Woods hasn’t played a US PGA Tour event since missing the cut at Torrey Pines a year ago, when he was returning from an 18-month absence.
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Last year Woods opened with a score of 76 on the South Course and ended up missing the cut by four strokes.
Jon Rahm will enter the Farmers Insurance Open this week as the number two player in the world, but he realises that most of the attention will be on a player ranked 645 places behind him.
Lahiri will play his first round with Michael Thompson and Ollie Schneiderjans and they will tee off from the tenth.
“Here, I haven’t played a full schedule since 2015”. What everyone needs is for Woods to tee it up, play the tournament and then show that he can back it up after his spinal fusion surgery a year ago. It’s like a new start. I’ll hold my hands up and say that, even yesterday, I was guilty of getting onboard the Tiger Woods hype train.
This remarkable run has left Rahm, a mature-beyond-his-years 23-year-old, ranked No. 2 in the world, having surpassed three-time major victor Jordan Spieth and reigning PGA Tour Player of the Year Justin Thomas, who had a season for the ages in 2017.
Until Woods had his first back surgery in April 2014, his rate of winning on the PGA Tour was 26 percent.
As defending champion and the tournament favorite this week, that might be a lot more hard to accomplish this week than getting to No. 2 in the world was. The more veteran players like Sergio (Garcia) and obviously Tiger, you can even nearly put Rory (McIlroy) in there, although he’s only 28, he’s been around 10 years.
“I just want to go out there and just play, I’m going to grind it, give it everything I possibly have if I put the ball in the right position and make some putts and try to work my way up the board”.
“You can’t be that good of a golfer, and just lose it”.
How he swung Wednesday, during what he termed a “hit and giggle” affair where entertaining his amateur partners was a priority along with learning a renovated North Course he’s played just once in competition, pales in importance to his performance Thursday, when he tees off at 10:40 a.m. with Charley Hoffman and Patrick Reed on the South Course.
Other big names in the field include Jason Day, Hideki Matsuyama, Rickie Fowler, Justin Rose, Brandt Snedeker and Phil Mickelson.
Danny Lee has fared little better with a best of T32 in five appearances and having missed his last three cuts will be keen to turn his recent form around.
“You have to beat balls for a little bit of time to build up your endurance and muscles”.
– The over/under on total number of cuts made at 4.5. “When I boarded the flight to Malaysia (for the EurAsia Cup) in early January, I was already home sick as India will always be my home”. I don’t know what to expect.
“I was pleasantly surprised with the equipment Callaway has to offer”. I used to be pretty good at that. This is overdue and it is definitely something which is on top of the list.
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While so many of today’s players grew up idolizing Woods and dreaming of competing against him, most have never played alongside a healthy Tiger. “I’ve got to push on and see if I can win bigger (events) and see how far I can go”, said Davis. I want to have a lifestyle where I can be around my kids and do things.
