Week 5 Approach Shots: Buick Invitational

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TAKING ON TORREY: Tiger Woods, the Buick Invitational's four-time defending champion who has six championship trophies in his collection, will miss the Buick Invitational this week for the first time since 1997. Woods is still sidelined following his June 2008 knee surgery, leaving the tournament wide open with no clear favorite.

Quick Facts

WHAT: Fifth of 37 regular-season PGA TOUR events WHEN: Feb. 5-8 WHERE: San Diego, Calif. COURSE: Torrey Pines GC TV: 3 p.m. ET, Thursday-Friday on GOLF CHANNEL; 1 p.m. Saturday-Sunday on GOLF CHANNEL, 3 p.m. Saturday-Sunday on CBS RADIO: 2 p.m.-9 p.m. ET, Thursday-Friday; 12 noon-8 p.m. Saturday; 1 p.m.-12 midnight Sunday; PGA TOUR Network (XM 146/SIRIUS 209) WHAT'S AT STAKE: $5,300,000 purse ($954,000 for winner) FEDEXCUP POINTS: 500 for winner KEY LINKS: Tee times | Leaderboard SHOT TRACKER | Tournament page VIDEO: Opening Shot

Woods, who won twice at Torrey Pines Golf Course a year ago -- also taking the U.S. Open title at the public facility's South Course -- has had exactly one over-par round in the 43 rounds he's played (a second-round 77 in 2002) and registered 38 total under-par rounds. A year ago, Woods defeated Ryuji Imada by eight strokes, the largest winning margin in tournament history.

Phil Mickelson, who lives in nearby Rancho Santa Fe, is a three-time winner of this event (1993, 2000 and 2001), and 2008 PGA TOUR Player of the Year Padraig Harrington is making his inaugural appearance in the event.

Two others worth watching are Luke Donald and Charles Howell III, who have both had a pair of runner-up finishes in this event. Donald was part of a three-man playoff in 2004 that John Daly eventually won, and Donald tied for second again a year later.

Howell tied with Donald in 2005 and finished second in 2007. Even without victories, both players have passed the $1 million mark in career earnings at the La Jolla, Calif., event. Howell has pocketed $1,173,980, while Donald has earned $1,003,527.

PLAYER NOTES: Mickelson will be making his 19th consecutive appearance at the Buick Invitational. Mickelson has finished in the top 10 in exactly half of his appearances during that time, including victories in 1993, 2000 and 2001. Mickelson is one of four players (Vijay Singh, K.J. Choi and Sergio Garcia) to finish in the top 10 in the final rankings in the first two years of the FedExCup.

Two-time U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen, who fired a final-round 65 to win the Africa Open at East London Golf Club in South Africa earlier this year, is making his first PGA TOUR start of 2009 when he tees it up at the Buick Invitational. Goosen, who is 41st in the Official World Golf Ranking, has also played three tournaments on the European Tour, with his best performance a tie for sixth at the South African Open Championship.

Winning at Torrey Pines is a good thing if you like winning major championships. Every winner of the Buick Invitational since 1996 has also won at least one major championship. Woods, with 13 majors, has won six times, including the last four Buick Invitationals in succession, but the list also includes John Daly (1991 PGA Championship, 1995 British Open), Jose Maria Olazabal (1994, 1999 Masters), Mickelson (2005 PGA Championship, 2004 and 2006 Masters), Scott Simpson (1987 U.S. Open), Mark O'Meara (1998 Masters, 1998 British Open) and Davis Love III (1997 PGA Championship).

Olazabal is the only international player to capture the Buick Invitational title in recent years. The Spaniard won by a stroke in 2002, becoming the first non-American to win since Gary Player's victory in 1963. However, many international players have finished in second place, including Japan's Imada (2008) and Shigeki Maruyama (2000). Others to finish as recent runners-up include Australians Steve Elkington (1989) and Nathan Green (2006), Olazabal (2006), England's Luke Donald (2004-05) and Sweden's Carl Pettersson (2003) and Jesper Parnevik (1997). Parnevik was one of seven players to tie for second-place in 1997.

