“On the tee now a man you may recognize,” Feherty said. “Many of us arrived here by helicopter. He came here in an ambulance.”

Woods could enjoy a good laugh. It was eight days after another injury scare.

When he limped off the back nine at Doral with an Achilles strain, television viewers saw Woods drive his white Mercedes out of the parking lot and down the highway. The ominous blimp shot, eerily reminiscent of O.J. Simpson in the white Bronco, left golf fans wondering if it was the last they would see of Woods in 2012.

Far from it.

Wednesday after playing the pro-am in the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Woods declared himself fit.

“I feel great,” Woods told reporters. “That’s the good thing about getting treatment for three days, just getting off it and just working on it two or three times a day.”

Woods was feeling so good, that he played a practice round Sunday at Augusta, then participated Monday and Tuesday in the Tavistock Cup, an annual team event in Orlando that includes PGA Tour players from Isleworth Golf & Country Club. Woods got through 36 holes without incident, combining with Justin Rose for a better ball 63 on Monday and shooting an even-par 72 individually on Tuesday.

In Wednesday’s pro-am at Bay Hill, it appeared Woods was hurt on the 16th hole when he abruptly stopped his swing when distracted by a camera click.

“One of the so-called professional photographers took a picture right in the middle of my downswing,” Woods said. “I stopped it, and then felt a pretty good twinge in my back, walked it off, and then tried to hit one down there, hit it in the fairway but it didn’t feel very good. After a couple of holes it loosened up, and I’m good to go now.”

Woods tees off in one of his favorite events on Thursday morning, playing with Ernie Els and Hunter Mahan. In 2009, with Palmer watching from the fringe, Woods won the event for the sixth time with a memorable 25-foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole. He celebrated the shot by spiking his hat on the green. It was the third time in his career that he won by one stroke with a birdie on the final hole while playing in the final group. All three times have come at Bay Hill.

This will be Woods’ final tune-up for the Masters, April 5-8, though Woods’ schedule has become increasingly tenuous.

“It’s one of those things where, just continue training, continue preparing, and just kind of monitor things a little bit more than I used to,” Woods said. “I used to be able to just kind of play through it. But then again, that’s also set me back and one of the reasons why I had surgeries is that I would ignore those and just kind of play through it. I had success, but the problem is, it was also detriment at the same time physically.”

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