Woods gets PGA Tour season underway
BY Bruce Young | US PGA Tour | 2012 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am | Preview | 09 Feb 2012
There is much anticipation on the Monterey Peninsula this week as Tiger Woods prepares to play his first full field PGA Tour event since the Frys.com event in October.
Woods, a winner and runner-up in this event in earlier years has not played the tournament since 2002, but one of the most enduring memories of Woods’ astonishing career to date was the manner in which he demolished the 2000 US Open field at Pebble Beach.
Woods also did well when he finished 4th at the 2010 US Open at Pebble Beach although of course this event is played over three of the iconic courses in this beautiful part of the Californian coastline.
The Monterey Peninsula Country Club and Spyglass Hill Golf Club join Pebble Beach Golf Links as venues for this week’s event two of the rounds played at the one of American golf’s most recognised golfing facilities, Pebble Beach.
Woods has played very well in his last few starts worldwide including when 3rd at his opening event of 2012 in Abu Dhabi and if he is able to at least contend this week then there will be many delighted including, no doubt, the PGA Tour itself.
Dustin Johnson, the leading world ranked player in the field, has a great record at this event having won twice and of course he also led the US Open into the final round in 2010 at Pebble Beach before suffering a meltdown on the final day. He has not been at his best in recent starts but might just use the inspiration of and his love affair with Pebble Beach to turn things around.
There will be much interest in Spencer Levin this week to see whether he can do what Kyle Stanley did last week and bounce back from a gut-wrenching loss at the Phoenix Open. Stanley recovered from his horror final hole at the Farmers Insurance event at Torrey Pines and Levin, who has played this event well enough in the past gets a chance to produce similar heroics this week.
Levin led the Phoenix Open by seven early in his final round only to eventually finish 3rd.
Three time winner Phil Mickelson has not yet his full stride in 2012 but there were signs in Phoenix that it is getting closer and in a tournament format in which he obviously thrives he should be given some chance.
Twelve Australians have made the field including Geoff Ogilvy, Aaron Baddeley, Jarrod Lyle, Matt Jones, Nathan Green, Steven Bowditch, Mathew Goggin, Stuart Appleby, Nick O’Hern, Rod Pampling, Gavin Coles and Steve Elkington.
Discuss this article in our forums
