Former world number one golfer Tiger Woods  will make his return to competitive golf at the Hero World challenge on Thursday alongside Patrick Reed. He was out of the game for 15 months after back surgery.

Pairing for the 18-man invitational event was released on Monday. Woods, a 14- time major champion who has not won a major title since the 2008 US Open, will be the second in the sixth group out. This will be the first time Woods has played competitively since he shared 10th at Greensboro in August of last year.

Woods missed the cut at the US and British Opens and the PGA Championship last year and fell to 898th in the world rankings on Monday, Yahoo Sports reported.

Woods has not won a tournament since the 2014 Bridgestone Invitational a World Golf Championships event in Akron, Ohio.

This will be the first time Woods has played at the event by his charity foundation since it moved last year to the Bahamas and the Albany resort's par-72, 7,267-yard Ernie Els-designed course.

According to South China Morning Post, Bubba Watson, defending champion  and Rickie Fowler are the first due out at 11.10 a.m. Their game will follow at 10-minute intervals by two more US pairs, Jimmy Walker and Brandt Snedeker then J.B.Holmes and Zach Johnson.

After the dramatic last round Olympic pairing the Olympic Champion Justin Rose of England and Sweden's Henrik Stenson ,the runner-up in Rio, will start their event at 11.40 with the past winner Jordan Spieth and Matt Kuchar. The  next game will  follow by Woods and Reed.

Dustin Johnson,reigning US open champion and fellow American Brooks Koepka will follow Woods onto the course with the final two duos consisting of international talent .

 Hideki Matsuyama, of Japan and South African Louis Oosthuizen will follow by Scotsman Russell Knox and Argentina's Emiliano Grillo.