SportsPulse: USA TODAY Sports' Steve DiMeglio breaks down Tiger Woods' second-round performance at the Hero World Challenge. USA TODAY Sports
Tiger Woods will begin his latest comeback on familiar ground – at the Farmers Insurance Open in San Diego.
Woods took to Twitter on Thursday to announce the commencement of his latest comeback. He will play in the Farmers at Torrey Pines Golf Club on Jan. 25-28 and also will play in the Genesis Open at Riviera Country Club north of Los Angeles on Feb. 15-18.
“Excited to start my season of in SoCal,” Woods tweeted.
The former world No. 1 played just four events the past two years and had four surgeries to his back since 2014, the last in April 2017 was a spinal fusion procedure. Woods returned to competitive golf in the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas the first week of December.
More: Justin Thomas is his own biggest rival
More: Tiger Woods parts ways with swing coach Chris Como
Woods, who turned 42 last month, looked strong and his swing was powerful and free as he tied for ninth in the field of 18 of the game’s best players.
He has won the Farmers Insurance Open a record seven times. He also won the last of his 14 major championships at Torrey Pines in the 2008 U.S. Open. Woods will play in the Genesis Open – which benefits his foundation – for the first time since 2006.
Woods played in his first PGA Tour event at Riviera as an amateur in 1992.
He was 16 when he missed the cut in 1992. He has played the tournament 11 times without winning. His only playoff loss came in the tournament in 1998 to Billy Mayfair.
“I’m very excited to be back at Riviera,” Woods said in a release. “I haven’t played at Riviera in a tournament in a very long time. To be able to play in an event that I used to come to as an amateur, as a junior and now as the tournament host, that is on one of the most historic sites in all of golf, it’s a dream come true.”
