Returning Woods grouped with Day and Johnson

Tiger Woods will play the first two rounds of his return to the PGA Tour with Jason Day and Dustin Johnson at the Farmers Insurance Open this week.

Fourteen-time major champion Tiger Woods will start measuring his game at on Torrey Pines' tougher South Course, where he won the 2008 U.S. Open, on Thursday.

Tiger Woods will play the first two rounds of his return to the PGA Tour with Jason Day and Dustin Johnson at the Farmers Insurance Open this week.

In his first PGA Tour event since August 2015, the 14-time major champion will go round with World No. 1 Day and reigning U.S. Open champion Johnson in San Diego.

Woods, 41, will start measuring his game at 1:40pm ET (10:40am PT) on Torrey Pines' tougher South Course, where he won the 2008 U.S. Open, on Thursday.

The threesome then will play Torrey Pines' North Course in Friday's second round, with the cut coming after 36 holes.

“I’m excited about playing this week, I’m playing well," Woods said on Monday. "I just need to get some tournament rounds under my belt. This is my first [PGA Tour] event in 18 months, so I just need to get some tournament rounds in."

While missing most of the past 18 months with back problems and then surgeries, Woods fell to 663rd in the world.

An eight-time winner at Torrey Pines, he returned to competitive golf last month at the Hero World Challenge, which is not a PGA Tour event. He last played on tour at the 2015 Wyndham Championship.