Tiger-less Buick shapes up well

BY Bruce Young | US PGA Tour | 2009 Buick Invitational | Preview | 03 Feb 2009

From the razzmatazz for Scottsdale, the PGA Tour now moves west to California for this week’s Buick Invitational at the famed Torrey Pines near San Diego, where this event has been played since 1968.

Originally designed by William Bell in the mid 1950’s, the course underwent a substantial redesign in 2001 when the USGA’s ’course doctor’ Rees Jones set about upgrading the South Course layout in order that it would play host to last year’s US Open.

This week, both the North and the South courses at Torrey Pines will be played over the first two days before the event reverts to the South Course only for the weekend.

While this week’s event will not contain the drama and intrigue of the final two days of the 2008 US Open, the tournament brings together a great mix of the leading players in the game with of course the notable exception of Tiger Woods.

Woods’ domination of events at this venue has been simply stunning. Not only has he won this event on six occasions but he won last year’s US Open and was a regular winner of the World Junior Championships here prior to turning professional.

Despite Woods’ absence, as he prepares for a return to tournament golf following knee surgery, the world number three and four, Padraig Harrington and Phil Mickelson, are in the field with Mickelson also a regular contender at Torrey Pines.

Mickelson has won this event on three occasions but a missed cut at last week’s event in Scottsdale suggest he might need another week or two to be at his best.

Harrington surprisingly has not played this event but did play the US Open last year. He finished well back there but a good first up event when 5th in Abu Dhabi recently suggests he will not take too long to be near his best.

Charles Howell III is a player who has a genuine comfort zone at Torrey Pines. He has twice been runner up and was a reasonable 13th last year. There have been enough good signs in his game of late to indicate that he might just continue his good run of form in this event.

Camilo Villegas returned to the fray last week in Scottsdale and was hardly convincing when missing the cut. A 12th place finish at the limited field Mercedes-Benz earlier was solid enough but the player who took the golfing world by storm late in 2008 finished 13th in this event last year and could well do better in 2009.

Stephen Marino missed the cut last week at the FBR but he was playing well prior. He has handled this event well on the two occasions he has been to the Buick and he could be yet another first time winner on the PGA Tour this week.

After several months off through injury, Luke Donald has played well in his first few events back and boasts a brilliant record in this event. He has twice been runner up and once 7th and has never finished outside the top 25 in five starts.

The Australian challenge is strong. Headed by Aaron Baddeley who is on the verge of a very good week, there are 15 Australians with several good chances to do well.

John Senden, Rod Pampling, Mathew Goggin and James Nitties are on the verge of something very special, Nathan Green finished runner up to Tiger Woods in this event in just his second PGA Tour event in 2006, Jason Day has won a World Junior event over this same combination of courses, while Stuart Appleby, Peter Lonard, Marc Leishman, Steve Allan, Jarrod Lyle and Greg Chalmers are all capable of good weeks.

Leishman was very impressive when 12th on his PGA Tour debut at the Sony Open, many predicting a bright future for the Victorian.