LOS ANGELES — Eight months after winning the U.S. Open on one good leg, a healthy Tiger Woods is returning to golf.

Woods said on his Web site yesterday that he will defend his title next week in the Accenture Match Play Championship, believing his reconstructed left knee and his game are good enough to win.

"I'm now ready to play again," Woods said.

Players whom Woods has beaten so often while compiling 65 victories were happy to hear he was coming back.

"He was ready to go weeks ago," Stuart Appleby said. "He'll be on that horse and he'll be whipping it."

The timing for Woods to end his 253-day break from competition could not be better for the PGA Tour, which has seen television ratings plunge after the world's No. 1 player had to miss the second half of the season.

The last shot Woods hit for real was a short par putt on the 91st hole of the U.S. Open, where he defeated Rocco Mediate in a playoff to capture his 14th major, which Woods described as "probably the best ever" under the circumstances.

He had surgery after the Masters last year to repair cartilage damage in his left knee, and suffered a double stress fracture in his left leg while preparing for his return.

What to expect?

"I would think he would be a little rusty, but I really don't know what to expect," swing coach Hank Haney said. "Nothing with Tiger ever surprises me."