• US PGA Championship

Woods will play at Valhalla

Tiger Woods arrived at Valhalla Golf Club on Wednesday afternoon and after a nine-hole practice round, pronounced himself ready to play in the US PGA Championship, which begins on Thursday.

Woods said the pain that caused him to withdraw from the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational on Sunday was unrelated to earlier back surgery that forced him to miss two major championships this year.

"I felt pretty good about how I played and the shots I hit," Woods said. "I have to get used to how this golf course is playing."

Asked if he was in any pain, Woods said: "Pain-free, yes, except for the headache of talking to you guys."

McIlroy leads the hunt at Valhalla

Rory McIlroy is looking for his fourth major © Getty Images

• Jamie Kennedy looks ahead to the final major of the year - who are the 10 players that fit the bill to be crowned US PGA champion?
• Click here to find out

That quip would suggest business as usual for Woods, but given how he looked just three days ago, that he was upright and hitting solid golf shots and talking positively about competing, is somewhat remarkable.

Woods had to be helped into a golf cart after hitting his tee shot on the ninth hole of the final round and had difficulty changing his shoes and getting into his courtesy car to leave.

It not only put this week's tournament in doubt, but the rest of the year. He traced the pain in his back to when he attempted to hit a shot from an awkward lie on the second hole at Firestone, his momentum carrying him back into a gaping fairway bunker.

The force of the landing, he said, caused a problem that he described as a sacrum bone being displaced.

"Yeah, basically when I landed in the bunker, my sacrum went out," he said. "So pinched the nerve and hence the spasm. My physio put it back in and we've just been treating it.

"My phsyio is here. If it does go out, he's able to fix it. One of those things, again, I still need to build strength, still continue to get stronger. Just going to take more time."

Woods returned to Valhalla for the first time since winning the 2000 PGA Championship here, when he beat Bob May in a playoff for his third consecutive major win and fifth of his career. He was 24 at the time.

Now 38 and dealing with numerous injuries over the last several years that caused him to miss six majors since 2008, Woods had a long practice session and then teed off before a huge throng of spectators and media, perhaps similar to what a regular event might see during an actual tournament round.

After hitting a driver into the fairway and knocking an iron approach onto the green, Woods and practice-round partners Steve Stricker - who Wednesday was named an assistant captain for the US Ryder Cup team by Tom Watson - Davis Love III and Harris English, Woods headed across a bridge and was walking toward the ninth tee - not the second - and had to be redirected.

So much for course knowledge.

"I need to get more feel for how this golf course is playing," he said. "I'm not used to seeing the chipping areas like this. We didn't have that in 2000. It was just deep blue grass. That's a bit of a different look and different options."

Woods maintained that the injury he suffered Sunday was not related to the surgery he had on March 31 called a microdiscectomy in which a pinched nerve was alleviated.

"It was a different pain than what I had been experiencing, so I knew it wasn't the site of the surgery," he said. "It was different and obviously it was just the sacrum."

Woods missed the Masters and the US Open and didn't return to competitive golf until June at the Quicken Loans National, where he missed the cut. He had his worst 72-hole finish in a major at the Open Championship last month - 69th - and was heading toward a middle-of-the-pack result at the Bridgestone on Sunday when his troubles on the second hole led to numerous poor shots.

Something appeared amiss on the seventh hole when he bladed a bunker shot and then grabbed his back after the tee shot at the ninth. Asked why he decided to try and play, Woods said, "Oh, I feel good. Once the bone is put back in, it's all good. The inflammation has been down, I've had range of motion. As you saw out there, I got my speed, my power, and I just need to obviously keep moving."

Woods said he decided Tuesday afternoon that he would likely play.

"My range of motion was good, I started my firing sequence ... it was back to normal, the sequencing was good. If my sequencing is good, it's all good."

The practice round was played before a tournament-like crowd, prompting English's caddie, Brian Smith, to quip, "things will be a lot quieter for us when the tournament starts."

That is unlikely to be the case for Woods, who tees off at 8.35am local time with former US PGA champions Phil Mickelson and Padraig Harrington. His swing coach, Sean Foley, was on the range prior to the round and walked the entire practice round with him, giving bits of advice and counseling as they went.

"It was excellent on the range and very good on the course," Foley said. "I understand the nonsense that's out there [about Woods' game]. What I don't understand is that this is going to be just the 11th round of golf he's played competitively since April. That's what I don't get."

That is some important perspective, some that Woods himself is not always quick to embrace. For example, the idea of playing for the Ryder Cup team would seem remote, but Woods was asked about it anyway and what he felt he had to do to impress captain Tom Watson.

"Just play well," he said. "That's the only thing I can control. Try to go out there and win this event. That's all I'm focused on."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd