It's essentially official: Tiger Woods will be healthy in time for the 2011 U.S. Open. Woods played a nine-hole practice round Tuesday in preparation for this week's Players Championship and affirmed that he would be ready to go when the U.S. Open heads to Congressional Country Club next month.

Via Barry Svrluga of the Washington Post:

In an interview prior to his practice round, he said he was never worried the ailments would keep him out of next month's U.S. Open at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda. "That was never a problem," he said.    

Woods has not played since the Masters, an event in which he made a late charge for the lead on the final day, only to come up a bit short. Later in the interview, he stressed the importance of maintaining his health to be in peak performance for the four Majors, which explains his absence from the tour recently.