SteveElling

Tiger Woods will return to one of his most fertile hunting grounds next week, the Buckeye State.

On his website Friday, Woods’ committed to making his next start on Thursday at the Memorial Tournament, hosted by Jack Nicklaus in Dublin, Ohio.

Woods won the Memorial three years in a row starting in 1999, but hasn’t often contended since, missing the tournament last year because of knee surgery.

Attempting to recapture the spark on his game after an eight-month layoff, Woods has played in six stroke-play events this year, winning another fabled shorter-field event, the Arnold Palmer Invitational, in late March.

Woods has won the World Golf Championships event in Akron six times.

Woods is using Memorial as his final tune-up before defending his title at the U.S. Open in three weeks, and there’s plenty of work to be done.

Remarkably, Woods does not rank among the top 40 on the PGA Tour in driving distance, driving accuracy, greens in regulation or putting average, yet he still stands first in scoring average at 69.13 shots.