It’s been a long time since Tiger Woods had fighting talk for the media. It’s been ‘my back’ this and ‘not ready’ that.

This week at the Hero World Challenge Woods will attempt to rejoin the professional circuit…for the third time in 2016.

‘Yes, I’m nervous,’ he said. ‘I’m nervous for every tournament I play in, whether it’s after a layoff, or six in a row, or a major. I care. If I care, I’m nervous. And it’s good to be that way.’

There will be 11 of the top 20 golfers in the world competing at Albany in the Bahamas this week. The only player outside the top 30 is Woods, back after 16 months away from competitive golf.

‘To have that nervous energy and channel it into aggression, into focus, into concentration, that’s good stuff,’ said the 14-time major winner. ‘If I wasn’t nervous, that would mean I didn’t care. I don’t want to be out there flat. I want to be out here so bad. And now I am.’

Woods hit balls during in the Bahamas on Sunday, all while making bold claims.

‘I’m ready to go,’ he said to golf.com, on the range. ‘I have way more shots now, because I’ve played way more golf. I only had a handful of shots back then. And you just saw a session where I hit everything. And I had control of everything. I can hit all the shots now, on call.’

El Tigre pic.twitter.com/T6rck3KLGN

— OG Molefe (@OG_Molefe) November 28, 2016

A top-10 at the Wyndham Championship was his last professional showing, and he was due to reappear for the Safeway Open in October, but withdrew from that and the Turkish Airlines Open.

This week he’s issued fighting talk in the buildup to round one. Now he must back it up.