Tiger Returns As Rahm Defends Farmers Insurance Open

TIGER WOODS WILL return to action at this week’s Farmers Insurance Open, a year on from missing the cut at the same event on his last official PGA Tour start.

The over-under for Woods’ lowest score on the South is 73.5, while it’s 70.5 on the North. All players will miss fairways this week, so you can play your bombers.

The latter was his sloppiest hole of the day. Instead, he hit the tree dead center, the ball caroming behind him. Ahead of him Rocco Mediate posted 71 for a 283 total which Woods and playing partner Lee Westwood had ten foot putts to equal on the 72nd green. I think he continues to play well at one of his best courses. In the ten years since that win, though, he’s been inconsistent, battling through a series of injuries that has turned his career into a stop-and-go soap opera.

The clubhead speed and confidence that make him optimistic about this comeback were on display Wednesday.

Day is also making his first start for 2018 after last playing at the Australian Open in Sydney in November, where he led going into the final round only to fade to a fifth-placed finish. There’s no pain this year.

While I wrote the same sentence past year, this is not golf’s version of “Groundhog Day” with Bill Murray playing the role of Woods.

“I’m starting to hit some shots, I’m starting to shape the golf ball again and now I’ve got to start doing it in a tournament, hitting the shapes, the shots, those numbers”.

The 14-time major champion, whose eight professional wins at Torrey Pines include the 2008 US Open, will tee off on the South Course at 10:40 a.m. (18:30 GMT), on Thursday, according to the tee times announced on Tuesday.

Success won’t be measured in a result this week, though. Given how much charities benefit from pro-ams, the Tour needs to keep these important fundraising and schmoozing days relevant. “So the more big-time players we have on tour, the better it is for the game globally and he’s obviously one of those”. Woods would not elaborate on his upcoming schedule, though.

Even those who don’t really give two hoots about golf – yes, even those folk who voted golf as the most boring sport to watch in that poll the other week – are, by and large, interested by the prospect of comeback No 112 or whatever it is.

But when it came to his health in general and golf in particular, the 42-year-old could hardly contain his enthusiasm at being pain-free after years of searing pain in his back and legs.

SUN SIX is the new predictor game where you can win £1million – just by correctly picking the results of six games. “I’m also feeling more at home with everything else, with the players and how things work”. They’ll be playing the monstrous South Course, which has traditionally been somewhere between one and two strokes tougher than the shorter North. It hosted the 2008 U.S. Open which was the last time Tiger Woods won a Major Championship.

With single digits under par winning three of the last four Farmers Insurance Opens, Finau will get the sort of test he likes and, indeed, Torrey Pines is right up his street in many ways. But as 2016/17 proved, Torrey Pines is a far cry from Albany Golf Course. He shot 22-under par that week.

And former world No.1 Els believes that their return as well as the performance of many others could make it a path-breaking year in golf.