Woods talks of physical pain on the tour.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

Byline: Ron Green Jr.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. _ Tiger Woods made a holiday visit to Sweden with his girlfriend. He's gone scuba diving and attended the Super Bowl last week in San Diego.

Now, he's almost ready to play competitive golf again.

Woods spoke in detail last week about his off-season knee surgery and the pain he had during much of the 2002 season, when he won two major championships.

He admitted to taking pain-killing injections to continue playing last year while hiding the seriousness of his ailment.

"Toward the middle of the year and toward the end of the year, it was brutal," Woods said on a national conference call. "There were a lot of times when I really didn't want to go out there and play just because I felt nauseous in my stomach because the pain was so great.

"I had it injected a number of times to play and took painkillers. It was just a tough, tough year."