A year ago, Stuart Appleby was one of 10 players to record six consecutive birdies in one round. Appleby's feat happened at the Buick Invitational on the back nine of the North Course in the first round, Appleby birdied holes 14 through 1 on his way to a 67. He went on to tie for eighth.

Parker McLachlin is the last player to record a hole-in-one at the Buick Invitational. McLachlin had his ace on the third hole of the South Course in the first round of the 2007 tournament.

ON-COURSE OBSERVATIONS: PGA TOUR Network correspondent Bob Stevens is on the scene at Torrey Pines for this week's satellite radio coverage (XM 146/SIRIUS 209). Reports Stevens:

Here's three interesting areas I think we should look out for this week:

The field: Without Tiger here -- he wins every time he plays here, and the guys all know that -- I think it's really an interesting dynamic to see how optimistic the guys are about their chances to win this week. There really is no other chalk pick besides Phil -- he's won three times -- but he hasn't won here since 2001. I can sense an optimisim amongst the players that maybe you wouldn't sense if Tiger where here.

The course: It appears that it will be a hybrid of the course they usually play -- the south course -- between the usual Buick Invitational course and the course they played the U.S. Open on. The guys are telling me it's hard. The greens are much firmer. The balls are bouncing a lot, and the rough is still pretty tasty. It's a much more difficult course than they usually see in February, so don't expect the scores to be as low as they have been in the past.

The weather: The weather is fantastic and has been for the last three weeks. On Wednesday, it's 75-80 degrees with a light breeze off the ocean, but its supposed to get dicey some time on Thursday and be pretty nasty Thursday, Friday and maybe even Saturday. I heard someone mention there might be hail on Saturday before it starts to clear up on Sunday. San Diego probably has the best weather in the country day-in, day-out, but not this week. Because of the weather, this course might play a little more like Pebble Beach -- where they're used to having awful weather - than Torrey Pines.

Weather forecast for Buick Invitational

THURSDAY, Rd. 1 FRIDAY, Rd. 2 SATURDAY, Rd. 3 SUNDAY, Rd. 4 Showers Temp: 65 high/52 low Showers Temp: 62 high/51 low Showers Temp: 59 high/46 low Mostly sunny Temp: 62 high/48 low

DTN/Meteorlogix is the official weather provider of the PGA TOUR. For more information, click here

Buick Invitational snippets

Local luck: Look for someone from Southern California to win this week's Buick Invitational. In the last 21 years, 15 of the winners of the event have been from the area. In fact, 10 of the last 12 have hailed from Southern California. Get that 'W': Don't look for a first-time winner this week at the Buick Invitational. The last player to win his first title at the tournament was Jay Don Blake back in 1991. Fired-up veteran: He hasn't won yet in the early going, but David Toms is perhaps the hottest player on TOUR. After an opening-round, even-par 70 at the Sony Open in Hawaii, Toms has posted 12 consecutive rounds in the 60s. He's 48 under in his first three starts and is fifth in the FedExCup standings. Rookies at the ready: Of the 28 rookies on TOUR, 17 have earned FedExCup points after the first four weeks of the season. Scott Piercy leads the group in 16th place, while Webb Simpson is right behind him in 17th place. Simpson, by the way, began his rookie campaign with 11 consecutive rounds of par or better before a third-round 77 ended that streak last week.

In the spotlight

This week: Padraig Harrington

Each week during the 2009 season, PGATOUR.COM will spotlight one key player in the field. For this week's Buick Invitational, it's Padraig Harrington, the reigning British Open and PGA champion, who is playing this tournament for the first time in his career. Learn more about Padraig

KODAK CHALLENGE: The first-of-its-kind competition for PGA TOUR players continues at the Buick Invitational.

The Kodak Challenge celebrates beautiful holes and memorable moments on the PGA TOUR. The Kodak Challenge offers $1 million to the winner. There will be one designated Kodak Challenge Hole at 24 different PGA TOUR tournaments in 2009, with this week's featured hole the 435-yard 14th hole.

Players, who must play at least 18 of the holes during the season to be eligible, will count their lowest score relative to par on the Kodak Challenge Hole made during an official competition round. The player, with the lowest cumulative score in relation to par at the end of the challenge, wins.

For more on the Kodak Challenge, click here.