeway Open in October. The word is that he has been putting in the hours in a bid to be tournament ready.

Woods' agent, Mark Steinberg, said on Tuesday that Woods is "getting after it a bit more, continuing to work toward that goal and excited to get back out there and compete, see the guys and be in the locker room instead of being an assistant captain.''

The decision to withdraw from the Safeway Open in California was not based on any decline in his hunger or desire to win in every tournament he enters. Woods had commited to play in the event on the Friday before the event but back-tracked three days later as he withdrew from the tournament.

"The determination is still there," Steinberg said. "We've still got two weeks to go, but he is doing the things necessary to get himself as ready as he can be, but it's going to be 15 months since the last time he played competitively.''

Tiger's last event was the Wyndham Championship in August 2015 where he finished T-10th after he had shown positive signs of returning to being the Tiger Woods of old.

Since then, Tiger has gone under the knife twice for back procedures and played video games for 8 hours straight for 6 months instead of playing Golf.

Woods' road to recovery has been long, deliberate and has left him with a lot of questions to ponder. He has all along reiterated that he did not know when he will be able to return to action as he continued to take it day by day.

In September, he made a huge announcement by saying he expected to return at the Safeway Open in October and then further play at the Turkish Airlines Open before ending his year at the Hero World Challenge.

However, he famously went on to say “my game is vulnerable and it is not where it needs to be” just three days before the start of the Safeway Open and also withdrew from the Turkish Airlines open at the same time.

He has been pursuing a return much more seriously this time around and has taken to practicing with a purpose of returning at his own event after completing a media tour upon the 20 year anniversary of his charitable foundation.

Steinberg would not say if Woods is limited in any way -- "those are questions he'll answer and he can certainly give a better perspective than me; and they'll be more relevant two weeks from now'' -- but made clear again that his decision to skip the Safeway tournament was not related to any physical problems.

The man with 79 official victories will be joined by defending champion Bubba Watson, U.S. Open winner Dustin Johnson, Open champion Henrik Stenson and PGA winner Jimmy Walker, as well as Jordan Spieth, Zach Johnson, Justin Rose and Matt Kuchar.

Tiger is a 5-time winner of the event, the most recent one coming at Sherwood Country Club in California in 2011. He did not take part in the event in 2015 as he was just starting his tedious rehabilitation from his latest back procedure.

The event which features only 18 players is not regarded as an official PGA Tour event but there are world ranking points up for grabs. Tiger could do with some much needed points as he has seen his world ranking plummet to 861st during his 15 month injury forced lay-off.