Tiger tees it up in Farmers Insurance Open

Tiger Woods is set to make his return to the PGA Tour at the Farmers Insurance Open this week. In the past, he has been a winner eight times at Torrey Pines.

Tiger Woods joins a strong field at Torrey Pines to contest the Farmers Insurance Open. World Number 1 Jason Day will play, so too will U.S. Open champion Dustin Johnson plus seven others from the top-25 on the Official World Golf Ranking.

This tournament began life as the San Diego Open way back in 1927 and from 1996 to 2009, it was known as the Buick Invitational. In that guise it was won six times by Tiger Woods. Since 2010, Farmers Insurance has been the title sponsor and Tiger won again here in 2013. Woods also won the U.S. Open over the South Course at Torrey Pines, playing on a broken leg in 2008.

Tiger tees it up but San Diego’s Phil Mickelson will also draw big galleries. He will be making his 21st appearance in this tournament. He’s won on three occasions (1993, 2000 and 2001) and this will be just his second start after returning to competitive action last week following a hernia operation.

In last year’s tournament Brandt Snedeker was the champion. He posted a four round total of six-under-par before storms forced the final groups off the course. When they returned on Monday, strong winds made scoring difficult and nobody was able to match the number Snedeker had set the previous day. The scoring average for the testing final round was 77.9 – the highest since records began on the PGA Tour.

Tips on driving in the wind:

This tournament is contested over the two courses at Torrey Pines – North and South. The pros will play one round on each on Thursday and Friday before those who make the cut go on to play the last two rounds over the South Course. Revamped for the 2002 Buick Invitational, the South Course at Torrey Pines was the venue for the 2008 US Open.

The weather forecast for the week is for cool temperatures and possibly strong winds which could be a factor.

Venue: Torrey Pines GC, San Diego, California Date: Jan 26-29 Course stats: South – par 72, 7,698 yards; North – par 72, 7,052 yards Purse: $6,700,000 Winner: $1,170,000 Defending Champion: Brandt Snedeker (-6)

TV Coverage: Thursday 26 – Sky Sports 4 from 8pm Friday 27 – Sky Sports 4 from 8pm Saturday 28 – Sky Sports 4 from 6pm Sunday 29 – Sky Sports 4 from 6pm

Player watch:

Tiger tees it up but who else is likely to feature this week:

Hideki Matsuyama – The Japanese star remains one of the form players in world golf right now. He looks like winning, at least having a good chance of winning, in every tournament he enters.

Martin Laird – The Scot has been on good form and was tied ninth last week in the CareerBuilder Challenge. He has top-10s in this event in each of the last two seasons.

Bud Cauley – His form wasn’t great until an excellent showing last week at La Quinta. That might act as a springboard for the youngster. He was tied 25th in this event last year and would have finished further up the board had it not been for a closing 79.

Key hole: 12th (South.) A monster par 4 of 504 yards, bunkers wait left and right for both drive and approach shot. If the wind blows hard against, some players will struggle to reach the putting surface in two shots.