PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Tiger Woods is back.

Again.

After skipping last week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational — a tournament he’s won eight times in his career — to rest what he described as a neck strain, Woods has returned to the golf course for this week’s Players Championship, an event he’s won twice.

“It’s not painful now,” Woods said Tuesday after playing the back nine in a practice round. “It was getting to the point where [the neck strain] was affecting my setup, my backswing, my through swing. It was just gradually getting worse. That’s just because my lower back is fused, and so the stress has to go somewhere if I don’t have movement. So it’s very important for me going forward since the surgery to keep pliable or else the stress is going to go somewhere else.”

Woods, who’s had four back surgeries, the last of which was a spinal fusion in April 2017, said the pain “started a little bit at LA but wasn’t a worry, [and] it started to get a little tighter and tighter and tighter as I played more holes in Mexico.”

Asked if he has any long-term concerns about the neck issue, Woods said: “No. It’s more so just my lower back. I’ve got to keep that moving, even though it’s fixed. I’ve got to keep all the other structures pliable, and that’s one of the issues of having a procedure like I did, that the forces have to go somewhere. I’ve got to stay fit, I’ve got to stay on it, and have to stay as loose as I possibly can for as long as I play out here.”

His neck issues have raised questions about whether it’s affected his putting, which has been a struggle of late for Woods. He three-putted an alarming six greens at the Genesis Open last month and he had five three-putts and one four-putt in the WGC-Mexico Championship.

Subsequently, Woods has been seeking some advice from Matt Killen, a coach who works with Justin Thomas on his putting, the last two days at TPC Sawgrass.

“You can only swing or make the movement as good as your body’s feeling,” Woods said. “I was starting to get a little stiffer and tighter. As my neck got a little bit tighter, yeah, I didn’t feel comfortable with my putting, but my putting was uncomfortable going into that point. It just made it worse.

“I had been feeling that my stroke has been off, [and] a lot of it is physically. I’m having a hard time getting into the different postures. As my body’s felt better, my stroke has come back a little bit, but also I wanted to see where was I off, what did he see. I had Matt take a look at it. I’ve seen Matt out here in the past year because he works with JT a lot, and I’ve played a lot of rounds with JT, either practice rounds here or at home, and Matt has seen my stroke enough.

“I wanted him to take a look at it and see what he thought of where my setup looked like now versus all the times that I’ve putted well and I’ve putted well with different postures throughout my career. I’ve done different things. But I wanted him to take a look at it, and then he mentioned a few things. As I’ve started to feel a little bit better this week or this past week, then the putting definitely freed up.”

As for his run of physical ailments, Woods said: “It’s just part of the nature of the sport. If you have force, it’s got to go somewhere. We’re not immune to having the forces go somewhere. Eventually on a repetitive sport, you’re going to wear out something.

“I’m 43 with four back surgeries, so just manage what I have and understand that I’m going to have good weeks and bad weeks and try and manage as best I possibly can and not push it,” he went on. “There are times when over the years I pushed it, pushed it through a few things. I’ve won a few tournaments doing it that way, but also I’ve cost myself a few years here and there because of it.”