TOUR Insider: Tiger is back in action  PGATOUR.com Senior Correspondent Putting aside his adroit kinesic skills and his keen competitive instincts and his mental discipline and his flair for the dramatic, Tiger Woods doesn't have a lot going for him this week as he amakes his season debut at the Buick Invitational of California. Woods probably doesn't have much of a chance to make a huge leap up the FedExCup standings at Torrey Pines Golf Course in La Jolla, Calif. It's not like he's had any success at the South and North courses, unless you want to fudge and say his nine top-10 finishes in as many appearances and four wins indicate any kind of accomplishment. It's not like he's done well in his season debuts; just look at that tie for 60th in 1997. Oh, sure, he's won four times and never finished out of the top 10 since then to start the year, but what does that prove? And so what if he has a six-tournament winning streak on the PGA TOUR dating back to last year's British Open? So what if he's won the last two editions? How hard is that? Let's see him capture four majors in a row and then we'll talk about impressive winning streaks.  (WireImage)
OK, you get the point. Woods is the favorite. News flash this isn't. Quite frankly, the biggest obstacle that could possibly prevent Woods from excelling this week is the setup of the golf courses. While the two layouts are in excellent condition, a dry autumn and winter and a recent cold snap that brought frost for six straight days and even left some ice on the trees -- something San Diegans hadn't seen in maybe 50 years -- has left both layouts a bit more defenseless than usual, according to Mark Woodward, the golf operations manager. The usual four-inch rough is more like three inches and it is spotty in places, too. That means it could be a shootout, and Woods could fall victim to a bomb-and-gouge player with a hot putter (though Woods plays that game quite well himself) or even a medium length hitter who catches some luck when he strays off the manicured fairways. Woods won in a playoff last year after finishing at 10 under par. His winning score reached 16 under the year before. Woodward figures the winning score could go even lower than 16 under this year, especially if someone goes crazy on the North, which played a record 4.235 strokes easier than the South in 2006 and could very well be even more accommodating this time around. One more item about the course conditions: the South has been overseeded with kikuyu and is 100 percent kikuyu grass as preparations continue for the 2008 U.S. Open. Kikuyu is much tougher and gnarlier than the usual rye overseed and around the greens it is filled in more completely. Tougher recoveries await those who miss greens. Worth knowing: Tiger Woods has won five different tournaments at least four times each, including the Buick Invitational. The others: Bay Hill Invitational, Masters, World Golf Championship-Bridgestone Championship and WGC-CA Championship. To put that in perspective, only 13 players in this week's field have more than five PGA TOUR victories and only one is less than 40 years old -- Phil Mickelson. No shock that Woods and Mickelson are the top two money winners in Buick Invitational history. Since 1993 they have combined for seven wins, two second-place finishes and two thirds. Jesper Parnevik, who tied for fourth at the 2005 Buick Invitational and was in contention at Torrey Pines last year until the closing holes, comes in this year nursing a sore right hand. He missed the cut last week at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic after badly jamming two fingers stumbling in the dark in his hotel room to attend to his youngest child, Phoenix, who had had a nightmare. No player has recorded four rounds in the 60s at Torrey Pines since 2001 when four players accomplished the feat. Two are in this week's field: Frank Lickliter and Shigeki Maruyama. David Duval's tie for 39th at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic was his best finish since he tied for 16th at the 2006 U.S. Open. Duval made his season debut a week later than scheduled, having withdrawn from the Sony Open in Hawaii after slicing off the tip of his left thumb chopping vegetables. Also expected to make his '07 debut a week later than scheduled is Fred Couples, who withdrew from the Hope because of a calf injury. Couples has four top-10s in 18 appearances at the Buick Invitational, his last coming in 2000 when he tied for fifth. The Hope streak continues. Charley Hoffman's playoff victory marked the fifth time in as many years that the winner of the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic had gone without a victory the previous year. The first of 32 Nationwide Tour events begins this week at the Movistar Panama Championship. Nationwide Tour grads have won 198 times on the PGA TOUR, including the last two events won by Hoffman and Paul Goydos. There's a streak on the line in Panama, too, where Ricky Barnes goes for his 24th cut in a row, seven off Chris Perry's record. |
