Given that he’s played just one event in the past 16 months, the news that Tiger Woods will contest four in the space of five weeks was greeted with the din of dropping jaws clattering off the floor.

The Farmers Insurance Open, the Dubai Desert Classic, the Genesis Open and the Honda Classic have all been scribbled into a fairly jam-packed diary in late January and into February as Woods tears into 2017 with all the relish of a tiger wolfing away at a stricken wildebeest.

Amid this general careering about the golfing scene, you wouldn’t be surprised if he added in the Clydebank & District Winter Texas Scramble and the Tulliallan Perpetual Stableford Salver to his rigorous schedule. Woods seems keen to get as much golf in as possible, after all. He’s even enjoyed a hit about with the President elect, Donald Trump. “He takes a pretty good lash,” said Woods of The Donald’s dunts. “We both enjoyed the bantering, bickering and needling.”

While many were predicting more of a tentative, cotton wool-wrapped easing into the new year, Woods has blown that particular notion out of the water with a robust approach to the calendar as he looks to build up a head of steam for the Masters at Augusta in April. After all the surgical pokes and prods that have been directed at his gammy back over the last couple of years, this aggressive and bold statement of intent suggests that the 41-year-old has plenty of confidence in the various physical repair jobs that have been undertaken. It also highlights a confidence in mind too.

Getting the new campaign underway at Torrey Pines is hardly an earth-shattering surprise as it’s one of his happiest hunting grounds. The former world No 1 has conjured eight wins in that neck of the woods going back to a maiden win there as a 17-year-old amateur in the 1991 World Junior Championship. It is also the venue where he claimed the last of his 14 major titles in 2008, when he hirpled and hobbled his way to a remarkable victory in the US Open with a shattered knee.

The addition of the Dubai event – a tidy appearance fee should ease the jet lag – marks a return to another of his favoured golfing haunts. He’s won the Desert Classic twice and in 28 rounds over the Majlis course, Woods is 92-under-par.

Getting a regular stretch of events under his belt – or more “reps” as Woods likes to call it – is what he has been wanting for a while but his shoogling, fragile frame simply wouldn’t allow it. We will all see over this sturdy five week stint if his body is up to the task.

December’s genteel gathering in his own Hero World Challenge was a largely carefree hit about in a controlled environment in the Bahamas. It was a limited field, it was played on a forgiving course and the general exhibition-style scene was about as cut-throat as a night at the Kilbirnie Floral Art Club. The four events that he has pencilled in will provide a true test of his mettle. “I know many people doubted whether I would play competitive golf again and even I wasn't sure,” he said. “My love for the game never left. It's just that the body would not allow me to play. Now my body is allowing me to do it again. There is great reason for optimism.”

How optimistic the outlook remains for Woods will be revealed when this demanding stretch of exacting tournaments is over.