Tiger Woods is planning to take a leaf out of Roger Federer's book as he attempts to roll back the years at the Dubai Desert Classic this week.

Woods missed the cut on his return to the PGA Tour at the Farmers Insurance Open last week, but the 14-time major champion is not dwelling on that disappointment.

The former world number one will tee off in his first European Tour event since the 2015 US PGA Championship on Thursday and is confident he can mount a challenge at Emirates Golf Club.

Watching a 35-year-old Federer claim an 18th grand slam title at the Australian Open last Sunday after a lengthy injury lay-off will serve as an inspiration for Woods.

"What Roger has done is he's been dominant for so long and then not only that, to compete against Djoko [Novak Djokovic], to compete against Rafa [Nadal] and now Andy [Murray] is playing well.

"He's had a litany of guys who have won slams and no one wins slams at his age.

"He rehabbed properly and you can tell how fast he's moving, he shortened up points, changed his strategy a little bit, didn't hang around the baseline as long. As you get older you change your game, you do things slightly differently and he did that.

"I'm not going to be hitting balls like some of these guys, 340 [yards] out there. I watched Dustin [Johnson] carry a ball last week when it was cold, wet and damp and he carried it 335.

"Jason [Day] and I just looked at each other going, 'We don't have that'."

Although Woods failed in his homeland last week, the 41-year-old said he would not have travelled to Dubai if he felt he was incapable of winning.

"If I'm teeing up, the goal is to win it. Over the course of my career, I have been less successful at winning golf tournaments than winning tournaments, but the goal is to win, and that doesn't change.

"Whether I'm injured, coming off an injury or I'm playing well, or I'm playing poorly, if I'm in the event it's to win the event.

"For me it's about preparation. If I can't prepare to win a golf tournament, if I'm ill-prepared to hit the shots and handle the shots down the stretch, if I'm not able to pull them off at home, there's no reason why I should expect to pull them off out here. That's why I take practising so seriously at home."