Erica blog

Woods seeks to jumpstart year at Torrey

LA JOLLA, California (AFP) – Torrey Pines might be just what Tiger Woods needs as he vies to end a 14-month victory drought.

Woods launches his 2011 season in familiar territory on Thursday in the 5.8 million-dollar US PGA Tour event now known as the Farmers Insurance Open.

Woods' six victories in the tournament include four in a row from 2005-2008. He followed up that 2008 victory by winning the same year's US Open on the Torrey Pines South Course, when he defied the pain of a damaged knee to outlast Rocco Mediate in a 19-hole playoff.

The two will be paired together, alongside Anthony Kim, for the first and second rounds.

"I don't know how that computer did that," Woods said with a smile, "just randomly put us together."

"A glitch," Mediate added, but both said they were looking forward to playing together.

"Rocco and I have obviously had a little history here," Woods said. "Also again I've known him since my rookie year and he has been great to me. It's going to be a lot of fun going out there and playing with him and AK."

While some golfers shy away from the hubbub that goes with a Woods pairing, Mediate welcomed it.

"All the excitement, loudness and screaming and hollering, I love all that stuff," he said, adding that far from being distracted, he found it helped him focus.

"Because you want to be able to hang in there with him," Mediate said. "Becuase you have to assume that he's going to really come out and be ready to go this year and play good."

Woods will be playing here for the first time since his US Open triumph. He missed the 2009 US tour stop at Torrey as he recovered from post-Open knee surgery and he missed last year as he dealt with the fallout of a sex scandal that eventually saw his marriage end.

Without a victory worldwide since the 2009 Australian Masters, Woods has fallen to number three in the world.

But he says the swing changes he implemented last season with coach Sean Foley have solidified faster than he expected and he's eager to get a new season underway.

"I'm just trying to get better, trying to build on what I did last year and the end of last year," Woods said. "I think that's where I'm at. Sean and I have been talking about that quite a bit. We're excited about where my game has progressed over the off-season. Just get out there and play."

Masters champion Phil Mickelson, who made the unusual move of opening his season at Abu Dhabi last week, launches his US tour campaign here as well.

The American, whose 2010 season didn't live up to the promise of his Augusta victory in April, has three Torrey Pines victories on his resume, the most recent in 2001.

He will be paired for the first two rounds with England's Justin Rose and American Dustin Johnson, both two-time winners on the US tour last year.

The field also includes Venezuelan Jhonattan Vegas, a US tour rookie who won the Bob Hope Classic on Sunday, and defending champion Ben Crane -- who wasn't putting any undue pressure on himself to repeat.

"What are the chances that someone actually defends their title when they are not Tiger Woods?" Crane said. "Doesn't happen very often."

Crane said his win here last year, coming so early in the season, was something of a surprise. He was gratified to follow it up in October with a victory at the Malaysian Open, the first event co-sanctioned by the US PGA Tour and the Asian Tour.

But even with a two-win season behind him, Crane said he was keeping his expectations low.

"My goal is to look at the ocean a lot," he said. "Kind of not try to expect too much about the golf."