SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- The questions remain numerous for Tiger Woods as he is about to embark on his first tournament of 2015, coming off the worst year of his career, back problems being the main culprit.

But if nine holes of practice at TPC Scottsdale followed by an upbeat news conference is a glimpse into the future, Woods appears to be in a good place.

Tiger Woods, who played a practice round Tuesday at TPC Scottsdale, said his driving has improved and that he's reaching distances that he normally hit 15 years ago. Scott Halleran/Getty Images

He endured a setback with the flu that lingered for a couple of weeks last month after the Hero World Challenge -- his only tournament since August -- but said he soon got back to work with new swing consultant Chris Como.

"My driving has come around a lot faster," said Woods, who is playing the Waste Management Phoenix Open for the first time in 14 years. "I'm a lot longer than I thought I ever could be again. My speed is way back up, and that's fun. I'm touching numbers that I did 15 years ago, so that's cool."

In the eight tournaments Woods played worldwide through the PGA last year, he struggled to find fairways off the tee, much attributed to the back problems that caused him to have March 31 surgery. His comeback was derailed by another back issue that he says now is fine.

When he returned last month in Orlando, Florida, the driving and long game looked considerably better while he struggled around the greens. Woods was inexplicably poor with his short game, alarming at times. He had nine chunked chip shots for the week.

"I was caught between techniques, between my old release pattern and body movement when I was working with Sean [Foley] and then my new release pattern," Woods said. "We had to basically just hit thousands upon thousands upon thousands of chips and just get it out of there, and now it's better."

This is the first of consecutive tournaments for Woods, who will also play at next week's Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, where he has eight victories as a pro, including the 2008 U.S. Open.

Woods will play the first two rounds this week with two of the hottest young American players, Patrick Reed and Jordan Spieth. The threesome goes off the first tee Thursday at 2:07 p.m. ET. On Friday, they will start on the 10th tee at 9:57 a.m. ET.

Phoenix came as a bit of a surprise, as Woods has not played the event since 2001. That year, a spectator was found to have loaded gun in his bag while another tossed an orange at Woods.

"That's one of the reasons why I hadn't played [Phoenix] in a while," Woods said. "I think the people here have done a fantastic job over the years and making sure things are a lot more safe."

Woods will play in the pro-am Wednesday morning, with the tournament set to begin Thursday.